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For its 25th anniversary in 1993, the Heinz School (then known as the School of Urban and Public Affairs) of Carnegie Mellon University held a seminar on problems of cities and poverty. A business man, Regis Bobonis who worked for a company called CenTech in Pittsburgh, gave a talk about an after-school program that his company's Silver Springs, Maryland office held on its premises. He said that they were teaching poor African American kids how to use geographic Information systems, and they loved it.

During the Q&A period, the Mayor of Wilkinsburg, Silvia Lefranche, stood up and said, "Hey, Carnegie Mellon ought to run a program like that right here in Pittsburgh, and you can start with Wilkinsburg High School. Our high school is one of the worst in the state." That's how InfoLink began, and with the same name as Centech's program, Geographic Information Systems Education Program (GISEP).

The initial design team for InfoLink included Rob Rogers, Director of the Allegheny County Center for Workforce Excellence, Robin Braun of the Allegheny County Intermediate Unit which runs special programs for schools, Rich Dieter who was a consultant for the Wilkinsburg School District, and Wil Gorr of the Heinz School. Rob and Rich put together the financing, Robin designed professional development and other parts of the program, and Wil Gorr designed the curriculum. Soon after getting a start, Wil recruited two Heinz School Ph.D. students to help teach - Jon Gant who is now an assistant professor at the Maxwell School of Public Administration and George Tita who is now an assistant professor of criminology at UC Irvine. And soon after that, or about the same time, Kristen Kurland was recruited to teach computer aided design.

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