• Technical Conference:  23 – 26 September 2024
  • Science + Industry Showcase:   24 – 25 September 2024
  • Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado, USA

The Daily Wrap - Friday, 22 September 2017

by FiO Staff


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We Salute You, Early Adopters

Thank you for attending the inaugural launch of the new FiO + LS conference. You're the intrepid trailblazer, and we sincerely appreciate that you came.

With over 1,200 attendees, this year’s meeting was redesigned to provide attendees with innovative elements, such as the new Science & Industry Showcase, Visionary Speakers and new modes of presentation. The conference was built around four transformative technologies that are redefining the future: Automotive, Nanophotonics and Plasmonics, Optics in Computing and Virtual Reality and Augmented Vision.

“The technology enabled by optics and photonics is extraordinary,” said Roseanne Sension, general co-chair for Laser Science. “The conference aligned the FIO + LS programming to offer a true glimpse of the intersection of science and applications.”

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Plenary Speaker Laura Cadonati
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The Plenary

FIO + LS featured two outstanding plenary speakers focusing on high-profile fields of optics, LiDAR and LIGO. Plenary presentations from Jason Eichenholz and Laura Cadonati detailed recent achievements in gravitational wave science and today’s LiDAR applications.

“We were extremely fortunate to have Jason and Laura as our plenary speakers this year,” said Steven Cundiff, co-chair of the Frontiers in Optics meeting. “Gravitational waves and the future of self-driving cars are hot topics. Not only for optics and photonics, but for society as a whole. The discoveries these two discussed will affect how we get around in the future and how much we can learn about the universe.”

Watch bonus footage of the plenary speakers. >

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Visionary Speaker Marc Taubenblatt
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The Visionaries

As technology advances at an ever-increasing pace, the potential applications for optics continue to grow and fuel new discoveries. To highlight the breakthrough work being done in optics, the committee invited nine "Visionary Speakers" to share their knowledge.

Optical Interconnects in Data Centers. What's Next?

If there’s one motto for the current age of advanced computing and machine learning, it might be “There’s no such thing as too much data.” But the rapidly growing demand for ways to move that data around efficiently is creating some profound technical challenges—and spurring work on new optical frameworks and solutions. In a “Visionary Speakers” talk on Thursday, Marc Taubenblatt (above) of IBM Corp. sketched out some of those frameworks, particularly for data centers.

An important piece of the puzzle, Taubenblatt said, lies in some specific hardware solutions, such as moving the optics closer to the electronics on the chip and increased use of next-gen optical circuit switching. But he also suggested that part of the solution could come from thinking differently about network hardware and architectures writ large. In particular, he speculated that tomorrow’s networks may move increasingly away from their current, general-purpose approach to special-purpose systems in which the network architecture is matched to the needs and workloads of the task at hand.

Continue reading on the Optics & Photonics News Website. >

A Lighting Revolution

Detailing the lighting revolution taking place today in the automotive industry, Michael Godwin from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors looked ahead to the future of digital lighting for automotive applications. From headlamps to interior lighting, to heads-up displays in the automobiles of the future, Godwin shared opportunities for the optical sciences to directly impact the future of how drive our cars and the vehicles of tomorrow. This vision includes balancing visual, emotional and biological needs of humans in lighting applications.

A Vision for Using Practical Photonic Technologies

Outlining his vision for using practical photonic technologies in communication, biomedical, and energy applications, Vladimir Shalaev from Purdue University and the Birck Nanotechnology Center, USA, detailed emerging plasmonic, metamaterial, and metasurface concepts for the development of thermophotovoltaics, photodetectors, and nanotweezers among other applications. He also introduced the concept of 4D photonics, or space-time metasurfaces, which have the ability to enhance the manipulation of light at subwavelength scales, potentially leading to exciting new applications.

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Demonstration in the Science & Industry Showcase
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The Science & Industry Showcase

Bridging the gap between science and applications, this year’s conference featured a variety of special events on the exhibition floor, live demonstrations and programming to support professional development and facilitate networking.

Jin U. Kang, from the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR), Johns Hopkins University, added “Our team had a live demonstration of surgical robots for eye surgery on display at FiO + LS. The exhibition offered us an opportunity to connect with those in the optical sciences to showcase how photonic techniques can be used to guide medical robots and provide critical information that can make robotic surgeries safer and better.”

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Save the Date

We're looking forward to seeing you again next year. The 2018 conference will be held on 16 – 20 September at the Washington Hilton, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

Thanks again for your participation.

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frontiersinoptics.org

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Posted: 22 Sep 2017 by FiO Staff