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Dennis Wonica is President and Owner of LaserLight Networks Inc., incorporated in California in 2001. An entrepreneur, technologist, and catalyst for systems thinking, he is versed in new product development, business strategy and planning, high tech marketing, risk assessment, and program management. Dennis is also a Founder and Vice President of AeroWebSpace LLC (http://www.aerowebspace.com/), operating since 2000 as a Web-based company committed to aiding the high tech small business community in Southern California.
At his previous company - LIGHTEC - founded with three colleagues, he effectively integrated company objectives, opportunities, and resources while serving as Managing General Partner during its entire operation from 1995 to 2001. He developed new business, managed finances, and administered contracts.
LIGHTEC provided contracted commercial engineering services and applied laser, optical, and electro-optical technologies to create and design entirely novel products primarily for the military, particularly in Lasercomm. With Dennis as Program Manager, two completely new optical communication terminals were designed, prototyped, and demonstrated for the US Navy: a Modulatable Retro-Reflector (MRR) and the Dual Function Terminal.
Acting as off-site liaison in Los Angeles for a VP of RDA/Logicon, he selected, supervised, and led technical staff in contracted work, while recruiting new personnel for expansion efforts and interfacing with corporate management. He wrote winning proposals, initiated new business development, and marketed company services.
From past work on a variety of large and small aerospace programs he gained program management skills and experience in all phases of systems engineering, from concept definition, through design, production, integration & test, and performance assessment. He provided program review and technical support to numerous ground, airborne, and space based Directed Energy Weapon programs from UV to IR advising Army, Navy, Air Force, BMDO (National Missile Defense) in all phases from concept to test evaluation in the areas of laser design, system performance evaluation, optical delivery, diagnostics, and acquisition, pointing, and tracking. As principal SETA to USAF while at RDA/Logicon, he provided review, analysis, and direction to a $20 M/yr test program to develop real-time instrumentation to observe interactions of laser weapons with real targets. He was a member of a select USAF tiger team formed to critique behavior of the first cylindrical chemical laser (TAU). Analyzing its operation, his specific recommendations guided acquisition of critical new data which pinpointed causes of degraded performance and which guided future direction and designs in the Space Based Laser Program.As leader of nine-man team to evaluate utility of using a contractor’s site as a laser test facility, he chaired review meeting, acquiring contractor data to evaluate capabilities to meet program goals, and performed independent assessment of contractor cost/schedule projections for realism. Defense Nuclear Agency adopted the recommendations.As SETA for a DoD program investigating effects of high laser irradiance on composite hardening materials, he defined goals, added program planning, defined needed measurements, provided designs for diagnostics, analyzed, interpreted signature data, wrote work statements, and evaluated proposals.He defined an architecture for global deployment of multiple optical terminals as an adjunct to NASA’s Deep Space Network and estimated 15-year cost at multi-$100M level. He defined concept, requirements, specific features, and led development of both 1-meter class and 10-meter class ground based Lasercomm terminals for NASA. Initial Construction of Facility funding was estimated at $30M.As Subprogram Manager at TRW for MIRACL Laser System Engineering, he specified system level analyses, trades, and models, defined requirements and subsystems for new hardware to improve laser performance. He managed cost/schedule and conducted Navy design reviews. The modifications greatly improved beam quality, as evidenced by tests and $10M of new large scale optics successfully integrated the laser with the SEALITE beam director at WSMR for the first time.
Seasoned in the Federal Government procurement process, audits, and contract management, Dennis has written numerous successful proposals to DoD agencies. In the commercial sector he has both teamed with and contracted with small
He is a co-creator and co-producer of an audiocassette training program (Back on TrackSR), a field guide to help displaced tech workers find new employment.
A scientist by education, Dennis has a B.S. from Stevens Institute of Technology, an M.S. from NYU, and both an M. Ph. and Ph. D. from City College of CUNY, all in physics.
Free Space Laser Communication System
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.jpg) Directed Energy Laser Lethality Tests at
HELSTF - White Sands, NM
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