Rochester
Optifab
May 14-17
Rochester Riverside Convention Center
The only conference/exhibit of its type in the U.S., Optifab is uniquely
positioned to attract high-end precision optical manufacturers, their
suppliers, and the customer base that stands to benefit from this extraordinary
supply chain.
173 exhibitors are now registered.
Become an exhibitor by going here.
Subjects that will be covered in depth, which are crucial to your company
and your customers:
- Design for manufacturing - design considerations for manufacturability
including material choice, error budgets, tolerances, mounting, assembly,
and testing.
- Materials and optical material sciences - optical glasses, crystals,
infrared materials, ultraviolet materials, and plastics.
- Classical and automated fabrication - highlighting computer integrated
manufacturing (CIM) and software for the optical industry.
- Grinding, polishing, and new methods of surface finishing - loose
and bound abrasive, diamond turning, ion figuring, water-jet cutting
and removal processes, and sub-aperture lap polishing.
- Process science - materials, abrasives, coolants, tooling, for grinding
and polishing that are selected for cost reduction and flow optimization.
- Injection molding, glass molding, lithographic processing and chemical
etching.
- New developments in coatings technology – advanced approaches
for all types of optical coatings on glass, metal, plastics and crystalline
materials.
- New developments in metrology, including all forms of interferometry,
MTF measurement, ellipsometry, scatterometry, and surface/sub surface
metrology.
- Opto-mechanical design and fabrication. Interactivity and data interfaces
between optical design programs, mechanical design programs, fabrication
equipment and metrology instrumentation.
A new Invited Speaker who ought to be of interest has been added on Monday
afternoon:
An Overview of the Optics Industry in China
Gene Zhou, Partner, Cross China USA
- Geographically: Where is the optical manufacturing base in China?
- What are the differing levels of the industry in terms of quality
and what capital investments have been made in manufacturing technology,
including automation, metrology and quality assurance?
- What is the structure of the Optical Industry -- research and development,
universities, manufacturing, and finance?
- What are the options for those interested in partnering with a chinese
supplier or research institution? How to go about analyzing and organizing
a supply chain in China.
- Finally, is China a threat to the U.S. optical industry?
Mr. Zhou will give an overview of the Chinese Optics Market. Having
worked on optics manufacturing projects with U.S. firms since 2001, and
just returned from a one month trip to China working with China-based
suppliers, Mr. Zhou will provide an overview of the Chinese market including
Geography, Workforce, Research & Development, Supply Chain, Finance,
Partnership Opportunities and Government Regulation and bureaucracy. Often
seen as both a threat and a source for inexpensive commodities,
China has targeted Optics as a growth industry and is preparing for the
same opportunities in Medical Instruments, Consumer Products and Telecommunications
that the rest of the optics world is targeting. What are the implications
for Western firms? Are your competitors sourcing from China or selling
in China?
Once again this year APOMA and RRPC will host a Tuesday night reception
featuring Rochester's own Nik & the Nice Guys. Please help by sponsoring
this event and letting attendees and exhibitors alike know that Rochester
is North America's home for Optics, Photonics and Optical Fabrication.
Contact Rick Rivers at 585-586-6906.
Defense & Security Recap
Over 45 New York State companies exhibited and decision-makers were in
attendance at the Defense and Security Industry at the Annual SPIE Conference
in Orlando.
The usual complaint among exhibitors in Orlando is "not enough traffic."
When pressed, however, it seems that the quality of the attendees makes
up for the lower headcount. There were 2,908 conference attendees and
828 exhibit-only visitors.
At the New York Photonics booth we fielded a steady stream of both engineers
and new business development staff from firms such as Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman, ITT, GE Research and DRS, as well as engineers and technical
points of contact from DARPA, Navy and Air Force. The general consensus
among the major primes seemed to be that there was more business than
they could handle, that they cannot hire enough talent to produce everything
in-house, and that they are urgently seeking qualified suppliers of everything
from components to subassemblies. This is good news for New York Photonics
members: we are actually fielding calls from contacts made at the conference.
That is why it is crucial that members have their information updated
and current on the website.
Mike Bechtold from Optipro gave two technical presentations:
- Non-contact Aspheric, deep parabolic, ogive measurement system
- Grinding and polishing of Polycrystalline Alumina, ALON and Spinel
domes utilizing the UltraForm 5 axis finishing system
Damon Diehl from ASE Optics:
- Transmitted wavefront metrology of hemispheric domes using scanning
low-coherence dual-interferometry (SLCDI)
The venue was difficult for both exhibitors and SPIE who had been promised
the "largest pillarless ballroom in the United States" for the
exhibit when contracts were signed, but instead had to fit a show that
had outgrown the Marriott five years ago into the same space it outgrew.
Next year promises to be better in terms of space with the new ballroom
and it is important that returning exhibitors note in their early-bird
contracts that they want to exhibit in and be part of the New York Cluster
neighborhood.
International Resource Group
Global Economic and Foreign Exchange Outlook
Second Half - 2007 Perspectives
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
11:30 to 1:00
The Strathallan Hotel
550 East Avenue, Rochester NY
Dr. Karim Pakravan
Vice President-Global Economist & FX Strategist, Global Currency and
Commodity Group
JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA
Cost: $20 IRG Members/$30 nonmembers/$15 students
(Cash or check ONLY at the door)
Register by email: IRG[at]rochester.rr.com or by calling 866-755-9733
(toll free)
http://www.irgnet.org/
Events
CLEO /QELS & PhAST 07
6 - 11 May 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
Cleo Conference / PhAST
Conference
OptiFab
14 - 17 May 2007
Rochester, New York USA
Exhibition
CIRCA '07
Convergence of International Research & Commercialization in Albany
21 - 23 May 2007
Albany, New York
SmartStart Venture Forum
22 - 23 May 2007
Albany Marriott, Albany, New York
Program
Photonics North (co-located
with Education and Training in Optics & Photonics)
3 -7 June 2007
Ottowa, Ontario, Canada
Conference
(Photonics North)
Conference (Education & Training)
Ninth Rochester Conference
on Coherence and Quantum Optics (CQO-9)
June 10 – 13, 2007
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York
Conference
International Conference
on Quantum Information (ICQI)
June 13 -15, 2007
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York
Conference
MD&M East
12 -14 June, 2007
Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center
New York, New York USA
Exhibition
46th Annual Summer Course
Series
University of Rochester Institute of Optics
18-29 June 2007
Rochester, New York USA
Program
7th annual WNY Optics Photonics
Golf Tournament
to benefit The Golisano
Children’s Hospital  at
Strong
19 July, 2007
Frontiers in Optics 2007
16 - 20 September, 2007
San Jose, California
Conference
OFC/NFOEC 2008
February 24-28, 2008
San Diego Convention Center
Conference
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PIANY / RRPC
New York Photonics Website
RRPC and New York Photonics Members are beginning to recognize that potential
customers are driven to the website by advertising / promotion at conferences
and publications, and through magazine articles such as this
one in Optics & Lasers Europe, distributed throughout Europe and
at Defense and Security, CLEO/QELS, and Optifab.
Job Listings: Every week since the website debuted in January applicants
have submitted electronic resumes in response to job listings posted by
members. New York Photonics members can take advantage of this resource
for free by logging in and posting their own job openings. Can't remember
your log-in? Send an email to us here.
Advertising Opportunities: Vendors are beginning to take advantage of
an inexpensive way to get their name in front of customers through banner
ads. See pricing and ad specs here.
Equipment for Sale. In our industry machinery and equipment changes
hands through auction, word-of-mouth, through brokers... some people even
buy new! Post your equipment and machinery on the website and you will
find that other New York State companies are interested.
Private and public discussion boards. If you would prefer to post subjects,
anything from a notice looking for a potential collaboration to a technical
issue you would like input on, rather than send an email to the entire
membership, post it in the private section of the discussion board. The
section is password protected so your posting is contained within the
confines of the membership.
Wired: Workforce Development
An Extraordinary, and Extraordinarily Affordable Opportunity For Western
New York OPI Firms
Do not miss this chance to advance our industry in the regional school
systems, while at the same time accomplishing an important objective of
your own choosing.
The Finger Lakes Wired Educator Internship Program,
which you may be familar with as the Rochester Area Career Education Collaborative,
provides up to 30 paid internships for educators in schools or classrooms,
serving grades K through 12, throughout the nine county region (Genesee,
Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates).
Wired is seeking employers to provide work placements and educators
to participate in the 4-week internships during the weeks of July 16 through
August 10, 2007.
The Wired Educator Internship Program is designed to increase educators’
awareness and knowledge of employer expectations for employees in the
non-school workplace, as well as increase the educator interns’
understanding of specialized skills and educational requirements for specific
careers. Educator Internships are based on partnerships with employers
in industries that include, but are not limited to, emerging sectors of
optics and imaging, biotechnology and life science, food and agriculture,
advanced manufacturing, alternative energy, information technology, engineering,
business services and health care.
There are fifteen qualified teacher-participants ready, willing and able
to add value to your enterprise, help you design internal programs, accomplish
research objectives... you name it. The cost to your firm is one-half
of the teacher stipend: about $900. Wired picks up the other half. You
get to send the educator back to their school with a message from our
industry... an "optics and photonics ambassador" if you will.
Are Regional Optics firms able to take advantage of this opportunity?
We'll see. Contact Contact Kathleen Raniewicz, Internship Project Lead,
at (585) 249-7067 or email kathleen_raniewicz[at]boces.monroe.edu. Additional
information and the employer application can be found at http://www.fi
ngerlakeswired.com
Recognition
Scheible wins IT Honor
RRPC member Christine Scheible, CEO of Quantum Technology Associates,
based in Rochester, NY, was recently selected as "2007 IT Woman of
the Year" by the Upstate New York Association of Women in Computing.
The award recognizes the achievements of women in the Information Technology
field in the Upstate NY region. Scheible, who started Quantum as a spinoff
of Parity Americas, a UK IT Technology services business, runs what is
believed to be the only woman-owned and run medical and optical engineering
firm in Upstate NY region.
Quantum is a leading engineering and technology firm that works with
partners to develop innovative software and engineering solutions for
new products. Quantum provides technical teams and outsourced services
for medical, optics and technology projects, as well as providing highly
talented individuals for hire.
We asked Quantum to share an example of an optical system where the provided
value-added IT partnership.
Quantum has a solid history of working successfully with both large
corporations and companies that are young and growing. For large operations,
Quantum has provided entire project teams and key individuals to round
out an engineering team. For smaller firms, Quantum has a number of approaches
to meet needs.
As an example, Quantum was recently contacted by a start-up company
with a medical imaging need. The company was attracted to Quantum’s
3D data visualization technology, but quickly learned that Quantum was
in a position to provide the both the development team and manage the
project -- from start to finish -- through commercialization, including
satisfying FDA requirements and submissions.
In cases like this, Quantum calls upon its experience to work with the
partner to provide a detailed commercialization plan and the skill sets
needed to build the offering and then leverages Quantum’s network
to find the ideal individuals to develop a top-notch team.
For this project, Quantum worked with the start-up - who at this point
didn’t have a technical staff that was ready to commercialize -
and prepared a project schedule, defined technology skills needed and
provided personnel with both proven skills and the cohesiveness as a team
to build this unique device. The project is moving at a pace that has
more than satisfied the partner, as well as met the technology needs of
the firm. With this approach, the partner avoided the issues associated
with hiring personnel, has the opportunity to identify potential employees
to hire from our team, and has a highly skilled team building their flagship
product.
The product is expected to be ready for clinical testing soon and is
currently on schedule.
Albany
Albany Nanotech Hosting Unique Event
The American Electronics Association (AeA) and the College of Nanoscale
Science and Engineering (CNSE) are hosting an industry leading, first-of-a-kind
conference, Circa ‘07, that will bring together representatives
from a broad range of industry sectors to discuss common integration platforms
and how to use them to create commercially successful products.
All leading market segments, including information technology, energy,
aerospace, and healthcare, currently pursue independent research and development
pathways operating in silos that often duplicate efforts and miss potential
cross-industry partnership opportunities and the common goal of interoperability.
Achieving interoperability is often diffi cult as it requires shared product
engineering, industry partnership, access to technology/IP, and implementation
of standards. The capital-intensive and technically-diverse challenges
of nanotechnology manufacturing compound this challenge. As a result,
cost-of-ownership escalates, making commercial success well beyond the
reach of many industry manufacturers.
The Albany NanoTech Complex and the UAlbany NanoCollege (CNSE) provide
a unique resource for nanotechnology-driven industries by leveraging a
$3+ billion investment in state-of-the-art facilities by industry, university
and government. More than 150 industry partners from around the world
currently pursue research and development demonstrated on industry-compliant
nanofabrication processes. These partners are supported by supply-chain
best-known-methods that lower the cost, risk and time associated with
commercialization. In addition, these methods also enable new business
models that support convergent technologies for expanding applications.
The result of these collaborative efforts is the “Albany Integration
Model.” This new business model bridges technology silos by supporting
the drivers of interoperability thereby leading to dramatic reductions
in the cost of ownership models.
Interested? Click here
for more information.
Contact RRPC
New York Photonics and the Rochester Regional Photonics
Cluster are active and growing collaborative organizations. Efforts are
under way on joint training events, workforce development, collaborative
advertising opportunities, promoting the commercialization of I.P., and
the development of our website to further facillitate business development.
Join us! There are advantages to working together, and
we are interested in working with you. Send an email to us at membership[at]rrpc-ny.org.
To subscribe, to unsubscribe, to submit a news item
or upcoming event, to suggest a feature or column, or to offer feedback,
contact Tom Battley,
at 585-329-4029.
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