Fifth Annual Optica Innovation School Brings Together Innovators in Optics
Ashley Collier and Leah Poffenberger, Corporate Communications
Innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial for the long-term development of the optics industry. The fifth annual Optica Foundation Innovation School gathered together 40 innovators who are driven by impact. Over the course of four days at Optica’s headquarters, early-career optics professionals collaborated in eight teams to develop business ideas, culminating in a pitch and a prize for the winning innovation. The in-person program was accompanied by presentations led by CEOs, entrepreneurs and innovation leaders in the optics and photonics industry.
Early-career professionals gathered at Optica HQ for the Innovation School
Attendees benefit from working in diverse groups—typically made up of other early-career optics professionals that they’ve just met—and learning from mentors, who are typically past students of the Innovation School, to build their skills for pitching ideas, building products and launching companies. They also have a valuable opportunity to attend interactive presentations with key members of the optics and photonics industry. Among the speakers sharing their insight this year were: Jennifer Cable, President of Thorlabs; Brandon Collings, Chief Technology of Lumentum; and Magnus Bengtsson, Senior Vice President, Industrial Lasers at Coherent.
Jennifer Cable, ThorLabs, Inc.
Cable kicked off the keynotes on the first day of the Innovation School, describing how Thorlabs grew from its beginnings in a garage to a global company. A core tenant of Thorlabs’ success, since its founding in 1989, has been meeting customer needs in a quick and cost-effective manner.
Thorlabs was founded by Cable’s father, Alex, while he was a technician at Bell Labs. At the time, sourcing equipment for optical tables was difficult and expensive, with few companies willing to sell equipment in the small amounts needed by researchers. Thorlabs was born out of the elder Cable’s desire to bring value to this corner of the market with high-quality, inexpensive, made-to-order offerings for optical engineers and researchers. The very first Thorlabs product was a metal clamp, machined in Cable’s garage in Newton, New Jersey. Today, their catalog features more than 20,000 products manufactured by Thorlabs or provided through partnerships with vendors, curated for the needs of their global customer base.
Cable discussed the concept of a value tree to give attendees a framework for how to price products, based on a consumer’s need and willingness to pay. Thorlabs has long focused on their customer’s needs and values over achieving a top price, building rapport with their customer base through quality and fun. Cable also provided insight on what large companies like Thorlabs look for when acquiring small companies, like startups: Thorlabs looks for how an acquisition would mutually benefit both companies and bring value to the optics industry.
Brandon Collings, Lumentum
Responsible for defining and driving the product and technology roadmaps and strategies at Lumentum, Chief Technology Officer Brandon Collings, shared with Innovation School attendees how a multinational company in the optics industry embraces innovation from within and pushes it out into the ecosystem. Collings’ professional experiences in the optics industry helped shaped his approaches to innovation and how Lumentum approaches international marketing from the standpoint of innovation.
After graduating with his Ph.D. from Princeton University, Collings continued onto Lucent Technologies’ Bell Laboratories research group. Collings credits Bell Labs as the place where he and former colleagues revolutionized how optical transport technologies, beginning his entrepreneurial career path. When the optical communications bubble burst in 2001, Collings took what he had learned during his time at Bell Labs to a start-up called Internet Photonics.
Internet Photonics was launched in 2002 to develop optical Ethernet and 10G bit/sec metro transport systems. By the time Ciena purchased Internet Photonics in 2004, six of the top ten U.S. cable operators were using Internet Photonics' transport and switching systems to achieve the 'triple-play' of bundled services, as well as video-on-demand, voice-over-IP and HDTV. The company’s notable customers included Cablevision, Adelphia, as well as carriers such as TDS Metrocom. The growth of Internet Photonics in such a short amount of time shaped how Collings viewed customer engagement around technology adoption. Collings then joined JDSU Communication and Commercial Optical Products business unit, which separated to become Lumentum in August 2015.
Throughout his presentation, Collings challenged attendees to understand the difference between innovation and invention. He describes invention as creating something new and novel. In comparison, he defines innovation as an improvement on something existing or a fix to a problem that will bring someone value. Collings noted that many innovations start off as solutions to a specific problem and pivot quickly to broad industry adoption.
Collings’ advice to would-be innovators is to find a person or company with a specific problem that you have the skills to fix. He ties this back to his early days with Lumentum, where his team earned quick success with customers in the telecommunications market. Today, they continue to innovate and develop new markets for their products in adjacent industries.
Magnus Bengtsson, Coherent
Bengtsson joined the Innovation School for an interactive keynote breaking down various markets within optics and how to work with other companies in creating consumer products. With 25 years of experience in the industry, starting as an engineer and moving through other company roles such as sales, Bengtsson brought a wealth of knowledge on the different roles an engineer or scientist could play in a company like Coherent. He also applied his industry know-how as a judge for the Innovation School’s pitches.
Coherent has several core markets, including microelectronics and science research. Bengtsson stressed the importance of knowing what market a company sells in to, as consumers within that market have different needs. For instance, in the research market, consumers typically look for any improvement on performance, while other markets might prioritize a product being “good enough” overpaying for a more expensive product. Bengtsson also described the process of working in the microelectronics space, which requires working with many different companies and technologies on the way to a product being integrated into a consumer product. Developing a relationship with other companies in this process is key, according to Bengtsson, to share different areas of knowledge.
Bengtsson also broke down the types of roles that early-career attendees at the Innovation School could take in industry to apply technical knowledge in a company. He described roles in research and development, sales, applications and marketing and the type of technical knowledge, problem-solving and collaboration with customers required for each area.
OPN Feature
The Optica Innovation School was featured in the latest issue of Optics and Photonics News. Read “The Innovation School Turns Five” to learn more about this unique event. Applications for next year’s school will open in June 2023. We hope to see you there!
Optica Foundation
Established in 2002, the Optica Foundation carries out charitable activities in support of the society’s student and early career communities. We cultivate the next generation of leaders and innovators as they navigate advanced degree programs and become active members of research, engineering and business worldwide. The foundation also works to secure the endowments for Optica’s awards and honors programs. The foundation is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. For more information, visit optica.org/foundation.
