(L to R) Franklin Cummings Tech's executive director Blair Wong, OAA's Dibby Barlett, Lucyd's Harrison Gross and Jan Cory.

  
BOSTON, Mass.—Opticianry students at the Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (Franklin Cummings Tech) learned about the potential of smart eyewear recently after a visit from Lucyd CEO and co-founder, Harrison Gross. Team Lucyd met with students and Franklin Cummings' executive director Blair Wong in a special session which was part of the program's Spring career fair. Professor Wong introduced Harrison Gross as a "modern inventor" with a nod to the inventor of the bifocal lens, Benjamin Franklin, noting that Lucyd's audio eyewear "brings a new wave in technology, a new category in our profession, and we need to be prepared."

Harrison's talk thoroughly engaged the audience who was fully intrigued with how Bluetooth audio technology, housed in a frame, could serve the needs of their patients. Use cases include a broad spectrum of hands-free options as well as assistive technology for low vision patients. Gross reminded the audience, "We are in a very unique place in history where time-tested devices like the wristwatch and eyeglasses are being reimagined as on-ramps into our digital lives."

 
 

In addition to being, since 2006, the executive director of the opticianry program at Franklin Cummings Tech, professor Wong is the executive director of the Opticians Association of Massachusetts and an assistant professor at New England College of Optometry. In 2022, he was inducted into the Opticians Association of America Hall of Fame. This Franklin Cummings opticianry program is the only program in the U.S. that is directly partnered with the state association.

With a mission to "deliver transformative technical and trade education that leads to economic advancement, Franklin Cummings Tech was founded in 1908 by Benjamin Franklin with a matching grant from Andrew Carnegie.