Nicholas Durr, of MIT and the startup PlenOptika, took second place in the SPIE Startup Challenge earlier this year.

Durr, who received his doctorate in biomedical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2010, received the prize award of $5,000 for QuickSee, an innovative, low-cost, handheld device that can provide eyeglass prescriptions at the push of a button. The technology is designed to help people living in low-resource countries to obtain appropriate vision correction. Durr also received the People's Choice Award, which includes a fee waiver for Photonics West 2015.

The SPIE Startup Challenge supports entrepreneurs in photonics. Durr was one of eight finalists selected to pitch his startup out a semifinalist group of 25 applicants.