Seattle-Based Innovation Lab Launches Its Inaugural, Virtual Program; NLM Adds Optical Computing Technology to 5G Expansion. 

Seattle, WA, May 19, 2020 – NLM Photonics announced today it has joined the 5G Open Innovation Lab — an ecosystem for developers, enterprises, carriers, and technology leaders — focused on helping startups utilize 5G to develop new capabilities, products, and market categories. NLM will work closely with the Lab’s founding partners, including Intel, T-Mobile, and other partners, to help entrepreneurs and developers gain access to engineering, technology, and industry insights that will enable the 5G revolution. Specifically, NLM brings their optical computing materials platform for enabling high speed and energy-efficient 5G technology in a shift away from traditional conductor computing. 

“At NLM, we’re excited to collaborate with 5G Open Innovation Lab, enabling the 5G revolution with our Optical Computing Platform,” said Gerard Zytnicki, CEO of NLM. 

Unique to the Lab’s approach is its focus on unifying an independent ecosystem by bringing together technology, financial, community partners, and forward-thinking customers from industries such as media and entertainment, transportation, oil and gas, manufacturing, and retail. 

In an industry first, NLM’s platform allows major chip and computer manufacturers to integrate low-power, high-speed optical computing components into existing production lines. NLM believes the future of computing is optical and is poised to make the 5G revolution happen. The demand to have high-speed internet connections wherever people go and whenever they need it is only growing exponentially as more populations require access and transmission of data. 

This has been especially important in the wake of COVID-19 — from working from home and online classrooms to telehealth appointments and ordering groceries — connections are more critical than ever. 5G connections in South Korea are being credited with helping the country quickly handle the pandemic as doctors virtually monitor patients in their homes and gain access to real-time data. In March, the US Federal Communications Commission earmarked $200 million for telehealth technology rollouts to combat COVID-19. 

Recent breakthroughs in optically-active materials and nanoscale devices have unrivaled performance and power efficiency in networking components. Prototype devices using NLM materials already run 100x faster than standard microprocessors and use 1000x less power than what is consumed in running existing infrastructure. Such devices address the hard constraints in computing speed, network capacity, budgets, and power availability faced by wireless providers. 

“The ability to move data and communicate across devices and platforms seamlessly and without latency will enable us to connect everyone, anywhere,” said Jim Brisimitzis, managing partner of the 5G Open Innovation Lab. “5G will enable enterprises to synthesize new knowledge, connect people and devices, and ultimately change their business and how they engage their customers. The result will be a world more connected through intelligence and shared experiences.  The Lab is an opportunity to work with application developers and industry leaders to build real-world use cases and solutions.” 

About the 5G Open Innovation Lab 

The 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OI Lab) is a global ecosystem of developers, startups, enterprises, academia, and government institutions working together with startups to fuel the development of new 5G capabilities and market categories that will transform the way we work, live and play both now and in the future.  The Lab provides developers at all stages unparalleled access to open platforms, enterprises, and markets needed to create, test, and deploy new use cases and innovations for 5G.  To learn more about the Lab and its portfolio of companies, please visit https://www.5GOILab.com/ or follow us on Twitter at @5GOILab.  

About NLM Photonics 

NLM Photonics is a pioneering materials platform company working on solutions for optical computing, quantum computing, and networking, based in Seattle, WA.

Media Contact:
Erica McGillivray
Communication Director
[email protected]