How Vision Technology is Shaping the Future of Automation

Jana Martin (A3, Interviewer): Nick Sischka, thank you so much for joining me today. You’re the Director of Imaging Product Development at Edmund Optics and you serve on the Vision Technology Strategy Board for A3. Thank you for being here.

Nick Sischka: Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here.

Jana Martin (A3): How long have you been involved with the association?

Nick Sischka: Well, it depends how you look at it. The first Automate I attended was in 2013. I wasn’t formally involved with the association yet, but that event made me want to be a part of it. A big reason for everything I do is wanting to make an impact on the industry, and I saw involvement with A3 as a great opportunity to do that.

Jana Martin (A3): Let’s back up. How did you get involved in this industry in the first place?

Nick Sischka: Everyone in optics seems to have a funny story about how they got here, and I’m no exception. I have a degree in Optical Engineering from the University of Arizona. Back in high school, I was working at a local grocery store in the produce department. I used to chat with customers, offer them samples, that sort of thing.

One day, not long before graduating high school, I started talking with a woman. I told her I’d been accepted into the University of Arizona for a degree in physics—technically physics engineering—because I thought it was more practical than pure academia. She told me her daughter was graduating from the University that spring with a degree in aerospace engineering. I thought that was cool and maybe I should consider that instead. Then she said, “I really wish she would have studied optics.”

Like most people, I said, “What the heck is optics?” She explained it was an exciting field with lots of new advancements in technology, semiconductors, and electronics. I went home that day and changed my major to optics, thinking, “This is pretty rad—it’s lasers and stuff!”

I have no idea who she was. I never saw her again, but she completely altered the course of my life. I went to school for optics, graduated, and joined Edmund Optics. While working in R&D there, I got involved with imaging. My favorite course in college was optical design, though I didn’t want to be a designer. I loved working with the equipment, seeing how it all worked, and building machines that used it. One thing led to another, and here I am.

Jana Martin (A3): It clearly struck a chord with you.

Nick Sischka: It did. I’ve looked back plenty of times and questioned my path, but every time I thought about changing, I couldn’t come up with anything cooler. That’s part of why I’m passionate about automation—it’s about figuring out how to do things faster and more efficiently, freeing people up to do what they’d rather be doing.

Jana Martin (A3): Congratulations on your new position as a board member. You’re also part of the education committee. What motivates you to be so involved?

Nick Sischka: One of the biggest challenges you’ll hear about if you walk around this conference is finding new talent. My company struggles with it, and I think everyone does. I’ve been focusing on how to improve that across the industry, and I believe the answer is stronger involvement with academia.

When I was in school, I didn’t even know automation was an industry. I was playing with floating lenses in a computer program and thought it was fun, but I had no idea there was an entire field behind it. It was pure chance that I found it. We need to make more people aware.

With the education committee, I’m not only involved in instructing courses like the Basic Optics course for the Certified Vision Professional program, but also thinking about how we can be more outward-facing—educating educators, plugging students from trade schools to Ph.D. programs into companies. There’s room for all of those paths. I want to help be a conduit between academia and industry.

Jana Martin (A3): Why is that so important to you, especially at this early stage in your career?

Nick Sischka: Because I realize how lucky I was. Finding this association and my company was pure chance. I want to make it more accessible for other students. When I graduated, we were just coming out of a recession, and a lot of upperclassmen were terrified about finding jobs. Knowing there’s an entire industry with thousands of companies looking for employees is eye-opening.

Jana Martin (A3): Let’s talk about some of your current projects at Edmund Optics.

Nick Sischka: Traditionally, imaging was used in controlled environments like factory floors—scanning barcodes, sorting parts, measuring products. That’s changing. Now cameras are everywhere—your phone, your computer, your car. We’re seeing them used in agriculture with drones that check crop health, hydration, and fruit ripeness.

That means cameras, lenses, and robots are moving outside of controlled environments into hot, cold, wet, and otherwise challenging conditions. Cameras are fragile, so we have to develop products that can handle those elements without overheating or failing. This opens opportunities in industries that haven’t traditionally used vision or automation—especially as AI and cobots unlock applications that weren’t previously possible with rules-based machine vision.

Jana Martin (A3): AI is such a hot topic. How do you see it impacting your work?

Nick Sischka: There’s hype, but it’s real and here to stay. Developments are happening so quickly—look at how large language models like ChatGPT went from unknown to ubiquitous in under two years. We don’t know exactly where it’s going, but it will impact products, processes, and problem-solving.

Like automation, AI isn’t about replacing jobs—it’s about unlocking potential and solving problems that couldn’t be addressed before. The challenge is staying open to new opportunities and finding practical ways to implement them.

Jana Martin (A3): Let’s wrap up with NextGen. You helped lead student tours at Automate last year. What was that like?

Nick Sischka: It was amazing seeing students’ eyes light up. At first, many of them didn’t seem interested—they were just happy to be out of school—but as they saw the technology up close, you could see their excitement grow. The response from participating companies was phenomenal.

This year, I’d love to get more people from the association leading tours, and to broaden the types of educational institutions involved—trade schools, universities. My big dream is to have students publishing papers, giving talks, and participating in competitions at Automate.

Jana Martin (A3): That would be incredible.

Nick Sischka: Imagine a robotics competition that combines motion control, imaging, software development, and more, with the finals held at Automate. Something like the Baja competition run by the Society of Automotive Engineers, but for automation. It would give students a tactile, memorable experience and connect them directly to the industry.

Jana Martin (A3): Nick, the future is definitely bright for education and for the industry. We’re glad to have you as such a key part of this organization.

Nick Sischka: Thank you.