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2020 SPIE Startup Challenge semi-finals held during SPIE Photonics West on 4 February 2020, The Moscone Center San Francisco, California

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Forty-two photonics business startups from 14 countries will participate in the 2020 SPIE Startup Challenge semi-finals held during SPIE Photonics West on 4 February. On 5 February, 12 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 have been awarded to three of the semi-finalists.

The SPIE Startup Challenge, which showcases new businesses, products, and technologies that are addressing critical needs with photonics, is in its 10th year, and is enabled by Founding Partner Jenoptik; Strategic Partner LDV Capital; Lead Sponsors Edmund Optics, MKS Instruments, Hamamatsu, and B&W Tek CEO Sean Wang; and Supporting Sponsors the National Science Foundation and the Luminate Accelerator. Judges include venture capitalists and business-development experts who vet the applicants for their business case, financial case, and competitive advantages. Transformational innovations this year include neurologic therapies, single-cell imaging and printing, drug discovery, rapid cancer detection, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, and hostile-environment communications.

“Over the past ten years, we have seen many startups gain traction and flourish,” says SPIE Fellow and Jenoptik Optical Systems President Jay Kumler. “This year, the applicants are more impressive than ever. The SPIE Startup Challenge is unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit of our photonics industry.”

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 be demoing their products throughout the day on Tuesday, February 4 as part of the SPIE Venture Summit.

The Semi-finalists’ will cover four tracks: Pre-Seed Stage Deep Tech, Pre-Seed Stage Healthcare, Seed Stage Deep Tech, and Seed Stage Healthcare. A full list of all 42 of the 2020 SPIE Startup Challenge semi-finalists can be found here.

For more information and to register for SPIE Photonics West 2020, please visit: https://spie.org/pw

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 more than 255,000 constituents from 183 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2019, SPIE provided more than $5 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. www.spie.org.

The seventh annual Thrival Festival announced their speaker and topic lineup for the Innovation Summit taking place September 18 and 19, 2019, at the Carnegie Museums in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh, PA

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The event showcases the emerging technologies and industries where Pittsburgh is demonstrating leadership. Attendees will experience panels, fireside chats, keynotes, and workshops to understand all of the ways Pittsburgh is thriving. For example, during the Smart Cities session, one of eight sessions, attendees will hear about self-driving vehicles, augmented reality (AR) murals, and sustainability. Other sessions include Digital Transformations in FinTech, Health Technology, and Robotics and AI in Advanced Manufacturing.

“Pittsburgh is one of the most innovative cities in the country and the culture of PNC reflects that,” says PNC Head of Enterprise Innovation, Michael Degnan. “We recognize that we must innovate in order to fulfill our mission of making banking easier for our customers, today and well into the future. We look forward to presenting alongside — and learning from — fellow forward-thinking organizations at Thrival Festival 2019.”

Running concurrently with the Innovation Summit is an Entrepreneurship Day on Thursday, September 19. The morning session, in partnership with Innovation Works, will focus on how entrepreneurs and corporations can foster successful partnerships. During the afternoon, TiE Pittsburgh will be running educational programs and networking meetups for local entrepreneurs. The addition of the Entrepreneur Day aligns with the many Thrival corporate sponsors and speakers who run their own internal innovation programs.

“Entrepreneurs are a big driver of innovation in Pittsburgh,” says Barrie Athol, CEO of Ascender. “We are happy to provide a platform that brings entrepreneurs, universities, investors and corporations under one roof.”

For more information about Thrival, visit thrivalfestival.com. Tickets on sale at Eventbrite.

About Thrival Festival
Thrival Festival will be taking place on September 18-20, 2019 in Oakland, Pittsburgh, PA. The festival will explore innovators, artists, musicians, and creators under the theme “By Pittsburgh. For Pittsburgh. For the World.” Thrival Festival is presented by PNC and supported by UPMC Enterprises, Comcast, Sheetz, Dell, the Pittsburgh Innovation District, and many others.

SOURCE Thrival Festival