New Cary Company Creating Durable, Green Tech

Cary, NC – If you’ve bought any electronics for personal use, you may have noticed that you have to replace them after only a few years. A new tech startup in Cary is looking to change that trend by creating long-lasting products and cut down on electronic waste.

Longevity in Electronics

Ty Sopko, co-founder of Shift Sight, LLC based in Cary, said the company is aiming to create products that can last for decades without increasing the amount of electronic waste in the world.

“When you look at electronic components, long-life trends off because of response time and longevity. So you have computer chips last a year or two because of their response speed,” Sopko said.

Instead, Shift Sight is creating products made with the electronic components used in cars or industrial design because Sopko said they are more durable and long-lasting because safety is tied to their effectiveness.

“No one wants to design with them because they are slower,” Sopko said, also adding that Cary has several factories that produce these sorts of electronics in the area.

Reusable Education

The first product Shift Sight is looking to launch is “Jade,” an educational device meant to teach STEM-related courses. Because Jade is not yet patented, Sopko did not talk about details but said it will be a durable computer students would sit down to learn from.

“The initial plan is to get it into consumer hands and then into schools,” he said.

With the car and industrial electronics Jade will be built with, Sopko said its speed is comparable to a 1993 PC, but added Cary has a high concentration of the kinds of skill sets Jade will need to improve.

“Cary has a lot of specialists who can apply their skills to this product,” he said.

With the current technology used to teach STEM courses to students, Sopko said their short lifespans is unintentionally passing along other values.

“We think we are teaching STEM topics with existing products, but our children are accidentally learning disposability,” he said.

Sopko said the goal is to have Jade available for purchase in November 2020 and will have focus groups and input from local “green businesses” in the meantime.

“We want to involve local services as much as possible,” he said.

Story by Michael Papich. Photos courtesy of Shift Sight.