Damon Diehl

Author's details

Name: Damon Diehl
Date registered: April 18, 2011
Jabber / Google Talk: admin

Latest posts

  1. Designing a Better Boss — March 24, 2013
  2. Free SBIR Workshop at High Tech Rochester — June 8, 2012
  3. Why I’ve been so quiet… — February 23, 2012
  4. Starting from “Why?” — December 31, 2011
  5. Mars Needs Lenses — November 21, 2011

Most commented posts

  1. NAVAIR SBIR Advice: Part 1 of 3 — 6 comments
  2. STEM Required for SBIRs to Bear Fruit — 3 comments
  3. Cool Tech: 2011 NASA Innovative Advance Concepts Fellowships Announced! — 3 comments
  4. NAVAIR SBIR Advice: Part 3 of 3 — 3 comments

Author's posts listings

Mar 24

Designing a Better Boss

Categories:

Inspiration

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I’m hoping to start blogging here again, now that I’ve mostly settled into my academic job. In the mean time, here is a cross-post for an article that I just wrote for the Optical Society of America’s “Bright Futures” blog, entitled “Designing a Better Boss: Applying a Consultant’s Mindset to an Academic Job.”

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Jun 08

Free SBIR Workshop at High Tech Rochester

Categories:

Proposal Writing Advice, SBIR, Small Business Advice, Writing Advice

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time_bomb

Sorry for the short notice, but next Tuesday morning, June 12, I will be presenting and participating in a free SBIR Workshop hosted by High Tech Rochester. Full details, including registration information, is available here. For my part I will be giving a highly-condensed presentation on how to craft compelling proposals entitled “45 Minutes to …

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Feb 23

Why I’ve been so quiet…

Categories:

STEM Education, Uncategorized

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50th

After a great deal of consideration, I’ve accepted the role of Coordinator for the Optical Systems Technology program at Monroe Community College (MCC) here in Rochester, NY. Rochester is an “optics” town to its DNA. It’s easy to point to the obvious players (i.e. Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb), but optics is also critical …

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Dec 31

Starting from “Why?”

Categories:

Inspiration, Proposal Writing Advice

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whyhowwhat

My friend Len Bland at Concept Equity sent me a link to Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” presentation for the 2009 TEDx conference in Puget Sound, WA. The talk is inspirational (I’ve never seen a TED talk that wasn’t), and it’s particularly relevant to small businesses trying to secure their place in the market. Separate from …

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Nov 21

Mars Needs Lenses

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Uncategorized

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Curiosity

I just heard that some of my friends at Optimax are heading down to Cape Canaveral this weekend to watch the launch of the new Mars rover, Curiosity. To learn more about Optimax’s contributions to the new rover, check out their recent newsletter.

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Oct 06

Steve Jobs: Live Before You Die

Categories:

Inspiration, Off Topic

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apple-think-different-300x225

        I promise not to get caught up in the deification of Steve Jobs, but anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been a serious Mac geek for decades. In 2005 Steve Jobs gave a speech at Stanford entitled “How to live before you die.” It’s wonderful.

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Sep 26

NAVAIR SBIR Advice: Part 3 of 3

Categories:

Proposal Writing Advice, SBIR

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keys

Understand the Review Process (Part 1 and Part 2 published previously) The “SBIR Program” is not one thing. Each government department (NSF, DoD, NIH, NASA, etc.) has broad latitude in structuring its own version of an SBIR program. Furthermore, within large departments like DoD, each agency (Army, Navy, etc.) has its own rules. Even within …

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Aug 16

NAVAIR SBIR Advice: Part 2 of 3

Categories:

Proposal Writing Advice, SBIR, Writing Advice

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Photo of Zen Garden in Kyoto

Be Brief [Part 2 of my three-part interview with Dr. Daniel Harris of the Navy Air Warfare Center in China Lake.] The title says it all, folks: Be brief! A clear and concise proposal will stand out from those that press against the length limit. Dan says he receives as many as thirty-five proposals for each SBIR …

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Aug 16

See me at SPIE Optics + Photonics 2011!

Categories:

Proposal Writing Advice

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SPIE O+P 2011 crop

This coming Sunday I will be teaching a grant-writing seminar entitled “45 Minutes to Impact: an intensive seminar on crafting compelling research proposals” at the 2011 SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in San Diego. It’s part of the free Professional Skills Workshop. For more information, click here. I will be at the conference all week. …

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Aug 08

Cool Tech: 2011 NASA Innovative Advance Concepts Fellowships Announced!

Categories:

Cool Tech, NASA, Weird Science

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2011_phase1_selections

Back in May I wrote about the rebirth of the NASA Innovative Advance Concepts (NIAC) program. Today NASA held a press conference to announce the winners. NASA announced all sorts of cool stuff including fantastic science-fiction projects like: deflecting space debris using pressure waves in the atmosphere fabricating spacecraft using 3D printers using metallic hydrogen as …

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