Software

Modern military defense planning is already heavily focused on how to gain strategic advantage through brainpower. Another significant step in that direction could result from an Arizona State University engineer’s new research on using cognitive abilities to control defense operations in more direct ways than ever.

As of January 1, 2014, Newport Electronics, Inc. has merged into Omega Engineering, Inc. NEWPORT has been a leader in high-precision test, measurement, process control and automation instrumentation for more than four decades. NEWPORT began manufacturing electronic instrumentation in 1965 and quickly earned a reputation for designing and building the world’s most accurate industrial instrumentation.

Analytical and QA/QC labs, under ever-increasing pressure to improve time to market, ensure compliance and realize cost savings, now have an all-inclusive informatics solution that gives them complete control over their methods and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) without having to purchase, integrate and validate software from multiple vendors.

Microplate handlers are the robotic “glue” that unifies operations around a microplate workflow. The
evolution of robotics and software has caused a “democratization” of lab automation in general, and microplate handlers in particular.

For businesses, the costs of food and beverage recalls are significant and extend far beyond the hard costs of pulling product off shelves and scrapping inventory. Erosion of consumer confidence and loss of brand equity have consequences that are much farther-reaching and infinitely more costly.

Louis Scampavia, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, talks to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, PhD, about how automation has been a critical part of their high-throughput screening activities. He goes into the details of what can and should be automated and the due diligence that needs to be performed before these decisions are made—decisions that have a long-standing impact on the workings of a lab.












