The Luminate optics, photonics and imaging (OPI) accelerator has named Sujatha Ramanujan a business executive and veteran entrepreneur, as its managing director. Ramanujan began her career by working for an early-stage company and launching an optics-related startup out of her garage with fellow graduate students. She relocated to Rochester and joined Kodak’s R&D team as a research scientist. She was appointed director of strategic alliances and moved to Carestream Health where she held titles of chief technology officer for mammography CAD and line manager of worldwide products. In 2011, Ramanujan joined the executive team of an early-stage nanoparticle company, Intrinsiq Materials, as COO and vice president. At Intrinsiq, she was responsible for setting up U.S. operations, working with venture capitalists and investors, overseeing global sales and marketing, internet protocol strategy and strategic planning. An accomplished scientist and engineer, Ramanujan is named on 28 issued U.S. patents and is widely published. “I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to lead this high impact program with potential to change the OPI landscape for years to come,” Ramanujan said. “I started my professional career in the field of optics, and it’s only fitting that I can once again immerse myself in this exciting and enabling field as the managing director of Luminate.” Announced last month, Luminate is a new $5 million-per-year accelerator for OPI-enabled startups. The organization is formally accepting applications from prospective companies with visionary entrepreneurs solving challenging problems including but not limited to machine vision, inspection, augmented and virtual reality, biophotonics, security, surveillance and autonomous vehicles. Teams will be competing for one of ten available slots in the first cohort, guaranteeing them a minimum investment of $100,000 and potentially as much as $1 million. “Our original vision behind the Luminate accelerator was to provide OPI enabled startups across the country with a truly unique experience that would improve their chance of succeeding in the marketplace,” said Jim Senall, president of High Tech Rochester. “By spending six months in Rochester, with access to our specialized university labs, faculty and established OPI companies, along with an intensive curriculum and experienced mentors, our startups will get an unfair advantage. With firsthand experience in her own startups, her deep network and passion for helping early stage companies, Sujatha will make this vision a reality.”