Copyright © 2024 Spire Starter LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Non-imaging optics is a segment of optical engineering that designs and analyzes systems involving light that don’t form an image. (So, not a camera, telescope or microscope.)
Examples: indicator lights, illumination for machine vision systems, IR sensors, automotive headlamps, laser processes, and more!
Optical engineers use non-sequential ray traces to model virtual systems (we often use Synopsys LightTools at Spire Starter) and accurately predict performance faster and cheaper than you can on a lab bench in real life.
This can be done with new, custom optic designs, existing CAD, or off-the-shelf optics depending on your time and monetary budgets.
If you need to increase lighting uniformity, increase brightness, figure out a root cause problem, reduce glare, meet regulatory standards, or similar, let’s chat!
Need help with an optical system or want a boost in your freelance engineering journey? Check out these offerings!
If you’d like to engage in an optical engineering contract for a full optical design or analysis project, feel free to book a free, preliminary 20-minute consultation here. This time
If you don’t have the time or monetary budget remaining for a full-length engineering contract, you can book an on-demand session with Erin McDermott for up to 90 minutes here.
Want to jump into freelance hardware engineering? Or are you already here and want to boost your revenue and client base? Here are some resources! Guidebook to teach you how
Odd Engineer is the freelance hardware engineer directory where you can find many kinds of niche specialists in physical product development. (Not just optical engineering!) You can search the directory
What's the history of your project and what do you want to improve? Often requires a baseline simulation of your existing system to generate quantitative metrics.
New optical system designs with simulations to compare to your system's baseline performance. -OR- variations of multiple parameters are simulated if you need root cause analysis. At times this requires real-life lab measurements to incorporate into simulations. We most frequently use Synopsys LightTools as our ray tracing optical simulation software, which is included in our rate.
Reports and conferences to explain results, recommendations, and cautions going forward in laymen's terms. Support can be provided through prototyping, design hand-off to high-volume manufacturers, and verification of first production parts, or however long you need!
"Working with Spire Starter for our next generation lighting system was a fruitful, exciting, and creative opportunity that allowed us to stretch the limits of what could be done in a constrained space and budget, while meeting all of our performance objectives. The whole team looks forward to the next project!"
- Garrick Kremesec, CTO, FarmWise
"Erin was an excellent resource for us at Spin as we developed custom lighting for both illumination and visibility. Her technical prowess was impressive, but most notable was her effortless ability to work with ever-changing and often ill-defined requirements. Additionally, she was just plain fun to work with and brought levity to projects while still hitting hard deadlines."
-Aaron Engel-Hall, former Sr. System Engineer, SPIN
"Erin is an incredibly knowledgeable resource for our team! We presented her with a challenging illumination system design for our machine vision application. She helped us refine our system requirements, laid out a multitude of different design options, and executed each step flawlessly to deliver a production worthy design."
- Harry Wood, Lead Mechanical Design Engineer, Kargo
"I've introduced Spire Starter to several of my clients and they've done amazing work each time. Erin is a true expert in her field, and always goes above and beyond to understand the client's needs and to deliver a system whose real-world performance matches what the simulations predicted. It's not often that practice matches theory, but with Erin it always does."
- Alex Fink, former "the Camera Guy", camera hardware expert, now CEO of Otherweb
Thesis completed with Federal-Mogul co-op on additive application techniques for high-powered laser process development.
Optical engineering, publishing, tech writing and video editing, technical instruction, and fostering the Odd Engineer community.
Curriculum included machine vision and electrical engineering classes.
An open talent platform for hardware engineering specialists owned by Spire Starter LLC.
Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (CGWA) summer course graduate program
As contributing editor at SolidSmack, wrote articles and edited videos of hardware tech development, events, makerspaces. As columnist at DEVELOP3D, wrote monthly opinion column. Muck Rack portfolio: https://muckrack.com/erinmmcdermott
Optical design and evaluation of residential & commercial luminaires
Exterior automotive lighting development: projector-based headlamps, RCL, turn signals, sidemarkers
Optical engineering of industrial machine vision sensors and optics lab equipment in New York and Germany
Co-op developing high-powered laser and microwave manufacturing processes for automotive parts
Providing optical engineering consulting services and supporting the freelance hardware engineering platform:
OddEngineer.com.
Copyright © 2024 Spire Starter LLC. All Rights Reserved.