BELLINGHAM, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 21, 2026--
SPIE, the international society of optics and photonics, announced Coalesenz Inc. as the $10,000 first prize winner of their 16 th annual SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West in San Francisco. The winning pitch was for Lucerix CZ, a hand-held coagulation analyzer that returns actionable results in 5 to 10 minutes at the point of care.
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The SPIE Startup Challenge supports new optics and photonics businesses and potential startups working on novel products, applications, and technologies within the areas of healthcare and deep tech. Seven teams pitched their concepts to a panel of six judges from the optics and photonics industry in hopes of winning one of three prizes, in addition to gaining increased visibility with potential investors and exposure to potential collaborators or partners. This year’s finalists showcased innovative, investment-ready optics and photonics technologies and applications.
“This is tremendously exciting,” Coalesenz Inc., Founder, Seemantini Nadkarni, said after her big win. “I’ve been involved with SPIE since I was a PhD student a long time ago. I started off in medical imaging and then moved into optics. We always come to the Startup Challenge and it’s really awesome to be a part of it, and also win today.”
The second place, $5,000 prize went to SPKL LLC for the SPKL Flow Monitor, a low-cost, portable monitor that can detect a stroke ahead of a patient arriving at a hospital, allowing faster treatment. Seaborough was announced as the third place, $2,500 prize winner for the EuroLED®, a nano-engineered phosphors delivering brighter light, lower carbon, and real savings.
“We’re very excited,” said Arnold Estrada, CEO and Co-Founder of SPKL LLC. “The notoriety I think that we’ll get from placing in this competition will be invaluable.”
“It’s very nice to get confirmation, especially from this type of audience, that what we’re doing is meaningful and interesting,” Seaborough CEO and CTO, Marie Anne van de Haar said. “I’ve already made some connections.” Although this was van de Haar’s first SPIE Startup Challenge, she’s attended Photonics West for nearly a decade. “I love the exhibition. It’s a great way to connect. It’s so large, there’s something for everyone.”
New to the competition this year was the SPIE Jay Kumler Innovation Award. Presented along with Jenoptik, the founding sponsor of the Startup Challenge, the award honors Jay Kumler, the former President of Jenoptik North America and SPIE Fellow, who passed away last year. Kumler was a longtime leader and mentor in the industry as well as the Founder of the Startup Challenge.
“The award encompasses [Jay’s] passion for entrepreneurial activity – developing new products and solutions for emerging markets and applications as well as mentoring teams and individuals involved in these endeavors,” said Gregg Borek, interim president of JENOPTIK Optical Systems.
This year, the $3,000 SPIE Jay Kumler Innovation Award was given to Coalesenz Inc., whose work best demonstrates Kumler’s commitment to advancing optics and photonics innovation.
The SPIE Startup Challenge provides an entry point for entrepreneurs into the community of high-tech business development. Many previous Startup Challenge recipients have gone on to wider commercial success, including, Double Helix Optics, PhotoniCare, Circle Optics, and In A Blink. In addition to Founding Sponsor Jenoptik, the SPIE Startup Challenge is also supported by Lead Sponsors Avo Photonics and Hamamatsu, and Supporting Sponsor Luminate. More information about the 2026 finalists and the SPIE Startup Challenge can be found here.
About SPIE
SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. The Society, founded in 1955, connects and engages with our global constituency through industry-leading conferences and exhibitions; publications of conference proceedings, books, and journals in the SPIE Digital Library; and career-building opportunities. Over the past five years, we have invested more than $26 million in the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development. spie.org.
2026 SPIE President Julie Bentley, the Coalesenz Inc. team, and Jenoptik’s Ralf Kuschnereit at the 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge, held at Photonics West in San Francisco
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed inclined to keep Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook in her job, casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s bid to wrest control of the nation's central bank.
The justices heard arguments over Trump’s effort to fire Cook based on allegations she committed mortgage fraud, which she denies. No president has fired a sitting governor in the 112-year history of the Fed, which was structured to be independent of day-to-day politics.
Allowing Cook's firing to go forward "would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three Trump appointees on the nation's highest court.
At least five other justices on the nine-member court also sounded skeptical about the effort to remove her from office.
Both Cook and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell sat through nearly two hours of arguments in the packed courtroom.
“For as long as I serve at the Federal Reserve, I will uphold the principle of political independence in service to the American people,” Cook said in a statement issued after the arguments.
The true motivation for trying to fire Cook, Trump’s critics say, is the Republican president’s desire to exert control over U.S. interest rate policy. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook, the first Black woman Federal Reserve governor, he could replace her with his own appointee and gain a majority on the Fed’s board. The case is being closely watched by Wall Street investors and could have broad impacts on the financial markets and U.S. economy.
Trump has been dismissive of worries that cutting rates to quickly could trigger higher inflation. He wants dramatic reductions so the government can borrow more cheaply and Americans can pay lower borrowing costs for new homes, cars or other large purchases, as worries about high costs have soured some voters on his economic management.
During a speech earlier Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, Trump reiterated his call for the Fed to sharply lower rates, arguing that the United States should pay “the lowest interest rate of any country in the world.”
The board cut a key interest rate three times in a row in the last four months of 2025, but that’s more slowly than Trump wants. The Fed also suggested it may leave rates unchanged in coming months over inflation worries.
The issue before the court is whether Cook can stay on the job while her challenge to the firing plays out in court. Judges on lower courts have allowed her to remain in her post as one of seven central bank governors. The justices could simply deny the emergency appeal Trump is seeking and allow the case to continue playing out in lower courts.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who also seemed skeptical of Trump's actions, suggested it may be pointless to return the case to lower courts rather than issue a more enduring ruling. With Cook’s case under review at the high court, Trump dramatically escalated his confrontation with the Fed. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation of Powell and has served the central bank with subpoenas.
Powell himself took the rare step of responding to Trump, calling the threat of criminal charges “pretexts” that mask the real reason, Trump’s frustration over interest rates. The Justice Department has said the dispute is ostensibly about Powell’s testimony to Congress in June over the cost of a massive renovation of Fed buildings.
In Trump’s first year in office, the justices generally, but not always, went along with Trump’s pleas for emergency action to counteract lower-court rulings against him, including allowing the firings of the heads of other governmental agencies at the president’s discretion, with no claim that they did anything wrong.
But the court has sent signals that it is approaching the independence of the nation’s central bank more cautiously, calling the Fed “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”
In Cook’s case, Trump is not asserting that he can fire Fed governors at will, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said. Cook is one of several people, along with Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who have been accused of mortgage fraud by federal housing official Bill Pulte. They have denied the allegations against them.
The case against Cook stems from allegations she claimed two properties, in Michigan and Georgia, as “primary residences” in June and July 2021, before she joined the Fed board. Such claims can lead to a lower mortgage rate and smaller down payment than if one of them was declared as a rental property or second home.
Those applications, Sauer said, are evidence of “gross negligence at best” and give Trump reason to fire her. In any event, he argued, courts shouldn't be reviewing his decision and Cook has no right to a hearing.
Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. “There is no fraud, no intent to deceive, nothing whatsoever criminal or remotely a basis to allege mortgage fraud,” a Cook lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi in November.
Cook specified that her Atlanta condo would be a “vacation home,” according to a loan estimate she obtained in May 2021. In a form seeking a security clearance, she described it as a “2nd home.” Lowell wrote that the case against her largely rests on “one stray reference” in a 2021 mortgage document that was “plainly innocuous in light of the several other truthful and more specific disclosures” about the homes she has purchased.
Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein, Christopher Rugaber and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and attorney Abbe Lowell, arrive at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and attorney Abbe Lowell, arrive at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and attorney Abbe Lowell, arrive at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and attorney Abbe Lowell, arrive at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
