The main goal is to develop a device that can detect a small number of photons emitted from bioluminescent bacteria. The device consists of 4 main blocks: Optical focusing, small signal amplification, digital signal processing, and statistical analysis. Since we are dealing with such a small number of photons, the signal amplification must be very sensitive as well as having minimal noise. Additionally, the photosensitive device must be kept at a low temperature to minimize thermal noise. Ultimately, once the signal is amplified and digitized, we must run it through a statistical algorithm in order to be confident that it is receiving a positive signal.