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Friday, August 28, 2009
The Mover
Gregg Favalora sets his sights on the optics industry
By James M. Connolly
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Maybe it’s in his genes or maybe it was from his environment, but Gregg Favalora feels he was destined to work with optics and imaging. In fact he has been working with 3-D imaging since he was in junior high.
Favalora, formerly the founder and CEO of Actuality Medical Inc., recently was named customer engagement manager at Optics for Hire, a product development firm focused on optics projects based in Arlington and with operations in Ukraine. Optics for Hire works with clients to incorporate advanced optics into products, taking on tasks such as writing the supporting software and laying out the circuit boards. “We make the whole prototype, including the optics and packaging,” he said of the 7-year-old company, where he is extending his role beyond customer service to engineering and business development work.
But take a big step back to see what makes Favalora tick. “I grew up in a really entrepreneurial family in New Jersey. My grandfather collected optical instruments and my father was an entrepreneur in the building industry.” Home was in West Orange, N.J., and, he says, inventing things was “part of being a kid in West Orange,” where a trip to Thomas Edison’s lab was a must. By junior high, Favalora was experimenting with his own optical devices.
At Yale, as an electrical engineering major, he built a device that offered what he says was the highest resolution 3-D display available at the time, utilizing 32 penpoint lasers to create images the size of a coffee cup. The device remained operating and on display at Yale for 12 years.
Claiming the runner-up prize in the 1997 MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Business Plan competition, Favalora set off to establish what became Actuality Medical Inc., which developed a display called Perspecta, a 100-megapixel device that created a full-color, walkaround display.
Actuality set off to use its display in helping to treat cancer, its 3-D presentations offering significant advantages over flat displays in enabling doctors to identify the size and shape of tumors. But after a successful pre-clinical trial, in a partnership with Philips Electronics, reality hit.
“What kind of pained me was that this really could help people with cancer, but we were completely unable to get financing. Even after all these years, I’m still trying to understand why,” said Favalora, noting that while his company got some backing from angel investors, venture capitalists said the market potential was too small.
Actuality shifted its focus to software with a software tissue–imaging package that used radioactive seeds to fight prostate cancer. Working with hospitals including Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, Actuality collected gigabytes of data on the effectiveness of its treatment, but by February it had run out of money. When the company’s CEO chose to move to a new opportunity, Favalora was faced with a decision on the firm’s future.
He and the angel investors opted to shut it down. “We just couldn’t survive the economic downturn,” he said.
The company’s intellectual property, 19 patents, was put into hibernation and may eventually be sold.
Favalora joined up with Optics for Hire founder John Ellis, whose company is a mix of full-time employees and contractors, including several optical engineers based in eastern Europe.
Optics for Hire is working with clients in areas such as medical devices, LED-based streetlamps and underwater imaging.
“My grandfather would say light is fascinating. You can use optics for everything from new displays to medical treatments and cameras. I guess I really love photons,” said Favalora.
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