Osceola County consortium for sensors, optics, and photonics now named BRIDG

March 8, 2017

The International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research (ICAMR) will now officially do business as BRIDG.

The International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research (ICAMR) will now officially do business as BRIDG (http://GoBRIDG.com), an acronym that captures the central mission of the innovative technology collective "Bridging the Innovation Development Gap." Leaders say the new name better stands for what they do: connect researchers and industry to accelerate the development of emerging technologies.

BRIDG is an industry led consortium for advanced sensors, optics, and photonics and other advanced manufacturing devices, focusing on the development of innovative manufacturable processes, materials, and equipment for next-generation smart sensors and other future high-tech products.

Supported by Osceola County, the University of Central Florida, and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, BRIDG "bridges" the innovation development gap that makes commercialization possible and is initially targeting the mega-growth technologies that will lead to over 50 billion smart sensors and imagers predicted by 2020, transforming the way humans interact with the world every day.

The BRIDG partners now range from a Belgium-based leading international hub in nanoelectronics and digital technology to a home-grown photonics and smart sensor developer. "We're entering a new phase of this project that will transform Osceola County and Florida's economy, giving us a competitive advantage over advanced, nano-scale manufacturing centers around the globe, and our new identity reflects that," said Chester Kennedy, CEO for BRIDG.

In addition to the new name for the consortium, Osceola County has renamed the 500 acre master-planned site where the consortium is headquartered from the Osceola Tech Farm to NeoCity. Osceola County leaders say the name signals a new horizon for the region's high-tech economy, and the site will be more than a traditional research park with its community connections and surrounding natural landscape.

The 109,000 square foot NeoCity will offer partners and others the opportunity to share equipment and conduct research needed to profitably access the next-generation sensor economy. State lawmakers approved $15 million toward the project last spring, and, in a major announcement in July, Belgian nanotechnology firm imec announced its partnership and plans to build its research and development design center at NeoCity, in collaboration with BRIDG. Other major partners include Harris Corporation, Argonne National Laboratories, Kissimmee-based Photon-X, Florida International University, University of South Florida, and University of Florida, among others.

SOURCE: BRIDG; http://icamr.net/documents/BRIDG_PressRelease_01-17-17.pdf

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.