Student volunteers from the University of Rochester Institute of Optics SPIE Student Chapter helped New York Photonics Executive Director, Tom Battley assemble and install 20 beautiful photo banners at the Greater Rochester International Airport on Friday, October 9. The banners are there to welcome visitors and exhibitors to Rochester during SPIE Optifab, held in Rochester biannually, and to inform travelers about photonics. They highlight the many ways that light impacts our lives,...Continue Reading
It’s photonics. Get it? Following SolarCity’s plan to build a factory in Buffalo, New York, another solar company has been attracted to the area with incentives. Upstate New York is quickly becoming a new hub for solar manufacturing. On Wednesday afternoon solar startup 1366 Technologies, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced that 1366 will build a factory in Genesee County, which is located between Buffalo and Rochester, in upstate...Continue Reading
The United States commerce and state departments are rewriting a proposed rule that had a major impact on Rochester optics companies in part because U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer nudged them to do so. The proposed rule would have placed certain optics-related technologies on a do-not-export-outside-the-country list. The state and commerce department officials originally planned to place these technologies on the list because they didn’t want breakthroughs falling into the hands...Continue Reading
Cameras: Four Nikon D810 cameras Lenses: 28/f1.8 mm Exposure time: 30 seconds @ f/11 ISO 100 All external lighting was provided by nearly 1,800 volunteer participants using hand-held electronic flash units and flashlights. Additionally Profoto 7B and B1 electronic flash equipment was used. The RIT Big Shot is a nighttime community photographic project that began in 1987. The result shared above is a composite made from the files from four...Continue Reading
Rochester is undeniably excited about photonics, even if much of the community doesn’t know what it is. But there’s good reason for the buzz, since Rochester will be the heart of a national initiative to build an integrated photonics industry from the ground up. The Department of Defense is keen on integrated photonics, which basically weds ultra-high-tech optical systems with high-tech electronics. It’s putting approximately $115 million into the initiative,...Continue Reading
Two local photonics experts used the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre Wednesday night to set the stage for how the field will improve Rochester’s job economy. Jay Eastman and Paul Ballentine looked in their crystal balls and told about 150 entrepreneurs that a $600 million photonics research institute coming to town will boost local higher education, jobs and the city’s clout globally as the epicenter for everything optics. Ballentine is the executive...Continue Reading
ROCHESTER, NY, September 17th. 2015 – The Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster/New York Photonics (RRPC) today honored three leaders in education and business for their contributions to New York’s Optics and Photonics Industry. RRPC Executive Director Tom Battley joined past years’ award winners to present the awards in front of more than 300 representatives from industry, government and education from across the region at the New York Photonics 2015 Annual Meeting held...Continue Reading
The world’s first entirely light-based memory chip to store data permanently has been developed by material scientists at Oxford University in collaboration with scientists at Karlsruhe, Munster and Exeter. The device, which makes use of materials used in CDs and DVDs, could help dramatically improve the speed of modern computing. Today’s computers are held back by the relatively slow transmission of electronic data between the processor and the memory. ‘There’s...Continue Reading
A real estate arm of SUNY Polytechnic Institute is trying to acquire a 280-acre property in Saratoga County from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. But amid reports of subpoenas for the school and greater scrutiny of state contracts, the authority took no action on the issue when its officials met this week. The property transfer price is listed as $1 in a draft contract between NYSERDA and...Continue Reading
A SUNY Polytechnic Institute nanotechnology center has been awarded $9.2 million over 10 years. The money is being offered through the state’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation, or NYSTAR. It will go toward commercialization, education and outreach of the university’s nanoelectronics and nanomaterials center in Albany, New York. http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2015/09/23/suny-poly-nanotech-center-awarded-9-2m.htmlContinue Reading
