Interview with Jacques, an optical designer at
Optech since 2012.
Hello Jacques, can you tell us a bit about your background and tell us about yourself briefly?
Hello, I grew up in France, in the northern suburbs of Paris, and did my graduate studies in optics in Marseille, Paris, and Grenoble. It was after my doctorate in optics that I came to Canada to do a postdoctorate at the University of Toronto. I thought I would stay there for 2 years and I’ve been here for almost 30 years now! After being done in Toronto, I worked in Ottawa for ten years in the fiber optic telecom industry. Then, after a short period in Boston, Massachusetts, I moved to Montreal. Before starting at Optech, I worked for several years, among other things, telecommuting for a Moroccan company, designing mobile phone cameras and medical endoscopes.
What made you want to do this job?
My parents wanted me to continue the family tradition and go into medicine, but I loved, and still love, calculations, deductions and demonstrations, beautiful equations, and beautiful curves. I was also lucky to have good teachers, passionate about both their field and the transmission of their knowledge.
Tell us about your role as Optical Designer at Optech.
To sum up, in one sentence, my role is to participate in the development of optical technologies that meet the needs of our customers. Depending on the project, this means that I contribute to one, several, or all of the stages of product development, from the definition of concepts to the establishment of production lines, including system simulations and component design. optical and mechanical components, their manufacture, the definition of assembly processes, the assembly of prototypes, and their testing.
Tell us about the best project you did at Optech.
Impossible to limit to just one! My very first, almost 10 years ago, was very interesting; We designed a very beautiful, high-performance and innovative optical micro-switch. The project with the École Polytechnique which enabled us to develop an optical medical probe is also a very good project, not only for its side of medical progress and technical challenges, but also for its collaborative side. I could also talk about the retinal camera project or the optical decontamination of chicken carcasses or elevator buttons, but that would be too long.
What do you like about working at Optech?
Several things. The diversity of projects and areas covered, as well as the constant acquisition of new expertise. The working atmosphere, the flexibility of hours, and the material resources available to us to work efficiently contribute to the pleasure I have in getting to work every morning.
What is your mantra? A little word for the end?
I have several, among others, The customer is the priority; When it is necessary, it is necessary; Enjoy the good times; Put yourself in other people’s shoes; And finally, as Albert Einstein said, everything is relative!
Thank you very much for your answers Jacques, and good luck at Optech!
