Technolink Snapshot November 2019

Dear Technolink Community Member, With Thanksgiving at the end of this month, abundance becomes our spotlight once again. We are grateful to all of you for shaping the Technolink community into such a unique and inspirational hub for cutting-edge innovators across multiple sectors throughout Southern California...with a reach that extends far beyond. On that note, I'd like to welcome Aaron Anderson and Brenden Monahan, co-Founders of Vusar, to Technolink. Vusar has recently launched their immersive visualization tool which enables teams to collaborate on product designs through the use of augmented reality. We are honored to have a submission from Aaron Anderson, CEO,  for this month's snapshot. We are also pleased to hear from Donn Silberman who reports on the tenth anniversary of the Optical Engineering and Optical Instrument Design Programs at UC Irvine. Charles Ostman, in response to our October Snapshot, reminds us that "what appears to be the future for many, is already the past for some, who are now unfolding it into the present." Please enjoy hearing from this month's insightful contributors. With heartfelt appreciation,  Ssusan Forte O'Neill Editor and Co-founder, Technolink Association

Members Shaping the Future

Aaron Anderson, CEO of Vusar, fills us in on the impact of augmented reality (AR) on the future of design. Vusar is an immersive visualization tool enables teams to collaborate on product designs throughout the product development lifecycle through the use of augmented reality.  Recently launched, Vusar allows for the viewing of designs at true scale through mobile devices, bringing designs into the real world for review in a more immersive manner. Vusar is available for download on Android and iOS. Read Anderson's essay,  "Designing the Future," here. Learn more at vusar.co

Donn Silberman, Technolink Sponsor and Founding Director of the Optics Institute of Southern California, started the Optical Engineering and Optical Instrument Design Programs at UC Irvine 10 years ago and they have grown stronger ever since. Over the years, they have added new courses, new instructors, received awards and honors and had many students complete their studies, receive their certificates and get promoted in their current companies or get new jobs using their new skills.  These programs were established to fill industry needs for workers with the requisite skills and to date there have been the following numbers of students in the two programs: Optical Engineering:  62 Graduates; 23 Candidates Optical Instrument Design: 17 Graduates; 9 Candidates More students have taken one or more courses without declaring their candidacy for a certificate. Recently, an article was written about the programs by Kathy Seaton Tam, the communications specialist for the Dean of Continuing Education and Vice Provost of Career Pathways at the UC Irvine Division of Continuing Education and was published in Photonics Spectra magazine. Please click here to read the article. For more information about the Optical Engineering and Optical Instrument Design Program at UCI, please watch this Informational Session webinar.

Charles Ostman, a long time member of Technolink and a senior fellow at the Institute for Global Futures, wrote in after reading Doug Finke's piece on Quantum Computing. Ostman has spent over 25 years working in the fields of electronics, physics, computers, artificial intelligence, and most recently, various aspects of applied and theoretical Nanotechnology. Ostman agrees that quantum tech is becoming the most significant evolutionary catalyst ever encountered. "In our emergent future history, quantum computing  is much more than merely a 'faster' computer. " says Ostman,  "As I see it, we are stepping into uncharted territory, in which the human species here on earth is being morphed into a symbiotic co-evolutionary relationship with non-human forms of 'intelligence', enhancements, and systems which behave biologically." The task now is to visualize how this quantum tech fits into the larger framework of emergent (and irreversible) changes for which there is no known precedent. Please visit Charles Ostman's website here.