Tom Larson, a sales engineer at Trek of Medina, N.Y., has received program manager certification from the Electrostatic Discharge Association (ESDA). He was one of the first six to pass the new program for those involved in designing, implementing, managing and auditing ESD control programs. Trek makes electrostatic measurement instruments, sensors and monitors and high-voltage amplifiers, power supplies and generators. . . . Agilent Technologies Inc. announced that the Crolles2 Alliance, a European research and development center, has purchased three Agilent 93000 pin scale testers and four 4073 advanced parametric testers for research, development and industrialization of CMOS process technologies. The alliance, which includes STMicroelectronics, Philips and Freescale Semiconductor, has agreed to a joint development program with Agilent to develop test software and hardware for nanotechnology engineering and industrial applications. Agilent said it will collaborate with the alliance to develop engineering tools for R&D and production, focusing primarily on memory and mixed-signal device test. In exchange, the alliance will provide access to test-related technology in industrial and engineering environments. The Crolles2 Alliance is scheduled to run until December 2007. . . . Dorothy Cipolla was named vice president and chief financial officer of LightPath Technologies Inc., an Orlando, Fla., manufacturer of precision molded aspheric optics, fiber optic collimators, isolators and manufacturing technologies. Cipolla was formerly CFO of LaserSight Inc., also in Orlando. . . . Average hotel occupancy rates in San Jose, Calif., were at 57.74 percent in January 2006, compared to 53.6 percent a year ago, according to the San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau. Among the conventions in town in January were SPIE's Photonics West;Electronic Imaging 2005 (co-sponsored by SPIE and the Society for Imaging Science and Technology) and Cisco Systems sales boot camp. Occupancy at the city's seven downtown hotels -- the San Jose Fairmont, San Jose Hilton, San Jose Marriott, Crowne Plaza, St. Claire, Hotel DeAnza and Hotel Montgomery -- dropped in January to 59.23 percent, from 60.62 percent in January 2005, while occupany in the city's other seven major hotels -- the Hyatt San Jose, Doubletree, Dolce Hayes Manison, Clarion, Wyndham, Radisson Plaza and Fairfield Inn & Suites -- dropped to 59.23 percent, from 60.62 percent, the bureau reported. Room rates were up all around: The city's seven downtown hotels charged, on average, $146.45 in January 2006, up from $139.21 in January 2005; the other seven major hotels charged $108.14, compared to $104.07 last year.