Wilmington, Mass.-based Ksaria Corp., a manufacturer of fiber optic cables for military, aeronautical and harsh environment applications, has been awarded a Navy contract to develop two product solutions for testing and repairing fiber optic cables deployed in harsh military environments. These new products include measurement quality jumpers, used to test fiber optic links, and military-grade splicing tools to repair broken fiber optic cables. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. . . . Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, Texas, has appointed Sam Coursen as vice president and chief information officer (CIO). Formerly CIO of NCR Corp., Coursen will oversee Freescale's strategic, operational and financial information technology infrastructure. Freescale also named Kurt Twining, formerly southwest region general manager for the Hay Group, as senior vice president of human resources. . . . The nanotechnology group of Hitachi High Technologies America Inc., headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., will host its third annual free nanotechnology seminars in three different cities during the week of Oct. 17-21. The first daylong seminar will be on Monday, Oct. 17, at the Omni Hotel at Southpark in Austin, Texas. The series will be repeated in Albany, N.Y., on Wednesday, Oct. 19, and in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 21. All seminars are free and will feature presentations by microscopy experts and scientists. Researchers and application engineers from Hitachi High-Technologies in Japan will discuss recent developments in nanotechnology and semiconductor processing trends. Participants in Texas and New York will learn about advanced semiconductor technology developments, while life science, biotech and materials science professionals will learn about the latest trends in analytical microscopy and nanostructures at the California seminar. For more information, visit: www.hitachi-hta.com