Near IR and Optical instrument design for faint object imaging - fast, wide field, low scatter, mechanically stable instruments. Adaptive optics - robust, fast wavefront reconstruction, system optimization under variable observing conditions. Atmospheric tip-tilt characterization with 7e readnoise, 1Mpixel/s CCD speckle camera. Ground-based nIR coronographic design in AO systems - balancing tradeoffs between coronagraphic efficiency, adaptive optics performance and target `annulus of astrophysical profitability'.