About the Exhibition
FiO LS is where science and application intersect, and nowhere is this collision more realized than in the Science + Industry Showcase — an exhibition that introduces the technologies of tomorrow built with the research of today.
The showcase features exhibiting companies and a diverse schedule of show floor programs, including two plenary sessions, technical content, technology demonstrations and networking events.
Come just for the exhibition, and your attendance for either one or two days is completely free!
Exhibit Hall Activities
Optica Foundation 20th Anniversary NextGen Lounge
Tuesday, 18 October
10:00 – 15:30
Rochester Riverside Convention Center
Science + Industry Showcase Booth 1001
During exhibit hall hours, check out the NextGen Lounge for student and early-career members. This professional development focused space will feature topics ranging from entrepreneurship, inclusivity in physics, storytelling techniques for scientific talks, and advice for transitioning to academia and industry.
The schedule and full details are located at optica.org/nextgenlounge
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Plenary Session I
Tuesday, 18 October
10:30 – 11:30
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Plenary Speaker: Scott Acton, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, USA
Talk: Peddling a Telescope: Reflections on Aligning the Webb Telescope, and Cycling the World
Acton will step us through the alignment and phasing of the Webb Telescope, and share some of his adventures experienced while attempting to cycle around the world to promote the telescope.
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Plenary Plus - Q&A with Scott Acton
Tuesday, 18 October
11:30 – 12:00
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Immediately following the Plenary Session, join the conference chairs as they moderate a Q&A discussion with speaker Scott Acton, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, USA. The 30-minute program provides attendees with an opportunity to delve deeper into their curiosities about the James Webb Space Telescope.
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Adding More Degrees of Freedom to Optical Design Through Novel Optical Materials and Fabrication Methods
Tuesday, 18 October
12:15 – 13:15
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Organizer: Jessica DeGroote Nelson, Senior Director of Optical Product Development, Edmund Optics, USA
If we look back at advances in optical materials and fabrication methods over the past 20 years, we can see how first aspheres and then off-axis freeforms allowed for more degrees of freedom in optical design. The expert panelists in this roundtable discussion will answer your questions about future possibilities for the next generation of optical materials and fabrication processes adding even more degrees of freedom through advances in technologies, such as gradient index materials, meta-surfaces, textured surfaces, laser processing, and additive manufacturing.
Panelists include:
Nathan Carlie, Edmund Optics, USA
Daniel Nikolov, University of Rochester, USA
Rebecca Dylla-Spears, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., USA
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Commercializing Meta-Optics: Applications, New Opportunities and Challenges
Tuesday, 18 October
13:30 – 14:15
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Organizer: Rob Devlin, CEO, Metalenz, Inc., USA
Meta-optics are planar optical elements comprised of subwavelength nanostructures. By precisely engineering the scattering properties of these nanostructures, meta-optics provide unprecedented control over electromagnetic radiation with a single layer of material, creating the opportunity to greatly reduce the size and complexity of existing optical systems, while also providing new functionality to optical modules. Given their planar nature and simple construction, meta-optics enable the large-scale mass production of optics in existing semiconductor foundries for the first time. This panel will discuss the path of meta-optics from lab-scale demonstrations to the first commercial applications. It will also explore new opportunities within the field and remaining challenges for widespread adoption.
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The Challenges of Optical Testing the Webb Telescope on Earth and Applications for the Roman Telescope
Tuesday, 18 October
15:00 – 15:45
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Presenter: Tony Whitman, Space & Airborne Systems, L3 Harris Technologies, USA
The alignment process and optical performance of the Webb Telescope was tested on the ground with the challenges of achieving 20 Kelvin temperatures and measuring a very light weighted telescope distorted by gravity during Hurricane Harvey. That experience is helping build NASA’s Roman Space Telescope to achieve new planet finding capabilities and better understand the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
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Plenary Session II
Wednesday, 19 October
10:30 – 11:30
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Presenter: Monika Ritsch-Marte, Institute of Biomedical Physics, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria
Talk: Opportunities in Optical Imaging by Wavefront Shaping with Spatial Light Modulators
Liquid crystal spatial light modulators (SLMs) provide a wealth of opportunities to extend optical imaging. Used as a programmable Fourier filter, an SLM can emulate various microscopy techniques. SLMs allow for multiplexing the image into sub-images showing different modalities (brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast), or customized parameter settings, or different depths inside the sample. Wavefront correction with SLMs also advances the imaging depth in strongly scattering brain tissue.
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Plenary Plus – Q&A with Monika Ritsch-Marte
Wednesday, 19 October
11:30 – 12:00
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
After Plenary Session II concludes, speaker Monika Ritsch-Marte, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, will participate in an extended Q&A session moderated by the conference chairs. The 30-minute program provides attendees with an opportunity to explore her talk in greater detail on wavefront shaping with liquid crystal spatial light modulators (SLMs).
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Panel on New Government Programs and Funding Opportunities
Wednesday, 19 October
12:15 – 13:00
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Moderator: Edward White, AIM Photonics, USA
Description available soon.
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Women in Optics: Challenges in Optics and Photonics Careers - Thriving at All Levels
Wednesday, 19 October
13:10 – 13:55
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Join Optica Ambassadors Linhu Yu & Maria Vinas-Pena for a career development discussion with some of the OPTICA female luminaries on challenges professionals face in optics and photonics careers. The event's second half will be a networking session for attendees in the Optica Foundation 20th Anniversary NexGen Lounge. All are welcome.
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Special Presentation: U.S. Representative Joe Morelle
Wednesday, 19 October
14:00 – 14:20
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
U.S. Representative Joe Morelle (D-NY), who represents the Rochester, New York region in the U.S. Congress, will make special remarks to FiO Conference attendees about the role of optics in growing America's position as a global leader in innovation.
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Challenges of PIC Packaging for Power-Efficient High-Speed Optical Communications and Other Applications
Wednesday, 19 October
14:30 – 15:30
Science + Industry Showcase Theater
Organizers: Thomas Brown, University of Rochester, USA; Turan Erdogan, USA; Alex Turukhin, Cisco, USA
Photonics packaging, particularly the test, assembly, and packaging of photonic integrated circuits and systems, remains one of the most technically challenging and expensive steps in prototyping and manufacturing photonic integrated circuits. This session will include speakers describing some of the biggest challenges and discussing a range of solutions that show promise for improving our ability to have scalable manufacturing processes and tools for PICs and PIC Applications. These include traditional telecom applications and low-cost biosensors, PICs for quantum technology, and photonics for precision metrology and spectroscopy. Potential topics will include:
- Novel solutions to fiber attach
- Advances in PIC testing and metrology
- Pluggable solutions for light coupling
- Design, manufacture, and testing of PIC-based biosensors
- Proposals of design standards for PIC packaging
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