The Economic Development Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has awarded a $41 million federal grant to Montana’s Headwaters Regional Technology and Innovation Hub. The Hub is a consortium of organizations including Montana State University with the goal of developing smart photonic sensing systems that can be deployed in autonomous systems and applied to critical defense, resource management, and disaster prevention applications. The grant is part of a collection of 12 that are being awarded by the Economic Development Administration to technology hubs across the U.S., totaling $504 million. A student at work in Montana State University’s Spectrum Lab. Courtesy of Montana State University. WILMINGTON, N.C. — Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a medical technologies company, is expanding its PPD clinical research business’ central laboratory operations in Kentucky. In addition to its clinical research business in Highland Heights, Ky., Thermo Fisher will expand its sample management and biorepository operations in a new 65,000-square-foot space in Covington, Ky. The company expects its $47.8 million investment to create more than 250 new jobs across the two sites over the next eight years, with renovation and construction anticipated to begin later this year. A table comparing previous wideband transmission demonstrations to the researcher’s most recent test. Courtesy of NICT. KOGANEI, Japan — An international joint research team led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has demonstrated a record-breaking aggregate optical transmission bandwidth of 37.6THz to enable a new data-rate record of 402 Tbps in a standard commercially available optical fiber. Achieved by constructing an optical transmission system covering all the transmission bands of the low-loss window of standard optical fibers, the newly developed technology is expected by the researchers to make a contribution to expand the communication capacity of the optical communication infrastructure as future data services rapidly increase demand. WASHINGTON, D.C. — NASA has selected the University of Hawaii to maintain and operate the agency’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea in Hilo, Hawaii. The contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $85.5 million. Under this contract, the University of Hawaii will provide maintenance and operation services for NASA at the telescope facility until June 30, with the potential to extend to the end of 2033. The university will also develop and implement an operations strategy so that the facility can be used by the scientific community through peer-reviewed competition to assist NASA in achieving its goals in scientific discovery, mission support, and planetary defense. HOBOKEN, N.J. — Quantum optics and nanophotonics technology company Quantum Computing Inc. has received a notice from Nasdaq Stock Market LLC that the company has failed to satisfy a standard for continued listing because the company did not timely file its quarterly report for the fiscal quarter with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has until Aug. 23 to submit a plan to regain compliance, and if accepted, NASDAQ will allow Quantum Computing until Dec. 16 to file its report. ORLANDO, Fla. — Laser Photonics Corporation (LPC), a developer of industrial laser systems, is expanding into a new 50,000 sq ft facility in Lake Mary, Fla. The facility will house LPC’s Customer Experience Center, along with a planned laser equipment training center for its customers, and added workspace for LPC’s sales and research and development teams. LPC’s previous Customer Experience Center in Maitland, Fla. will be repurposed to provide additional space for the company’s design and production operations. SAN JOSE, Calif. — Optical networking solutions supplier Infinera has expanded its partnership with APRESIA Systems, Ltd., a Japanese provider of network infrastructure solutions, through the integration of Infinera’s software-programmable ICE-X coherent pluggables into APRESIA’s portfolio of Layer 2/3 switching and optical transmission products. With this integration, APRESIA will initially target high-speed point-to-point and 100G bidirectional transport applications and offer its telecommunications service providers and cable operator customers the ability to extend the reach of high-speed optical services using Infinera ICE-X’s digital subcarrier technology. RICHARDSON, Texas — Mavenir, a cloud-native network infrastructure provider, along with network validating company VIAVI and broadband research and development lab CableLabs, have completed 3GPP security assurance testing for the RU, DU, and CU, collectively known as the gNodeB (gNB) functional security requirements defined in the 3GPP specifications. This milestone also highlights the security test efficiency gains and potential for expedited security testing cycles in future implementations of OpenRAN gNBs consisting of O-RU plus O-DU and O-CU implemented to O-RAN compliant interface specifications.