University’s largest project in its history will study life’s origin

UA wins $800M NASA contract

By Tom Beal and Becky Pallack Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, May 26, 2011 12:00 am

NASA has chosen the University of Arizona to head up an $800 million robotic space mission that will visit an asteroid and extract a sample that could provide clues to the origin of life on Earth.

The ancient asteroid, dating from the beginning of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, should be brimming with the precursors of organic life, said Michael Drake, principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission and head of the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

It will be the largest project ever led by the UA and will keep generations of researchers and students engaged in uncovering clues to the beginnings of life, Drake said.

Biotech firm HTG raises capital to increase workforce, expand

By David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, May 19, 2011 12:00 am

For more than a decade, homegrown biotech firm High Throughput Genomics Inc. has been focused on providing genetic testing materials and related services for drug research.

Now, the company has a new name – HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. – that reflects a new focus to move its technology closer to patients, with new testing products to help diagnose patients and target treatment based on genetic markers.

With a fresh round of venture-capital financing, the company also is in expansion mode.

HTG is in the process of more than doubling the size of its facilities on Tucson‘s south side and plans to increase its current workforce of about 30 people by at least half in the next year, President and CEO T.J. Johnson said.

Firm offers super-fast lasers, more

Rikki Mitchell Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, May 13, 2011 12:00 am

Try imagining something that happens in one ten-thousandth of a billionth of a second.

That’s the speed of an ultra-short-pulse laser that a local startup company is working to produce.

Stephen McCahon and Brad House started Applied Optical Sciences in April 2010 with the idea that they wanted to develop technology that in three to five years would be on the cutting edge.

The company develops photonic devices like the ultra-short-pulse laser, which can be used in a variety of applications such as precision drilling and also in the medical field as a precise laser scalpel, said McCahon, president.

“The applications are growing dramatically for ultra-short-pulse lasers and the technology associated with them,” he said. “It has taken about 20 years to move them out of the laboratory for everyday use and you’re just starting to see that right now.”

Purpose is to disrupt incoming missiles with a laser beam

Raytheon vies to build aircraft-defense system

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 12:00 am

Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has entered a crowded competition to develop a new aircraft-defense system that can disrupt incoming missiles with a laser beam.

Raytheon recently submitted its bid to become the prime contractor for the U.S Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) program, which is potentially worth more than $1.5 billion.

At least four other defense companies, including BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman, have submitted proposals for the CIRCM program.

Later this year, the Army is expected to pick at least two contractors to further compete in a 21-month technology development phase. The winner in that phase will develop a production version of its system for deployment by 2016.

Arizona Daily Star

Global Solar vaults to production top 10

Posted: Monday, May 9, 2011 12:00 am

A 450 percent increase in production vaulted Tucson-based Global Solar Energy Inc. into the ranks of the world’s top 10 producers of thin-film photovoltaic cells in 2010, according to the industry magazine Photon International.

Global Solar ranked 16th in 2009. The world’s biggest thin-film maker, First Solar Inc., is based in Tempe.

At a glance

• Thin-film photovoltaics use thin layers of semiconductors to generate electricity from sunlight. Global Solar uses copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS); First Solar uses cadmium telluride (CdTe).

• Thin-film cell production is growing, but crystalline silicon-based cells accounted for more than three-fourths of cell shipments in 2009, says the U.S. Department of Energy.

Money intended to make products ready for market by September

6 local tech startups win grants

Rikki Mitchell Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, May 6, 2011 12:00 am

More than 100 startup technology companies applied for the Arizona Commerce Authority’s Innovation challenge, but only eight received money – and six of those are in Tucson.

Out of the $1.5 million awarded statewide, Tucson companies received just over $1 million to help bring their technology closer to commercialization.

The grant is designed so that the companies must have a product ready by the end of September.

“It’s recognition on a very big scale,” said Joann MacMaster, director of the Arizona Center for Innovation.

Here are the six local companies and what they are working on with the award:

1. MSDx Inc.

Awarded $226,495.

Diversity of products helps offset losses, Lawrence tells Star

Raytheon chief upbeat despite recent setbacks

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, May 1, 2011 12:00 am

On Taylor Lawrence’s first day as president of Raytheon Missile Systems nearly three years ago, his greeting to the staff over the headquarters’ public-address system included congratulations on success in a key flight test of a new mobile Army missile.

A few months later, that advanced-mobile-missile program was canceled, along with two other major Raytheon developmental programs. The company laid off about 225 salaried workers in April 2010, citing in part the program losses.

Pressure on Raytheon and other major defense contractors has only increased, with the Pentagon cutting programs, putting more next-generation weapon programs out for competitive bid and demanding cost-reduction strategies.

Local firm has hand in hot retirement app

Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, May 1, 2011 12:00 am

If you’d like to see how far your investments will stretch during retirement, the free Retire Logix iPhone app will do the trick for you. Take it from Money Magazine.

In its newest issue, the magazine named the app as the 25th-best money move in its “100 Best Money Moves” list.

The app comes from Finance Logix, a tech-savvy financial planning firm based in Tucson and Seattle. The appearance on the list has Finance Logix CEO and founder Oleg Tishkevich grinning. The software has been downloaded more than 10,000 times in its first month of availability.

“My head’s still spinning. It’s pretty amazing,” Tishkevich said in a phone interview from Seattle, where he’s lived since 2004. “We haven’t gotten a lot of enterprise contacts calling us about that yet, but (the response) is pretty impressive. Our niche is financial planning software.”