Introduction
In this edition of the Industry Engagement column, we talk with Dalma Novak, the current Chair of the Photonics Society’s Industry Engagement Committee.
What is your current professional job?
I am VP of Engineering at Octane Wireless which is located in Hanover, Maryland. We are a small …
“If you want to be leading the world, you have to be learning,” states David Perring, Director of Research, Fosway Group as part of the recently published LinkedIn Learning report on “The Transformation of L&D”.
Learning and Development (L&D) is defined by the Association for Talent …
The success of a high-tech startup will depend very strongly on the strength of its team. This is a self-evident truth. It is true for all companies, of any size, but it is particularly true for smaller organizations that are in the early stages of …
Introduction
In the United States, the U S. Small Business Administration (SBA) works to ignite change and spark action so small businesses can confidently start, grow, expand, or recover. The Technology Program at the SBA helps to strengthen and expand the competitiveness of U.S. small high-technology …
1. Introduction
Time management is a never-ending topic, and while there are lots of articles on the internet focusing on work-life balance, early career professionals (ECPs) seem to have some unique challenges in comparison to their more established counterparts, this is further amplified when an ECP …
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Startups, particularly tech startups, have been having a golden time, with some stellar success stories. It is easy to feel like you just missed the next Facebook (Meta?), Uber, Tesla or Amazon, with regards to being an early stakeholder, envious of those lucky first …
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is a strategic planning technique that can provide an organization or a person with significant insight regarding favorable or unfavorable factors (both internal and external) that affect their business or project. It is a tried-and-true tool of strategic analysis that has been used by many types of organizations, such as commercial enterprises, nonprofit organizations, government entities and individuals, to help them evaluate their current strategic position and how to develop in a positive direction. SWOT analysis is also extremely helpful for startup companies as part of their business planning process. It will help define and communicate the business strategy, so that you start off on the right foot and the team knows the direction that it is heading.
The ability to write meaningful and successful proposals is a
key skill for those enjoying the adventures of life at a photonics
startup—whether they take the shape of a business plan to be
presented to investors, a product development plan to be presented
to commercial customers or a technology research plan
to be presented to government customers, all proposals share
the same elements for success.
It’s the sixth year of co-founding my startup, Baraja, and as we prepare to roll out incredible photonic technologies for the next generation in high-performance LIDAR, I have to admit, sheepishly: I don’t know how I ended up here.
Part 2 of last month’s Industry Engagement. The repetition of production processes is typically driven by economics and the confidence of the development cycle, not the next novel feature or cool science. Most development engineers seek to change the product or service and implement new capability or new designs. Production engineers seek to satisfy the minimum requirements necessary to create the most product, at the highest yield, in the least time interval, while meeting quality specifications established by customer requirements or development engineering. Good manufacturing engineers have a sense of profit and loss and know that production velocity can keep inventory and work-in-process, (WIP), low for better financial results. Good development engineers understand the customer requirements and schedules established by marketing and business development along with a deep knowledge of the technology available to improve the function and cost of the product line.
