Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania hosted a working session event at Ben Franklin TechVentures in Bethlehem on Nov. 13 that brought together regional leaders and Advancing Photonics Technologies (APT) representatives to discuss photonics, the generation, detection and manipulation of light.
APT is a regional photonics collaboration in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware that comprises community colleges, universities, technology accelerators, industry partners, startup development organizations, work force development programs and government agencies. It facilitates and funds research, innovation and work force development with the mission of strengthening national security and defense, advancing photonics manufacturing, bolstering supply chain resiliency, and increasing access to quality jobs.
Photonics are used in multiple industries including advanced manufacturing, communications, consumer electronics, energy systems and medical devices.
Angelo Valletta, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania president and CEO, spoke about Ben Franklin’s commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration. APT representatives spoke about the collaboration’s strategic objectives and theory of change and shared how it is collecting feedback to identify the general areas where regional partners can help advance use-inspired research, technology translation and work force development.
The experts also discussed the urgent need to build a more robust talent pipeline to support photonics’ growth.