2020 NEWS ARCHIVE
December 29, 2020
The path forward for science under a new administration
BY ELIZABETH A. ROGAN, Opinion Contributor, The Hill
As President-elect Joseph Biden fills key positions to address global challenges from COVID-19 to climate change, the scientific community is optimistic he will prioritize research and development. In addition to the mass distribution of effective vaccines to mitigate the risk of the deadly virus, what should be among the key science priorities in his first 100 days in office and beyond?
We request that President-elect Biden continue to expand government support for these key industries made possible by optics and photonics, the science of light. An encouraging sign is his proposal for a $300 billion investment over four years in 5G, AI and other technologies to spur the creation of high-quality jobs. Biden’s support is well documented. In 2015, he hailed civilian and defense applications of photonics at the launch of the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) in Rochester, N.Y. The institute, he remarked, will “generate the next great breakthrough.”
December 14, 2020
Facilities Shaping the Future of Manufacturing
AIM Photonics’ Test, Assembly and Packaging Facility
Integrated photonics involve using light for applications traditionally addressed through electronics. It is increasingly being applied in communications, laser-based radar and sensing because it dramatically improves on the performance and reliability of electronic integrated circuits while significantly reducing size, weight, and power consumption.
December 10, 2020
Erica Graham an AIM Photonics Journey
By Frank Tolic: AIM Photonics CMO (ftolic@aimphotonics.com)
Albany, NY - Often times the technological advancements developed in these great institutes can overshadow one of the most important aspects of these manufacturing organizations; training our next generation workforce of skilled technicians, engineers, scientists and leaders in these new technologies. A little over two years ago, a bright young Ph.D. candidate attending the University at Albany and SUNY Poly’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering decided to take a summer course recommended by her professor.
December 1, 2020
NY CREATES Announces New Federally Funded AIM Photonics Program
AIM-Led team selected for research project under DARPA’s Lasers for Universal Microscale Optical Systems (LUMOS) program. Technology will advance many applications such as self-driving vehicles, augmented reality, 3-D camera technology, and quantum computing
Albany, NY – American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), a program of NY CREATES today announced $19 million in research program awards for advanced integrated photonics under The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Lasers for Universal Microscale Optical Systems (LUMOS) program.
November 9, 2020
‘Organ on a chip’ is the wave of the future
University of Rochester researchers are building technology to predict the course of tendon injuries in individual patients—a form of personalized medicine that will lead to more effective treatments.
Rochester, NY - Too often, promising therapeutic drug candidates that are developed as a result of expensive animal studies prove ineffective – or even dangerous – when tested in humans. Although lab animals may have similar anatomical features to humans, their physiology, metabolism, and genetic diversity can be quite different.
October 26, 2020
Massachusetts Wins $3.2M DoD Grant to Develop National Model for Manufacturing Technician Training
Baker-Polito Administration Announces New Federal Award During Virtual Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative Meeting
Highlights the Launch of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech
New Projects Highlight Importance of Sector during Mass. Manufacturing Month
BOSTON, MA – During a meeting of the Commonwealth’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) on Wednesday, the Baker-Polito Administration announced that Massachusetts has been awarded a new $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program (DoD ManTech) to develop a manufacturing technician training program that will serve as a national model. During the meeting, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, a co-chair of the AMC, announced the award, known as “MassBridge,” which will develop and test a state-based training and career pathway model for manufacturing technicians that meets the talent needs of the national Manufacturing USA Institutes and their members.
October 21, 2020
Convergent Photonics Awarded $2.5M for Manufacturing Center
AIM Photonics is supporting the facility to be managed by Convergent and WNE.
CHICOPEE, MA, — Convergent Photonics has been awarded a $2,581,109 grant from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative to support the development of an advanced manufacturing center in partnership with Western New England University (WNE). Called a “Lab for Education and Application Prototyping,” or LEAP, the lab will focus on product development, training, and research in integrated photonics, and will be the fourth lab of its kind in its state, according to a press release from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
September 09, 2020
Air Force, Navy accelerate Quantum Research with international virtual event
By Deliarae Jesaitis, Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
Rome, N.Y. – The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate is spearheading an international alliance of principal investigators across government, academia and industry to accelerate quantum enabling technologies.
August 28, 2020
AIM Photonics’ New CEO Sets Course for US Leadership in the Integrated Photonics Industry
ROBIN RILEY, WEB EDITOR
robin.riley@photonics.com
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug. 28, 2020 — No one can accuse Michael Cumbo, the new CEO of AIM Photonics, of being risk-averse. In the middle of a pandemic that has had most of us working from home, he left the Bay Area and an executive position at ZYGO Corp. to drive across the country to upstate New York, where he assumed leadership for an organization he had never visited and whose management and staff he had met only through virtual interviews.
July 29,2020
Business Report: How AIM's new leader is looking to spur economic development
Albany, NY - In the latest WXXI Business Report, the new leader of AIM Photonics talks about his hopes for how that organization can spur economic development and jobs in the Rochester area.
June 18, 2020
AIM Photonics Announces New Leadership
New York welcomes home Rochester native to lead AIM Photonics
Albany, NY – the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) announces the appointment of Dr. Michael J. Cumbo as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective July 6, 2020. Dr. Cumbo succeeds Dr. Michael Liehr in the role.
June 16, 2020
At 5-Year Mark, AIM Photonics Looks Back on Key Accomplishments, Future Goals
ROCHESTER, NY — Since 2015, AIM Photonics has been at the forefront of New York’s success in the integrated photonics arena. Over the past five years, AIM has created a photonic integrated chip (PIC) manufacturing ecosystem, providing the photonics community with access to advanced technology, capabilities, and resources throughout the entire PIC product development cycle, from design, proof of concept, piloting, and development, to final test, assembly, and packaging, prior to commercialization.
June 04, 2020
NY CREATES Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of AIM Photonics
AIM Photonics featured on nationally syndicated educational program Information Matrix as part of Fifth Anniversary
Albany, NY - The New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering and Science (NY CREATES) today announced AIM Photonics will be featured on the nationally broadcast educational program Information Matrix as part of its fifth anniversary celebration. Formally established as the American Institute of Manufacturing Photonics in 2015, AIM Photonics has been at the forefront of New York’s success in the Integrated Photonics arena.
June 1, 2020
Quantum Information Science Matters
An Air Force lab advances capabilities to improve fundamental operations.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH- The AFRL has partnered with AIM Photonics, the Defense Department’s manufacturing institute, to demonstrate several large-scale wafers with integrated photonics technologies. The photonics capabilities will enable the size reduction of optical benches—such as in the aforementioned atomic clocks—down to 300 millimeter-sized wafers, Hayduk attests.
May 25, 2020
AIM Photonics featured on nationally syndicated educational program Information Matrix as part of Fifth Anniversary
Albany, NY - AIM Photonics will be featured on the nationally broadcast educational program Information Matrix as part of its fifth anniversary celebration. Hosted by award-winning actor Laurence Fishburne on more than 200 public television stations beginning the week of May 25.
May 22, 2020
NY CREATES photonics program to be featured on Laurence Fishburne show
Albany, NY — As a photonics program that's now part of NY CREATES turns five years old, it is also getting some national TV exposure.
AIM Photonics was launched in 2015 with a $110 million grant from the Department of Defense that helped to create the $610 million photonics consortium with operations in Albany and Rochester. NY CREATES is the entity that controls real estate and economic development at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
May 21, 2020
AIM Photonics featured on Prime Time
Albany, NY - AIM Photonics commercial airs on Fox Business Network this week on the following date(s) and time(s): Thursday, May 21st: 8:32 PM EST, 7:32 PM CST, 6:32 PM MST, 5:32 PM PST. Sunday evening, May 24th: 7:27 PM EST, 6:27 PM CST, 5:27 PM MST, 4:27 PM PST.
May 12, 2020
AIM Photonics collaborations targeting Covid-19 tests on a global scale
Photonics World: US researchers hope to have new sensors on silicon chips by flu season 2020; to test for Covid-19 and flu together and get results in minutes.
Rochester, NY - By Ford Burkhart: Eight weeks after it marched into the coronavirus battle, the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) has been putting together crucial new collaborations on testing by industry, the US Department of Defense (DoD), and research labs.
April 30, 2020
Photonics World highlights AIM Photonics COVID-19 countermeasures
Rochester, NY - AIM Photonics member, University of Rochester, has highlighted “critical Covid-19 work” undertaken by Dr. Benjamin Miller, AIM Photonics academic lead for Integrated Photonic sensors development, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, at University of Rochester Medical Center.
April 21, 2020
Professional societies fund future photonics technicians
Cambridge, MA - IEEE, SPIE, and OSA will support students within a new program launched in collaboration with MIT’s Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing.
AIM Working on COVID-19 testing
Rochester, NY- Rochester researchers pursue quick ways to detect COVID-19—and better understand it. Benjamin Miller: Finding the virus with optics at the nanoscale: Miller’s lab uses the optical properties of nanostructured materials to create new biosensors and diagnostic tools. The lab is developing tiny sensor chips that use coronavirus proteins to “very quickly” detect the presence of the immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin M antibodies that humans develop within two days of exposure to the virus.
April 9, 2020
Business update: photonics industry rises to Covid-19 challenge
Albany, NY - AIM Photonics business efforts highlighted in Optics.org.
April 6, 2020
AIM Photonics/Analog Photonics SiP Process Design Kit v4.0 Enhances Circuit Simulations
Synopsys and Analog Photonics are pleased to announce that a new, sign-off ready process design kit (PDK) based on Analog Photonics’ silicon photonics (SiP) design library is now available for the Synopsys PIC Design Suite, which includes the OptSim Circuit and OptoDesigner tools complemented with Synopsys’ physical verification solution IC Validator.
March 31, 2020
AIM Photonics and members RIT and AFRL produce the DoD’s first ever fully integrated Quantum Photonic Wafer
Albany, NY - The quantum photonics wafer project is led by AIM Photonics members, Air Force Research Laboratory and RIT. The wafer includes chip designs from both RIT and Air Force Research Laboratory, along with designs by collaborators at MIT, Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Army Research Laboratory, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
AIM Photonics COVID-19 efforts highlighted in LaserFocusWorld
Albany, NY - Laser Focus World's compiled list of links to optics/photonics company, university, and other institutions' statements on COVID-19 shows that safety is paramount, and the industry is crucial to solving pandemic problems.
March 4, 2020
AIM Photonics announces it will not participate in OFC 2020 due to the recent global increase of Coronavirus COVID-19.
Albany, NY - Due to the recent global increase of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), AIM Photonics will not attend the upcoming Optical Fiber Conference (OFC 2020), scheduled to take place March 8-12 in San Diego, CA.
February 13, 2020
Photonics West Show Daily highlights recent successes and acomplishments of AIM Photonics
San Francisco, CA - AIM Photonics points with pride to giant steps AIM Photonics, the huge $600 million public-private US optics consortium, based in New York state, is upbeat as it heads into its fifth year.
February 1, 2020
AIM Photonics announces speakers and sessions at Photonics West 2020
San Francisco, CA - The American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), sponsored by the Department of Defense and New York State, announced the lineup of AIM Photonics members and representatives who will be giving talks, chairing sessions, and hosting learning programs at Photonics West 2020.