“And the silver medalist winner is … Epirus!”
We were ecstatic to hear those words last week at the Edison Awards ceremony – where we took home the silver medal for our Leonidas Pod high-power microwave technology in the ‘aerospace & flight technologies’ category.
After the gala, we caught up with Alex Scott, Product Development Manager for Leonidas Pod, to talk about the work that it took to get to that moment – and what it felt like seeing his team’s innovation take center stage.
You were one of the first 6 employees of Epirus. When you joined nearly 5 years ago, did you envision you’d be making award-winning technology?
I’ve always known – from my first days at Epirus – that we would create an innovative high-power microwave product and make our mark on the defense technology industry at-large. What I didn’t envision at the time, however, was just how revolutionary our approach to power management could be for future commercial applications. I’m very excited for this next phrase of our growth as a company.
When you found out that Leonidas Pod had won an Edison Award – how did you feel? What was the team’s reaction?
I’m so proud of the team; particularly, our ability to design and bring Leonidas Pod to market so quickly. We knew we were onto something with our ground-based Leonidas systems, which flip the size, weight, and power (SWaP) factor for high-power microwave on its head. The systems were already significantly smaller than legacy technology – and with greater power output, at that – but we didn’t stop there. In true Epirus spirit, we took it one step further, asking ourselves “how much more portable could we make the technology?” The challenges overcome and the innovations required to bring Leonidas Pod to life are truly inspiring. Winning an Edison Award solidifies this sentiment even further.
What was the atmosphere at awards ceremony like? Any interesting conversations?
The Edison Awards span seemingly disparate industries, so I was a bit skeptical at first; I worried about what would I talk about with other innovators. But what struck me is the common thread we all shared: the desire to make the world a better place by combining technologies and ideas into new products and research initiatives. With that shared mindset, I was able to immediately connect with other winners, discussing opportunities to collaborate to advance our collective missions. Together, I know our incredible team at Epirus and all the Edison Awards honorees can change the world.
