2019 SPIE Startup Challenge Semi-Finalists to Showcase Photonics Innovations in Healthcare, Lasers, Wearables, and IoT

BELLINGHAM, Wash. and CARDIFF, United Kingdom, Jan. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirty-five photonics business startups from seven countries will participate in the 2019 SPIE Startup Challenge semi-finals, held during SPIE Photonics West on 5 February. On 6 February, six finalists will compete for cash prizes from Jenoptik as well as for business support from Challenge partners and sponsors. Prizes include $10,000 for first place as well as $5,000 in products from Edmund Optics; $5,000 for second place; and $2,500 for third place. In addition, Early-stage Entrepreneurship travel grants will be awarded to three of the semi-finalists.

The SPIE Startup Challenge, which showcases new businesses that are addressing critical needs with photonics, is in its 9(th) year, and is enabled by Founding Partner Jenoptik, Lead Sponsors Edmund Optics, Thorlabs, and B&W Tek CEO Sean Wang, and Supporting Sponsors Trumpf and the Luminate Accelerator. Judges at every stage include venture capitalists and business-development experts who vet the applicants for their business case, financial case, and competitive advantages. The innovations to be presented this year range from improvements in prostate-cancer care and early detection of retinal diseases, to revolutionary, speedy 3D printing technology and commercial quantum technology for secure communication links.

SPIE Fellow and President of Jenoptik Jay Kumler was impressed with the caliber of the applicants and is looking forward to seeing the live pitches: "Jenoptik is excited to see the Startup Challenge growing with more teams and a real diversity of applications," he said. "We are proud to support this international event that showcases the power of optics and photonics to solve important problems, an event that also enables investors to engage with entrepreneurs who have the talent, passion and ideas to change our world!"

Both the semi-finals and finals of this exciting pitching competition are open to anyone with a free Photonics West exhibition registration. Semi-finalists will also pitch their products on the Photonics West exhibit floor's Startup Alley on 7 February.

The Semi-finalists' areas of innovation cover three tracks; team leads for the pitches are bolded below.

Track 1 - Biophotonics and Point-of-Care Technologies

    --  Avenda Health, USA, Brittany Berry-Pusey: Avenda Health is treating
        prostate cancer in the clinic while preserving quality of life.
    --  CYBO, Inc., Japan, Nao Nitta: Intelligent image-activated cell sorting
        (IACS) works as a Rosetta Stone for single cell biology, which
        integrates discoveries from microscopy, cytometry, and molecular
        biology.
    --  EarlySight, Switzerland, Mathieu Künzi: Imaging early signs of retinal
        diseases.
    --  Falcon Photonics, USA, Renan Moreira: Painless skin cancer diagnostics
        through integrated optics.
    --  Kilo Medical Solutions LLC, USA, Kashyap Venuthurupalli: Brise-Solette
        is the first integrated technology solution that addresses light stimuli
        for isolettes to keep premature babies safe and reduce costs.
    --  Leuko Labs, USA, Carlos Castro Gonzalez: The first non-invasive
        white-cell monitoring device to improve quality of life and outcomes in
        chemotherapy patients.
    --  LightSpeed Microscopy, Inc., USA, Nicholas Reder: Bringing pathology
        into the 21st Century with open-top, light-sheet microscopy.
    --  LiveFocus LLC, USA, Hanyang Huang: LiveFocus puts an affordable mobile
        whole-slide scanner in the hand of individual pathologists to streamline
        their workflow.
    --  Qsensus, LLC, USA, Abraham Qavi: Qsensus has developed a technology to
        drastically improve the performance of conventional ultrasound imaging.
    --  Thericon, Germany, Nikolaos Deliolanis: Real-time, multispectral imaging
        delivers information to surgeons which is unavailable with conventional
        endoscopes, improving surgical outcome.

Track 2 - Imaging, Displays, Lasers, & Semiconductors

    --  Arovia, USA, Alex Wesley: Arovia gives you the freedom to do more in
        more places by, ultimately, creating a pocketable, full-size TV.
    --  Eagle Photonics, Japan, Chao Zhang: Design innovative solutions to
        contribute to the emerging 3D revolution, providing high-precision 3D
        laser scanners and high-definition 3D data.
    --  e-skin Display Inc., USA, Nagendra Nagarajayya: Developed e-skin Paint,
        the world's first full-color, structural color paint.
    --  H24E Innova Ltd., United Kingdom, Tadashi Kubo: Develop and sell a H2
        generator that uses an ultra-short pulse laser with photocatalyst that
        splits water into hydrogen more efficiently than electrolysis.
    --  Magtera, Inc., USA, Boris Tankhilevich: Magtera is enabling practical
        use of the entire terahertz spectrum with the first low cost, chip-scale
        laser, tunable across the full terahertz band.
    --  Nanograss Solar LLC, USA, Pouya Dianat: Patented technology solves a
        bottleneck in ultra-fast tele/data communications by reducing overall
        $-per-bit of information for network operators.
    --  Oblate Optics Inc., USA, Rajesh Menon: By getting rid of 99.99% of the
        weight of IR optics, we enable ultra-lightweight cameras for UAVs,
        satellites, soldiers.
    --  Opto Biolabs, Germany, Kathrin Brenker: Opto Biolabs' core product is a
        temperature-controlled LED illumination device that allows the analysis
        of optogenetic experiments in a flow cytometer.
    --  Optomel, United Kingdom, Damian Gardiner: Optomel allows innovators to
        grow new volume photonic markets through our flexible, scalable and
        cost-enabling reflective optical filter technology.
    --  PolarNon, Switzerland, Mariia Timofeeva: PolarNon is a fully automated
        polarimetric multiphoton microscope targeted for non-destructive
        characterization of materials and components for the optoelectronic and
        semiconductor industry.
    --  Radiance 4D, USA, Hossein Heidari: A revolutionary 3D printing
        technology inspired by tomography prints the entire 3D volume of an
        object at once, unlike slow, layer-based alternatives.
    --  Refined Laser Systems, Germany, Maximilian Brinkmann: High-speed tunable
        lasers, continuously tunable across 700nm in under 5ms. Compact,
        maintenance-free and portable due to our patented all-fiber setup.
    --  Skyphos Industries Inc., USA, Elliot McAllister: Make it in minutes not
        months: go direct to production with Skyphos 3D printing for uFluidics,
        POC/diagnostics, IVD & liquid handling.
    --  Trestle Optics, USA, Adam Hanninen: Specializes in extending the
        performance and availability of commercial optical components from the
        visible to the mid-infrared (MIR).

Track 3 - Sensors, Wearables, and Internet of Things

    --  Biorasis, Inc., USA, Allen Legassey: Developed the smallest and most
        accurate, continuous, glucose-monitoring system to vastly improve the
        quality of life of diabetics and restore their active lifestyle.
    --  CURVE-ONE, France, Emmanuel Hugot: The development of curved sensors is
        a bio-inspired approach. Mimicking the eye retina, this new technology
        will impact every future imaging system.
    --  Dermadiagnostics, USA, Eydis Lima: A noninvasive, wearable patch that
        allows for better detection of high-risk biomarkers leading to early
        detection of malignant gynecologic cancer.
    --  Kaia Corp., USA, Umit Kaya: Measuring fluid behavior and characteristics
        for microscale channels of microfluidic chips and lab-on-a-chip
        applications.
    --  Laclarée, France, Bruno Berge: Laclarée offers presbyopes to retrieve
        natural-focusing and pre-presbyopic vision with patented adaptive
        eyeglasses meeting aesthetic standards.
    --  Max-IR Labs, USA, Katy Roodenko: Max-IR Labs develops infrared sensors
        for biochemical analysis, from water quality monitoring to urinalysis.
    --  Nanoscope Technologies LLC, USA, Bahram Jozi: NS Drag-In is an
        artificially intelligent, affordable, portable, plug and play, easy to
        use modular multifunctional optical micro-manipulator sensor.
    --  Qunnect LLC, USA, Mael Flament: Qunnect has developed the world's first
        commercial photonic-atomic quantum technology for inter-city
        ultra-secure quantum communication links.
    --  SaNoor Technologies, Saudi Arabia, Chao Shen: SaNoor's high-speed laser
        transceiver-based LiFi system enables 100,000x faster data communication
        links between underwater devices.
    --  Senorics, Germany, Ronny Timmreck: Senorics' disruptive NIR-detector
        technology transfers NIR-spectroscopy from the lab to a widespread
        mass-market tool for industry and consumers.
    --  Unistellar, USA, Franck Marchis: Unistellar is reinventing astronomy
        with the Enhanced Vision Telescope, a combination of optics and
        image-processing technology making astronomy fun.

For more information and to register for SPIE Photonics West 2019, please visit: https://spie.org/pw

Editors: In 2019, SPIE's Photonics West will host an estimated 23,000 registered attendees, 1,350 exhibitors, and more than 5,200 papers. Along with 14 professional-development sessions and 70+ courses covering everything from Laser Sources to Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics, Photonics West also hosts the largest job fair for optical engineering, 5-6 February.

About SPIE

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves 257,000 constituents from 173 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2018, SPIE provided more than $4 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. www.spie.org.

Contact:

Daneet Steffens
Public Relations Manager
daneets@spie.org
+1 360 685 5478
@SPIEtweets

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2019-spie-startup-challenge-semi-finalists-to-showcase-photonics-innovations-in-healthcare-lasers-wearables-and-iot-300775307.html

SOURCE SPIE