In this talk, I will discuss two experiments being designed and built in our new lab at Montana State University. The first will develop and utilize novel high numerical aperture optical resonators enabling strong single-atom/single-photon coupling even at low to moderate finesse. I will describe use cases of these resonators with neutral atom qubits, such as Purcell-enhanced cavity tweezer arrays for fast readout, entanglement distribution and scalable trapping. The second experiment uses a more traditional cavity geometry to realize a compact, high-sensitivity mobile atomic gravimeter / gradiometer. Such an apparatus can be small enough to serve as a drone payload, with sufficient sensitivity to conduct relevant field surveys of gravitational signatures in geophysics, underground resource monitoring, and non-invasive archaeology.