Database & Telecommunications

Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST)
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Optech 3D laser scan of Old Main

The Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) is dedicated to leading edge research and applications in geospatial analysis and modeling, enterprise spatial databases, remote sensing, digital photogrammetry and geospatial interoperability. The Center works closely with both large and small businesses in a business incubator role and has been selected as a Center of Excellence by over 10 companies including Intergraph Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Trimble Navigation Ltd., and Sun Microsystems. CAST can assist and collaborate with any company that requires:

  • geospatial data warehousing
  • interoperability and distribution
  • software development
  • multi-instrument data fusion
  • web-mapping
  • natural resources analyses
  • land-use/land-cover identification
  • organizational and infrastructural processes relating to technology diffusion into the public sector

CAST has 7,500 square feet of space including five teaching labs and three research labs offering access to more than 100 high performance workstations and a wide range of commercial software. In Fall 2006, a new 100,000 square foot Collaborative Information Technology Building will be opening on campus and will house an upgraded Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies.

Center for Advanced Spacial Technologies (CAST)

http://www.cast.uark.edu/
Space Photonics

Bandwidth is the key word in telecommunications today and Space Photonics has it. The optical fiber technology Space Photonics is producing can carry 10 channels simultaneously at sustained speeds of 10 gigabits per second. That would make each channel 200,000 times faster than a standard 56.6 kilobyte modem on a computer.

A client at the University of Arkansas GENESIS Technology Incubator, Space Photonics has developed a niche market in the design and prototyping of advanced microelectronic fiber optic components and network systems. It utilizes technology developed by subcontractors at the University and develops products that will succeed in the marketplace.

Although it is a small company, Space Photonics is known and respected in the high-technology community. It recently demonstrated the fastest space-radiation tolerant fiber optic network ever created at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Furthermore, Space Photonics has been contacted by Allenia Aerospace, an Italian company that manufactures satellites for the European Space Agency, about using Space Photonic systems in their satellites.

In addition to developing fiber optics for use in commercial metropolitan networks, Space Photonics specializes in high-bandwidth networks required for the next generation of satellites. Its government and commercial aerospace product development includes such clients as NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense.

Space Photonics expects to expand at the rate of two to three employees per year for the near future. However, the rapidly growing need for advanced fiber optic capabilities on a global scale may propel the company forward even faster.

Space Photonics, Inc.

http://www.spacephotonics.com