SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

Getting Recognized: Art Afshar says his computer manufacturing company, Micro Express in Santa Ana, tends to get lost in the crowd of successful Orange County technology companies.

AST Research Inc. and Advanced Logic Research Inc., both in Irvine, are bigger in sales and recognition. But Afshar, 29, is getting some notice from Entrepreneur Magazine, which selected Afshar as one of its Entrepreneurs of the Year under age 40 in its October issue.

Afshar, an engineer turned entrepreneur, got his start in the computer business at Tava Corp., an early personal computer-maker that later foundered. He started Micro Express in 1986, and the company has grown to 100 employees and an estimated $40 million in sales for 1991.

“With smaller companies, we have to convince our customers that we are producing a good machine,” Afshar said.

Also recognized by Entrepreneur: Mike Boone of Santa Ana-based Boone International, a maker of erasable blackboards, and Ralph Kosmides and Doug Cavanaugh of Ruby’s Restaurant Group, Costa Mesa.