Optical Research Names Design Contest Winners

Optical Research Associates of Pasadena, Calif., has announced the winners of its annual Student Optical Design Competition, in which awards totaling $4000 are granted. The allotments are presented to students in North America who are working toward bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees and who use the company’s Code V or LightTools software in optical design or engineering research.

Recipients of the top prizes in the 2005 competition are doctoral candidates Erik Anderson at Stanford University in California, for his work on imaging optics for a colonoscope, and Eric Tremblay at the University of California, San Diego, for his research work on an ultrathin folded imager.

Also receiving recognition were several master’s degree candidates: Supraja Murali at CREOL/College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida in Orlando, for the design and optimization of a dynamic focusing microscope objective; Craig Pansing at the College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, in Tucson, for the optimization of illumination schemes in a head-mounted display integrated with an eye-tracker; and Chenlu Zhang at the Lighting Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., for his work on Umbrella, an LED parking lot fixture.