In This Issue
- ITAR & EAR (If you have to ask, you need to know)
- University of Rochester Institute
of Optics Summer Institute
- 8th Annual Golf Tournament
- Lumetrics Wins SBIR Phase I Award
- New Product Announcements
- Conferences
- Diamond Tooling for Glass Machining
- Is SBIR Threatened?
Diamond Tooling Seminar
Thursday, June 26 at 3:00 PM
Sydor Optics
Daniel Patrick, President of Wrisley Diamond will give the Rochester
optics community a seminar to better understand diamond tooling for glass
machining. This mini-seminar is a must for companies that cut and machine
glass.
The purpose of the presentation is to familiarize the audience with diamond
tooling fundamentals. The presentation begins by identifying important
properties of diamond tools such as bond types and tool identification.
Details are provided on brazed, electroplated, metal bonded, and resin
bonded tooling along with the advantages/disadvantages of each. The second
half of the presentation touches on the use of diamond tooling, providing
information on operating parameters and dressing vs. truing. At the end
of the presentation, the audience is walked through a diamond tooling
application example. Using the information learned, the instructor and
audience, together, determine the correct diamond tooling for the example
application.
There will be room for up to 40 attendees.
Anyone interested can email Mike Naselaris (mike|at|sydor.com)
or Dan Patrick
( dan|at|bwabrasives.com)
47th Annual Summer School Program
June 16 – June 27, 2008
The Annual two-week series of short courses are a mainstay of the regional
optics community and  attract
attendees from across the country. This year’s offering will be
a mix of a one-week course and two-and-a-half-day courses.
Topics will include:
Optimax CEO Honored
Rick Plympton, CEO of Optimax , was inducted as a Distinguished Alumni
of Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) on May 16th at an awards dinner
on the campus.
Prior to Rick’s studies at the University of Rochester’s
Institute of Optics, he earned three associates degrees from FLCC –
Business Administration, Computer Science and Engineering Science. It
was the recommendation of a professor at FLCC that started Rick on his
optics path.
Following his stint at FLCC, Plympton continued his education at the
University of Rochester and received a B.S. degree in Optics in 1987 and
an M.B.A. degree from the Simon School at the University of Rochester
in 1999. HE joined Melles Griot Optical Systems in 1984 working in a variety
of positions that took him from Rochester to California, Florida, Germany
and England, concluding his career there as the European Technical Marketing
Manager in 1995. In the autumn of 1995 he joined a small start-up called
Optimax Systems, Inc. in Ontario, NY as their Vice President. Optimax
has become one of America’s largest optics manufacturers, employing
more than 150 and growing, by providing the fastest delivery service in
the world for precision optics. In 1999, with M.B.A. in hand, Rick was
promoted to CEO accepting the primary roles of creating market awareness
and securing market opportunities including negotiating acquisitions.
As a leader, Rick emphasizes the value of education in several ways. The
Optimax Scholarship Program supports students in five high schools in
the region, they hire a dozen college students each summer, and he works
directly with the leadership of Finger Lakes regional colleges to realign
degree programs offered with current industry needs.
After spending his freshman year in college at the Florida Institute
of Technology, Rick moved to Canandaigua and entered CCFL. In his words,
“I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living. I knew that I loved
playing games – any game, any time, but they weren’t giving
out degrees in game theory. Later I realized that business is a game.”
Rick and his wife of 10 years, Lisa, live in Rochester with their two
children, Cece and Lily.
Plympton also recently became a member of the University of Arizona’s
College of Optical Sciences Development Board.
Plympton sits on a panel with other influential members of the academic
and optics communities to build and maintain the college as a premier
optical sciences education and research institute. Click
Here for more information.
Cornell Center for Materials Research
Polymer Outreach Program/Green Materials Symposium was held May 20-21,
2008
Cornell’s Center for Material Research (CCMR) recently put on
another year of Polymer Outreach Program (POP) Symposium in Ithaca on
May 20 and 21, 2008. CCMR has a program developed for industry which is
set up in three levels: $15,000 summer, $30,000 half year and $60,000
full year with assigned research staff to work on industry-specified projects,
access to the CCMR labs and internships. Industry attendees were companies
like DuPont, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Hercules, ELIA Life Technology, Henkel,
Air Products and Motorola among others. 
This is the first year that the POP Symposium was combined with the
Green Materials Symposium. Major companies such as DuPont and Procter
& Gamble have adopted Sustainability Goals. They have identified three
areas in which to change their businesses: reduce their environmental
footprint from production processes; make their materials consumption
and output better environmentally by reducing toxicity and increasing
biodegradability; making the workplace safer by eliminating harmful materials.
These business initiatives are showing up at Cornell as industry projects
as companies search for solutions, particularly with regards to petroleum-based
products with their rapidly escalating costs.
Cornell faculty is working on many areas of polymer research –
here are a few areas that could have significance to the optics community
several years down the road: polymer textiles that can be used to improve
performance and lower costs of high level filtration systems in manufacturing
environments (follow US Air Products developments), biologically-based
materials (made from corn or CO2, for example) that can replace more toxic
materials found in typical building materials and furniture; and biological
substrates that can replace petroleum-based substrates used in manufacturing.
The basic concept upon which much of the research is based is the self-assembly
characteristic of biological nanomaterials. Research is looking for ways
to influence the self-assembly in order to produce predictable results
as well as combine sets of molecules with different functions that multitask
when combined. In theory this will eventually yield substrates that are
functionally complete without further manufacturing such as polishing.
coating, etching and printing. Materials will become shapeable, hydrophobic,
antimicrobial, optically designed and electronically active intrinsically.
Simple examples of this are already in the market place with DuPont’s
Sorona (corn-based polymer) which is now replacing petroleum products
in carpet (as stainguard, strengthener and flex agent) or G3i’s
(a Rochester-based green chemical company) Greenshield product, also for
the textile industry, which has a reduced flourochemical content while
delivering superior water and mold resistance.
Dr. Olli Ikkala from Helsinki University of Technology has done extensive
work with atomic layer deposition to make an alternative to carbon nanotubes
that yield optically controlled surfaces and function as nanowire sensors.
Dr. Margaret Frey at Cornell University is using electrospinning to create
polymer doped fabric or film that is targeted for cell growth in tissue
engineering and biohazard detection systems since it creates a strong
protein binding for sensors. She sees “lab on a fiber” replacing
the goal of “lab on a chip” since smart fibers would enable
nanotechnology applications to occur at the level of clothing or furniture
rather than in an additional object (i.e. a cell phone).
Implications for the Photonics community seem to be several years out.
The directions articulated seem to indicate that wholesale changes in
the overall optics community are in store ultimately. Silica will continue
to be a primary building block, but fabrication and coating as we know
it might be eliminated. Transitional paths to consider could be web processes,
plastic molding, crystal growth processes, expansion into electro-optical
arenas, and development of expertise in nanofilms. Organizational strategies
might be to broaden the presence of chemistry and materials science expertise
on your staff. In the meantime, look for opportunities to team with green
organizations (including Cornell
and RIT initiatives)
to give your company exposure to new materials as they emerge.
Report by Megan Shay, Dynasil/EMF
Events and Conferences
APOMA Workshop in November, 2008
The APOMA board has approved a 2 day workshop to be held in Tucson,
AZ this November 17th & 18th at the new Optical Science building at
the University of Arizona. The workshop will cover a variety of topics
on optical fabrication such as Scratch Dig, diamonds, testing, optical
tolerances, pitch and polishing pads, presentations by optical machine
builders on the latest equipment, and much more.
According to Jim Sydor, current APOMA President, "The goal is to
run the workshop in different parts of the country every other year so
as not conflict with OPTIFAB. Once the agenda is finalized we will post
it on the APOMA website."
Photonics North
2 -4 June, 2008
Hilton Montreal Bonaventure
Conference
5 June, 2008
Executive Symposium on Photonics Commercialization
Canadian Photonics Fabircation Centre
Symposium
MSTI Nanotech 2008
1 - 5 June, 2008
Boston, Hynes Convention Center
1 - 5 June 2008
Conference
MD&M East
2 - 5 June, 2008
Jacob K. Javits Center
New York, New York
Conference
Optatec 2008
17 - 20 June, 2008
Frankfurt, Germany
Conference
OSA Annual Frontiers in Optics
2008
19 - 23 October, 2008
Rochester, NY
Riverside Convention Center
Photonics West
24 - 29 January, 2009
San Jose, California
Optifab
11 - 14 May, 2009
Rochester, NY
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ITAR and EAR
Thursday, June 19th
8:00 - 11:00 AM
Lennox Technology Center
150 Lucius Gordon Drive
West Henrietta, NY 14586
Cost: $30
Continental breakfast will be provided
RRPC will host a 2 hour morning session with representatives from the
FBI, CIA, and The Bureau of Immigration Customs Enforcement (BICE).
It is important that the person in your company responsible for Export
Compliance attend this event. Please forward this information to that
person!
There has been enormous interest among the membership concerning arms
and immigration regulations. A number of companies, both large and small
have invested a great deal in learning more about these regulations, particularly
ITAR: International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Some have suggested that
registration and implementation of ITAR requirements has actually helped
increased their business from prime contractors.
In recent years, the U.S. Government has brought enforcement actions
against major corporations for export control compliance violations that
were committed by companies that they acquired years after the violations
occurred. These enforcement actions have resulted in significant penalty
settlements.
Acronyms like Export Administration Regulations (EAR), ITAR, and Bureau
of Industry and Security (BIS) may have achieved levels of fear among
contractors greater than that among willful law violators. Is this by
design?
FBI & CIA representatives will present about counter-proliferation
and potential WMD dual-use commodities. BICE will discuss immigration
and employment issues.
CIA will also speak about what to look for during travel. The Department
of Commerce and the State Department have been invited.
Register
Here now.
Annual Golf Tourrney
The 8th annual WNY Photonics Golf Tournament will be held on July 17th
at Shadow Lake and Shadow Pines Golf Clubs in Penfield NY.
Last year's event raised $14,500 for a total thusfar of $43K to benefit
the Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong.
Participation from WNY photonics companies, their suppliers and and friends,
as well as companies from as far away as Opto Sigma in California made
the event another rousing success. Ron and Diane Schulmerich are looking
for volunteer committee members to help organize this year's event. The
organization of the tourney has become more challenging each year with
the increasing participation. They are in of a need of a little help from
their friends!! We also want to get an early start on soliciting larger
corporate sponsors this year.
Contact them at wnyoptics@rochester.rr.com or
585-663-7230 if you are interested in participating in the Optics Industry's
largest networking event of the year.
SBIR
DoD SBIR 2008.2 solicitation is open for proposal submission
Proposals will be accepted until 6 a.m. EST June 18, 2008 (June 27th
for DHS because of a computer server snafu). Six DoD components -- the
Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Army, the Department
of the Navy, the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency
(DTRA) -- have R&D topics in this solicitation under which Phase I
proposals are sought. The Solicitation, which contains detailed information
on the parameters of the SBIR program and how to submit a proposal, and
Topics are available here
. You may also search the topics by going here.
Lumetrics Wins NIH SBIR Phase I Award
SBIR Phase I Award Date: May 6, 2008
Award No. IIP-0810475
Proposal No. IIP-0810475
The project, under the direction of Filipp Ignatovich, is entitled:
SBIR Phase I: Fast Two-Color Heterodyne Non-Contact Scanning System for
Mapping Optical Parameters of Human Eye.
The project is aimed at developing a high speed and high sensitivity
system for measuring optical dimensions of human eye, such as the total
axial length, corneal thickness and the location and thickness of the
crystalline lens, in a non-contact manner using infrared light, invisible
to the eye. The task is accomplished by improving the existing technique
of time domain low-coherence interferometry. For live patients, which
in general cannot be immobilized for steady measurements, speed and sensitivity
of the measurements are especially important to achieve high accuracy
and precision.
The project is aimed at benefiting the large part of the population
that suffers from cataract and other vision problems. The U.S. population
of over 65 years old expected to increase to over 70 million in 2030.
Therefore, there is a dramatic need for tools to treat the wave of eye
diseases and problems inherent to such population. Information on the
structure of the eye is required in eye surgeries, including those that
deal with replacing the crystalline lenses affected by cataract. The proposed
research will result in an array of critical tools aimed at mapping out
the eye, for medical research and for treatment of the diseases.
Is SBIR Threatened?
In late April the U.S. House of Representatives approved Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) reauthorization legislation, 368-43, The SBIR/STTR
Reauthorization Act (H.R. 5819) whizzed through three committees and onto
the House floor in the span of one week, after being introduced April
16 by House Committee on Small Business Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez
and two co-sponsors.
With a looming Sept. 30, 2008 expiration date, agencies could stop funding
new SBIR research and development if the program is not reauthorized soon.
There is a pretty good summary of proposed changes to the program here.
According to the National Small Business Association (NSBA), "while the
reauthorization of the program in the House is good news, the bad news
is the final bill that was passed. H.R. 5819 is deeply flawed and frequently
at odds with the best interests of America’s small-business community.
It creates a system of public subsidies for the venture capital industry,
including large venture capital companies that should have no place in
a small business program.
"Significantly, the bill removes critical large-business participation
restrictions from the SBIR program, all but eliminating “small business”
from the Small Business Innovation Research program. While Section 201
of H.R. 5819 would continue to prohibit larger venture capital (VC) firms
from owning a controlling interest in an SBIR awardee business, it would
allow two or more VC firms (syndicates) to own the entire firm. Such syndicates
easily could assume de facto control over SBIR companies through joint
ownership, control or operation agreements or third party control of multiple
VCs.
By eliminating the U.S. Small Business Administration’s affiliation rule,
Section 201 of H.R. 5819 also would prohibit the SBA from classifying
any VC company as a large business as long as the firm had fewer than
500 employees—no matter how many “small” businesses the VC firm controlled.
This raises the specter of a competition for funding between actual small
businesses and “small businesses” owned by a VC syndicate that controls
1,000 small companies, employees 100,000 people, and generates billions
in revenue."
Dunn & Bradstreet has a negative take on the legislation, saying that
it champions VC's at the expense of Small Business, here.
Another odd provision in the bill would allow companies to bypass the
Phase I, “proof of concept” stage of SBIR and apply directly
for Phase II awards. It would seem that without the transparent and juried
competition required for Phase I awards, companies would be able to simply
lobby agencies for the $2.2 million Phase II development awards, leaving
the program vulnerable to influence-peddling and abuse.
The bill also triples the allowable award sizes for each phase of the
program, from $100,000 to $300,000 for Phase I projects and from $750,000
to $2.2 million for Phase II projects. While NSBA supports increasing
allowable award sizes, H.R. 5819 — as it was passed—did not
contain a commensurate increase in the program’s set aside. Although
the original bill would have increased the SBIR set-aside from 2.5 percent
of federal research and development to 3 percent, this increase was stripped
from the bill by an amendment offered by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.).
NSBA estimates indicate that tripling the award sizes but not increasing
the overall set-aside likely would lead to a purging of more than half
of the companies currently in SBIR.
SBIR Gateway, Insider Report has an interesting view of the situation
here,
and here.
According to NSBA, Ehlers did manage to solicit a pledge from Velázquez
to support a NIST study of whether the bill disadvantages small firms
and to work together to ensure that small firms are not underrepresented
in agencies’ distribution of SBIR awards. Concerns that small businesses
might be underrepresented in a small-business program ought to serve as
a clear indicator that something is wrong.
New Product Announcement
FluxData, Inc. introduces a new line of customizable multi-spectral 3-CCD
cameras
FluxData, Inc. has announced the release of the FD-1665 series of 3-CCD
cameras. The FD-1665 platform allows three CCD sensors fitted with customer
specified optical filters to simultaneously capture images through a single
lens.
The FD-1665 is offered in 1.4, 2 and 5 megapixel resolutions using Sony
ICX-285, ICX-274, and ICX-625 CCDs, respectively. Users can select a pre-configured
3, 5, 7, or 9 channel camera or configure an application specific 3-CCD
system with any combination of color and monochrome sensors and custom
filters. Built upon a patented design, the FD-1665 allows the use of standard
Nikon F-mount lenses, correcting the image at each sensor to precisely
match alignment, focus, magnification and reduce chromatic aberration
introduced by the prism beam splitter.
The FD-1665 is a flexible 3-CCD camera system that can be manufactured
with any combination of narrow-band or broad-band filter coatings between
380-1000nm. This provides a performance advantage over existing RGB 3-CCD
or 2-CCD RGB/NIR systems where spectral response is limited to predefined
manufacturer configurations. The three separate Firewire outputs of the
FD-1665 allow for high data throughput and independent control of exposure,
gain and frame-rate for maintaining high signal-to-noise ratios from each
sensor. The 3-CCDs can be simultaneously or sequentially triggered via
software or hardware.
The versatile camera design supports a wide array of applications in
various markets. These include fluorescence and in-vivo imaging for medical,
biotechnology, analytical and drug discovery to narrow band imaging for
spectroscopy, materials analysis and detection. The three optical paths
of the FD-1665 can also be configured for purposes beyond simple spectral
selectivity. For example, polarization at up to three orientation angles
can be measured simultaneously; identical sensors can be used for high
frame rate or asynchronous capture; or three exposure ranges can be captured
simultaneously for highdynamic- range (HDR) imaging.
Pano Spiliotis, CEO of FluxData, Inc. states, "The FD-1665 will
provide an important opportunity to OEM's, system integrators and end-users
by giving them the ability to quickly configure a custom multispectral
system with their own pre-defined spectral bands or filter configurations
into a fully integrated system. The FD-1665 provides simultaneous, multi-channel
imaging at video frame rates, a significant advantage over the sequential
capture of filter-wheel and liquid-crystal based systems. Our unique optical-mechanical
design and the incorporation of high quality filters allow FluxData to
provide customizable multispectral imaging systems to the medical, spectroscopy,
analytical, color, industrial and defense markets in a cost effective
manner."
FluxData will work with customers to design a purpose-built configuration
that meets their specific requirements. Standard configuration systems
can be made to order for delivery in 4-6 weeks.
FluxData develops and manufactures analytical instrumentation for a
wide range of industrial applications.For more information, visit www.fluxdata.com
Contact RRPC
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Join us! There are advantages to working together, and
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