Thanks for the welcome!
I have programming skills, and would love to help, when I have the time - right at this point even finding .5 hours in a day is not easy. I've been a software developer for over 20 years now, primarily in embedded firmware, but have done a fair amount of applications work.
As far as the lights go, given the disadvantages of the IR goggles (limits visual angles, can't tell human from alien signature), I would think having the throwable/reusable lights would be of great added utility in a fight; an obvious low-tech tool to avoid limiting vision and for confirming IR signatures, in exchange for a few TU's to throw the thing. They sure came in handy in XCOM, that's for sure.