Tucson tech: Despite award-winning tech, DMetrix is forced to retool

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 12:00 am

DMetrix Inc. is proof that great technology doesn’t always turn into a torrent of money.

DMetrix, a 2001 spinoff of University of Arizona optics and telemedicine technology, has technology that is arguably among the best in its class.

Co-founded by five UA scientists, including former UA optics associate professor Michael Descour and Dr. Ronald Weinstein, a UA pathology professor and founding director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program, the company has 25 patents for its ultra-high-resolution technology for medical microscopy.

The technology uses a patented, multiplexed microscope lens array – think of the multifaceted eyes of a housefly – to capture wide-field images of tissue samples on special imaging chips, with special software to process the images.

Donations expected to ease long-term research, outreach at one-of-a-kind ‘closed world’

UA gets Biosphere, $20 million as gifts

By Becky Pallack Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:00 am

The company that bought Biosphere 2 four years ago is donating it to the University of Arizona.

CDO Ranching & Development is giving the university 40 acres of land that hold the Biosphere 2 scientific facilities, a conference center and other buildings on the Biosphere campus north of Tucson near the town of Oracle.

“We just hope it’s very successful and can be, after all these years, everything it was envisioned to be from the beginning,” said Martin Bowen, managing partner of CDO Ranching.

Although not an official appraisal, the gift is valued at at least $100 million. The replacement value is more than $1 billion.

Supervisors united in support; nearby residents opposed

300-acre solar farm west of Tucson Mtns. is OK’d

By Rhonda Bodfield Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:00 am

The Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a vast solar energy farm west of the Tucson Mountains that was pitched as a linchpin for the area’s ability to lure such commercial ventures in the future.

The project, by FRV Tucson Solar, pitted heavyweights in the business community against nearby residents, who said the roughly 300-acre project with thousands of photovoltaic solar panels wasn’t compatible with their neighborhood.

“This project is not a bad project, but it is in a terrible location,” argued Rick Westfall, whose property is next to the proposed site. With the huge business community turnout supporting the project, Westfall characterized the fight as one between David and Goliath – adding that he wasn’t naive enough to think his side was likely to win.

Tucson-based Raytheon unit touts first test of small guided bomb

Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Monday, June 20, 2011 2:31 pm

Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has completed its first flight test of the Small Diameter Bomb II since winning a U.S. Air Force contract to develop the weapon last year, the company announced at the Paris Air Show.

During the test earlier this year using a control test vehicle, a U.S. Air Force F-15E released an SDB II in flight. After safely separating from the aircraft, the weapon deployed its wings and performed a series of preprogrammed maneuvers, meeting all test objectives, Raytheon said.

The Air Force awarded Raytheon the contract to make the next-generation small guided bomb last August. The contract was worth $450 million initially and potentially billions of dollars over the program’s life. Raytheon’s GBU-53/B design for the Small Diameter Bomb II program was picked over a competing design by a team made up of Boeing Co. — prime contractor for the first-generation Small Diameter Bomb — and Lockheed Martin.

News & Notes

Arizona Daily Star

Posted: Friday, June 17, 2011 12:00 am-TMC gets top rating for use of e-records

Tucson Medical Center has received the highest rating for adoption of electronic medical record-keeping from a national ratings group.

The Stage 7 Award that TMC received from HIMSS Analytics represents the highest rating for use of the EMR Adoption Model, which is used to track electronic record-keeping progress at hospitals and health systems.

TMC is the only hospital in Arizona to win Stage 7 recognition, and it is one of 57 hospitals, or 1 percent of the more than 5,000 hospitals in the HIMSS database, to reach the top level.

The hospital will be recognized for the award next February at the annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.

HIMSS Analytics is a nonprofit subsidiary of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

News & Notes

Arizona Daily Star

Posted: Friday, June 17, 2011 12:00 am

TUCSON

TEP is ranked sixth for added solar in ’10

Tucson Electric Power Co. ranked sixth in the nation last yeasr for per-capita additions to its solar energy generating systems, according to a report released by the Solar Electric Power Association.

In 2010, TEP added 29.7 watts of solar generating capacity per customer. That was just behind the per-capita capacity added by Pacific Gas & Electric, the large Southern California utility that ranks as the top U.S. solar power producer. Silicon Valley Power, a municipal utility serving about 52,000 customers, topped SEPA’s per-capita rankings for 2010 with 39.9 watts per customer.

TEP ranked 14th in total solar capacity added last year.

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News & Notes

Posted: Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:00 am

Arizona Daily Star

Raytheon buys NM firm, adds it to Tucson unit

Raytheon Co. has acquired Ktech Corp., a power engineering company based in Albuquerque.

Ktech, which has about 330 employees, will remain in Albuquerque and become part of Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Raytheon said the move will help it expand its capabilities and opportunities in the “non-kinetic effects” markets, which include directed-energy weapons.

Ktech’s compact pulsed-power systems, along with its high-efficiency magnetron technology, will enable increased use of directed-energy weapons on combat platforms, Raytheon said.

Raytheon missile program faces $435M funding cut

By David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:00 am

A key Raytheon missile program is facing major cuts in Congress amid significant production delays.

The House Appropriations Committee passed a $649 billion defense spending bill Tuesday that would slash fiscal 2012 procurement of the latest version of Raytheon’s Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).

Overall, the House committee endorsed reducing President Obama’s $530 billion base defense budget by no more than $9 billion, while boosting ground-combat vehicles and special operations programs. The Senate has yet to act on its version of the defense spending bill.

Among the biggest cuts, the bill proposes a $435 million reduction of a $498 million request for the AIM-120D AMRAAM, made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems. The company is as much as six months behind schedule delivering the missile to the Air Force and Navy, according to service data.