How Commitment to Company Culture Pays Off at Optimax
Optimax Systems, Inc. was a small startup operating out of a barn in the mid-90s, and today it’s America’s largest precision optics manufacturer. Optimax employs 460 people and counting in […]
Grant Writing from the Ground Up
To have a successful career in science, you must be able to convince strangers to give you enormous sums of money. Unfortunately, many scientists miss the mark and write terrible […]
Spotlight on Momentum Optics: Delivering Affordable Custom Optics, Ultra-Fast
Custom, high-precision optical components are found everywhere, but getting them produced at mass comes with astronomical lead times and costs that are out of reach for many companies. <a […]
Spotlight on Mesodyne: Building Generators that Fit in the Palm of Your Hand
The demand for portable power is constantly growing, and there’s currently no solution for lightweight, portable power generation. Mesodyne, a startup in the Luminate accelerator’s fourth cohort, is developing a […]
Spotlight on OSCP: Transforming Motion Sensing for Autonomous Vehicles
Current autonomous vehicles rely on Global Navigation Satellite System sensors. In GPS-denied environments, like parking garages or tunnels, the vehicle may get misguided, increasing the chance of collision. One Silicon […]
Spotlight on PreAct Technologies: Saving Lives with Car Crash Prevention
Today’s automotive safety systems are designed to either avoid or respond to collisions. PreAct Technologies, a startup in cohort 4 of the Luminate accelerator, is focused on detecting car crashes […]
Spotlight on Owl AI: Unlocking Safe Autonomous Operation
To make a vehicle safer, perception systems need to be able to emulate what we do as humans — not only see but identify and classify objects, and estimate where […]
Spotlight on Andluca Technologies: Making Glass Smarter and More Efficient
Inefficient windows account for about $52 billion in wasted energy every year. Smart glass solutions help, but current products have external wires that make them challenging or impossible to implement […]
Spotlight on Infrascreen: Bringing Better Climate Control to Greenhouse Growers
High-tech greenhouses — the only way to grow fruits and vegetables without pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides — are evolving quickly. While many companies are focused on advancing greenhouses through automation […]
Spotlight on Dynocardia: Changing the Way We Measure and Manage Blood Pressure
Cuff-based devices, which have been used for more than a century to measure blood pressure, are largely inaccurate. Even if you manage to get an accurate reading, cuffs cannot provide […]
The Optical Systems Technology Program at MCC
Optics is the industry of the future, revolutionizing everything from the smart phones in our pockets to our national security. But there are more jobs for optical technicians than there […]
Spotlight on OVITZ: Delivering Life-Changing Vision Improvements
Almost everyone has some form of inconsistency or “aberration” with the shape or surface of their eyes. Some have more complex vision errors called higher order aberrations (HOAs), such as […]
Spotlight on AkknaTek: Reducing Postoperative Surprises After Cataract Surgery
As the most frequently performed surgery in the United States, cataract surgery presents minimal patient risk. However, the visual outcome is not always optimal due to dislocations of premium intraocular […]
Spotlight on ExPrimary: Improving Access to Bioanalytical Tools
A typical person goes to their physician once a year, which provides just one set of data points around their personal health. ExPrimary, a Luminate cohort III startup, is working […]
Spotlight on SaNoor: Enabling the Internet of Underwater Things
You’ve heard of WiFi, but what about LiFi? Chao Shen, PhD, CTO and Technical Leader of SaNoor Technologies, sits down with Luminate Technology Program Manager, Dr. Damon Diehl, to share […]
Spotlight on Think Biosolution: Enabling Customized Remote Patient Monitoring
Patient monitoring typically takes place in hospital or clinical settings, meaning doctors lack a complete picture of their patients to be able to effectively individualize care and prevent rehospitalizations. Think […]
What is Optics?
Damon Diehl, PhD, Technology Program Manager at the Luminate accelerator program, speaks with Ben Guerrero, Digital Media Manager at NextCorps, about his start in optics and how this enormous field […]
