Boston Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society

Optical Sensors Workshop

Wednesday, April 6, 13, 20, 27, May 4, 2016, 7:00–9:30 PM
Located at MIT Lincoln Laboratory – 3 Forbes Road, Lexington, MA 02420, USA

Optical sensing is ubiquitous in science and technology, and is becoming prevalent in our daily lives. These sensors cover a wide range of complexity, from the simple clip-on oxygen monitoring devices in our local doctor’s office, to the miniature CCD arrays in our smart phone cameras, to the high-sensitivity optical gyroscopes navigating the planes we occupy when flying. This proliferation of optical sensors is due to the wide availability of varied optical sources and detectors, which are enabled by new materials, a better understanding of the physics of environmental optical perturbations, and the wide availability of custom designed optical fibers, as well as powerful software codes linking it all together. One advantage of optical sensors is that they can have unprecedented precision. Examples of their uncertainties are: optical clocks (10-15 second), gravitational wave detectors (10-21 strain), magnetometers (pico-Teslas), and super-resolution optical microscopy (nano-meters). Other uses, often mentioned in the media, are Light Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) - for remote sensing and high-resolution maps, environmental monitoring (dissolved gases, organics, pH,etc.), and bio-sensor detection of biologically active substances for food safety. This workshop will bring together leading experts to discuss the status and performance of these optical sensors and many more, and the remaining hurdles to overcome for achieving an even larger deployment of them all. In this workshop the organizers also aim to foster communication and collaboration through networking among the many individual engineers and researchers attending. To learn more about the rapid advances of Optical Sensor technology directly from the foremost researchers in the different specialties involved, register for and attend this local Boston Optical Sensors Workshop.

For more information on the technical content of the workshop, contact either:
1) Farhad Hakimi, (fhakimi@ieee.org), Optical Sensors Workshop Co-Chair
2) Bill Nelson, (w.nelson@ieee.org), Optical Sensors Workshop Co-Chair
3) Ajay Garg, (ajay.sinclair.garg@ieee.org), Optical Sensors Workshop Co-Chair
4) Jade Wang (jpwang@ll.mit.edu), Boston Photonics Society Chair