OPTEC Stars in Successful Montana Research Initiative Tour

OpTeC presentation area during MREDI tour on September 27th On September 27th and 28th the Montana university system hosted a review of the Montana Research & Economic Development Initiative (MREDI) that began in 2015. Research programs under MSU’s Optical Technology Center (OpTeC) program played a starring role in the tour, which was attended by legislators, regents, and business leaders. Following the tour OpTeC’s Director, Dr. Joe Shaw, reported that “I repeatedly heard comments about how impressed the visitors were with our Optics and Photonics presentation. The things most often cited as things the legislators, regents, and business leaders were most impressed with included the following:

• the presence of the companies;
• the clear commercial potential of our research;
• the partnership between the Engineering and Agriculture colleges;
• the layout and design of our presentation (the room, the graphics-rich posters, the eyes- and hands-on demos)”

Later in the tour program one of the University of Montana researchers commented that OpTeC was “clearly the gold standard” of MREDI projects. Congratulations to Joe Shaw and all of the faculty, students, and MPIA member companies who contributed to the recent MREDI tour and ongoing research programs. About the MREDI Program Recently the Montana university system received an appropriation of $15M in state funds from the 2015 Montana Legislature to serve as seed money to leverage university-based research into strategic advancements for Montana’s economy. The fundamental purpose of this research initiative is to: (1) solve Montana problems with Montana solutions; (2) create good Montana private-sector jobs, and/or; (3) grow emerging and important research sectors that contribute to the diversity of Montana’s economy. To learn more about the Montana university system research initiative, click here to visit an overview webpage. To learn more about the Optics & Photonics program, click here. To access the September 2016 Research Tour booklet, including a concise summary of all programs, click here.