Student/Industry Forum

Location: MIT
Note that this meeting will be held on a Friday

The NES/OSA in association with the OSA Student Chapter at Boston University, the OSA Student Chapter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the OSA Student Chapter at Harvard University, the IEEE Photonics Society and the Optical Society of America will be holding the annual Forum on Optics Jobs in New England. The optics industry is invited to join area students to talk about what graduates can look forward to when they have completed their formal education. The program will include speakers sharing their insights and experience making the transition from student to industry.

Forum Speakers will include:

• David Scherer - Symmetricom
• Katherine Calabro - Synopsys
• Cathy DeVoe - MIT Lincoln Laboratory

The meeting will begin with networking including refreshments and a light meal, followed by a panel of up to four 10-15 min talks and a Q&A session, finishing with time for further discussions. Our industry panel will draw speakers from New England's diverse industrial base such as Aerospace, Metrology, Lighting and Bio-Medical.

We encourage our regular members to bring their stories, feel free to share any information about your companies or institutions, and we welcome postings for jobs or internships.

Fiber Optic Sensor Networks and Monitoring Techniques

Joint Meeting with Boston Chapter, IEEE Photonics Society

 Optical fiber development in communications and sensing started around 40 years ago but afterwards, they have had an unequal development. Fiber-optic sensor global market is growing and in the last years new technologies are available in specific niches where their electronic counterparts do not work properly. Development of new self-referencing techniques can also foster simple fiber-optic intensity sensors to be developed. Those techniques can also be applied to new integrated optics solutions based on intensity measurements. One of the main specific characteristic of fiber-optic sensors is its potential to be multiplexed so many points can be measured in different locations by using a single lead of fiber. Fiber-optic self-reference intensity networks can be developed using architectures proposed for broadband access networks. They can also share the use of specific devices already developed for communications applications. But the reverse can also be possible and successful strategies in the sensing domain can also be used to assist telecommunications needs. A review of different fiber-optic sensors will be given, showing techniques for reliable remote measurements in multiple points using fiber optic intensity sensor. An example of a cross-application from sensors to monitoring broadband access networks will also be described.

Freeform Optical Surfaces

Slow-servo diamond turning has revolutionized what is possible in optical fabrication. As a result, optical design provides new horizons where freeform surfaces may offer new degrees of freedom. In this talk I will provide a brief history of the emergence of freeform optics and point to a growing customer base. I will then discuss recent advances in surface shape descriptions for freeform optics from phi-polynomials to multi-centric radial basis functions. Finally, we will show how freeform surfaces may provide in one case study a factor of 10 in field area. Insight into the correction of aberrations will be provided and two metrology approaches to testing freeform surfaces will be discussed.

Talks Inspired by Douglas Goodman 

     Polychrome Laser Diode Platform 

     Optical Engineering at Polaroid With Douglas Goodman

PowerPoint Slides

Backgound Presentation

Douglas Goodman was an OSA fellow, an inspiring and dynamic speaker, and a local section member from 1993 to 2002.  He passed away May 14, 2012.  Several talks on topics in which he was interested will be presented by speakers who knew and worked with him.

Polychrome Laser Diode Platform (Bill Plummer and Jeff Roblee) - Polaroid once designed and built a high-resolution printer for digital halftone medical images on a proprietary transparent material.  It used four diode lasers in an optical system that evolved into an expensive assembly.  About 15 years ago we were asked to make a new print head with the same dimensions, same weight, same mechanical attachments, the same laser diodes, twice the total power, easy maintenance, and a more rugged structure, but for a much lower cost.