Innovation Strategy

Systems Design

Healthcare

Stem Cell biology

Nanophotonics

Micro and Nano-fabrication

Eldercare and Aging in Place

Lightfoot LLC

Founder.

Eldertechnology development focused on safe, independent, in-home aging.

Consulting Small businesses on re-opening and operating during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (May 2020 - Aug 2021)

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

Digital Transformation Strategist. Guided digital transition efforts with the City of Elyria's building department, IT department, procurement team, and administrators to improve service delivery and better support entrepreneurship.

ForeSight Innovation Group

Co-Founder. Developed award-winning haptic wearable devices to assist the visually impaired and the elderly.

National Security Innovation Network

Entrepreneur. Commercialization strategies to bring a defense technology to market guided by customer discovery, user, and market research.

Harvard University

Associate and Teaching Fellow. Nanowire-based multispectral sensor development. Work spanned simulating, fabricating, and applications research for multispectral sensors. Co-teaching Engineering Sciences 177/277 - Microfabrication Laboratory.

Thrive Bioscience

Associate Scientist and Product Strategy. Created novel approaches to automating cell culture processes with a robotic platform being developed in-house. Roles spanned user research and stakeholder analysis to stem cell biology and engineering.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute

Research Assistant. Derived induced pluripotent stem cells from patient fibroblast and blood samples. Analyzed reprogramming processes with automated imaging systems to facilitate the development of iPSC image recognition software with our collaborators. Served as a beta tester for several scientific instruments and worked with collaborators to optimize their products to better serve their targeted audience.

(2020, July 27). Improving assistive technology | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2020/07/improving-assistive-technology

(2020, May 26) Foresight Awarded Harvard Innovation Labs Ingenuity Award Grand Prize. iLabs, Bertarelli Foundation

N. Collins, A. Solanki, H. Um, R. Huang, and F. Habbal, "InSb Nanostructures as selective absorbers in the Short and Mid-Wave Infrared," in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2019), paper SW3J.3.

(2018, Jan 24). Collins, Nicholas, “Vertically Aligned Arrays of InSb Nanostructures for Tuning Light Absorption in the Mid-Infrared” https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37799758

Lai H, Kenyon ZA, Collins NJ, Alworth SV, Piloco L, Daheron L, Lee JSJ (2016). Computer-assisted scoring method for human induced pluripotent stem cell colony characterization and selection. Poster presented at the International Society for Stem Cell Research 14th annual meeting. San Francisco CA.

Alworth SV, Collins NJ, Kenyon ZA, Piloco L, Daheron L, Rubin LL, Cowan CA, Lee JSJ (2015). SVCell software, powered by machine learning, enables the automated and standardized generation of patient-specific, clonal cell lines with reduced variability. Poster presented at the World Stem Cell Summit. Atlanta GA.

Alworth SV, Collins NJ, Kenyon ZA, Piloco L, Daheron L, Rubin LL, Cowan CA, Lee JSJ (2015). Reference metrics for human induced pluripotent stem cell colony selection. Poster presented at the New York Stem Cell Foundation conference. New York NY.

Alworth SV, Kenyon ZA, Collins NJ, Hendriks WT, Nakada C, Kiyota Y, Daheron L, Rubin LL, Cowan CA, Lee JSJ (2014). Validation of label-free, real-time selection of fully reprogrammed iPSC colonies using kinetic image pattern recognition. Poster presented at International Society for Stem Cell Research 12th annual meeting. Vancouver BC.