The Center for Entrepreneurship, the Institute of Optics, and Industrial Associates hosted a momentous occasion on October 13, 2013, at the University of Rochester. This year celebrates 60 years since Tropel was founded in Fairport, N.Y. by Robert E. Hopkins, James Anderson, and John Evans, all of whom were associated with the University’s Institute of Optics. Did they start a revolution—one of innovation, breaking out of the normal pattern, and entrepreneurship within the optics industry? We started investigating this theory in 2012.
A year and a half later, a few things have been made clear. Nearly 125 optics alumni, current and former faculty and staff from The Institute of Optics have started approximately 180 companies over the past six decades. Though not all of them were directly influenced by Tropel’s start, they found themselves on an entrepreneurial path—an attractive way to apply their engineering education and skills.
The celebration in October, held at the Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation on River Campus, welcomed nearly 200 guests, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni. About a third of the discovered founders were in attendance. Students took a break from their busy engineering schedules to invest in their future by hearing from and networking with successful entrepreneurs while CEOs and business professionals took a break from their responsibilities to connect or reconnect with the Institute of Optics and to share about their experiences with current students.
The program included several networking opportunities, panel discussions, and keynote presentations featuring Susan Houde-Walter ’83 (MS), ’87 (PhD), founder and CEO of LaserMax and former faculty of the Institute of Optics, and Jim Wyant ’67 (MS), ’68 (PhD), founder of WYKO and 4D Technology . The panels touched upon topics such as “Why start a company,” “What I wish I had known,” and “Developing, selling, and growing your company.” Houde-Walter, Wyant, and all of the panelists shared stories, lessons learned, retrospection, strategies, goals, objectives, and more. They were inspiring for the audience, filled with students who may one day start a company, other company founders, and Industrial Associates members. You could feel the rapport among the crowd, bridging alumni, students, and everyone else present.
This event honored a niche group from the Institute of Optics—connecting aspiring and current entrepreneurs and reuniting many of these founders, who had been separated by time and distance. All came together to celebrate optics and a topic that is growing more and more pertinent to our economy and society—entrepreneurship.
The Institute of Optics has been an advocate and conduit for entrepreneurship for the past 60 years. An entrepreneurial mindset seems to be ingrained within those who have walked the halls of The Institute, even though they are now scattered across the globe. There are more companies and founders to be uncovered; and more companies that have yet to be founded. The 60 Years of Innovation program at the University of Rochester paid tribute to the achievements thus far and more importantly, showcased the potential of what is to come.
Jeff Blackwell wrote a nice article, “UR professor Robert E. Hopkins inspired a revolution,” on this project which was published in the Democrat and Chronicle on November 1, 2012. An interactive map representing where companies have been founded was also included with the article. The list of companies has grown substantially since the piece was published last year.
– Duncan T. Moore