Oqton Takes Top Prize at ASTRO-InSPIRE's 2nd Annual Tech Challenge

Oqton wins at Destin tech showcase

Oqton has been named the winner of the 2nd Annual ASTRO-InSPIRE Tech Showcase, a Shark Tank-style competition held in Destin, Florida. The contest focused on distortion prediction and compensation in laser powder bed fusion, specifically for Inconel 718 parts used in aerospace and defense. Oqton competed against Ansys, Siemens, Dassault, Autodesk, and Cadence.

What the challenge tested

This year's event was organized by ASTRO America and Florida State University's InSPIRE Institute. The focus on LPBF distortion was deliberate: as parts get more complex, warping during the printing process remains one of the biggest blockers to qualifying metal 3D printed parts for production use. Organizers wanted to separate research-stage simulation tools from software that could actually handle real parts on the shop floor.

Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) delivered keynote remarks at the showcase. Evaluation criteria covered accuracy and repeatability, calibration methods, cost of ownership, functionality, market potential, and overall technical impression.

Why Oqton's approach stood out

Sridharan Hariharan, Global VP of Sales and Customer Success at Oqton, said the competition's use of real parts rather than simple test articles set a high bar that matched what industrial customers demand every day. Oqton's 3DXpert software integrates design for additive manufacturing, build preparation, support generation, simulation, and slicing in one workflow. That integrated approach is what judges appeared to reward.

ASTRO America designed the challenge so that at least one license purchase of the winning software would follow, along with one-on-one discussions with potential industry partners and investors. That commercial anchor makes this more than a research prize: it is a direct path to production adoption.