Skip To Content

07 July 2022

Experts in environmental and remote sensing to imaging space and life: Plenary Speakers

Co-located congresses highlight advances in imaging and sensing technologies and applications

WASHINGTON -- The annual co-located Optica Imaging and Applied Optics Congress and Optica Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress will be held 11-15 July in Vancouver, British Columbia. The congresses will feature nine topical meetings, special sessions, a combined exhibit and four plenary talks.   

“The plenary sessions are one of the most highly anticipated components of the co-located congress, and we are particularly excited to present this year’s line-up of visionaries,” said Ram Narayanswamy, NIL Technology, United States, Imaging and Applied Optics Congress Chair. “Each year, we select individuals who inspire us by making great strides in imaging and applied optics at both the large and small scale.”

“The co-located congresses will offer the opportunity to interact with experts from across the imaging and sensing community, form partnerships and discuss new technologies, and this is also well reflected by a broad variety of cutting-edge research topics that will be covered by our plenary speakers” said Gerard Wysocki, Princeton University, United States, Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress Chair.  “Attendees will have the opportunity to interact across many different but at the same time very synergistic research fields, and discover common ground, and potentially build collaborations leading to new concepts or development opportunities.”

Scott Acton, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation
Presentation: Phasing the Webb Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a segmented deployable telescope, utilizing 6 degrees of freedom for adjustment of the Secondary Mirror (SM) and 7 degrees of freedom for adjustment of each of its 18 segments in the Primary Mirror (PM). After deployment, the PM segments and the SM arrive in their correct optical positions to within a few mm, with accordingly large wavefront errors. The Wavefront Sensing and Controls commissioning process for the James Webb Space Telescope will be described in this presentation, from the initial deployment of the optics, to the final alignment of the science field.

Juliet Gopinath, University of Colorado Boulder
Presentation: From Water Filtration to Autonomous Navigation: Using Photonics to Enable new Sensing Modalities
Light can be used for exquisite sensors that can measure rotation, materials, range, chemical composition, and even the workings of the brain. Recent advances have enabled new modalities of ranging and detection of membrane fouling.

Peyman Milanfar, Google Research
Presentation: How the Mobile Phone Became a Camera
The first camera phone was sold in 2000, when taking pictures with your phone was an oddity, and sharing pictures online was unheard-of. Today, barely twenty years later, the smartphone is more camera than phone. How did this happen? This transformation was enabled by advances in computational photography — the science and engineering of making great images from small form factor, mobile cameras. Modern algorithmic and computing advances, including machine learning, have changed the rules of photography, bringing to it new modes of capture, post-processing, storage, and sharing. Milanfar will give a brief history of digital and computational photography and describe some of the key recent advances of this technology, including burst photography and super-resolution.

Joseph Shaw, Montana State University
Presentation: Optical Exploration of the Natural World
In this presentation, Shaw will describe lidars and passive sensors he has developed to explore the natural world. Examples range from lidars for mapping insects in the air or fish in lakes to radiometric and polarimetric imaging for measuring atmospheric radiation.

The Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress is comprised of four topical meetings including: Applied Industrial Spectroscopy, Laser Applications to Chemical, Security and Environmental Analysis, Optics and Photonics for Sensing the Environment, Optical Sensors. Topics range from the development of novel technologies and their first field demonstration to long term applications in monitoring networks.

The Imaging and Applied Optics Congress convenes five topical meetings: 3D Image Acquisition and Display: Technology, Perception and Applications, Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging, Imaging Systems and Applications and Propagation Through and Characterization of Atmospheric and Oceanic Phenomena. Participants will hear from experts on the advances contributing to improvements in imaging science and imaging applications. Of particular note this year is the addition of a special session on recent advances in free-space optical communications.

About the 2022 Imaging and Applied Optics Congress and Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress

The Optica Imaging and Applied Optics Congress provides a comprehensive view of the latest developments in imaging and applied optical sciences, covering the forefront advances in imaging and applied optics as well as the application of these technologies to important industrial, military and medical challenges. The Optica Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress will provide a forum for both the technical and applications sides of sensors to report the latest optical-based sensor advances, bring together major sensor developers and users, and showcase the latest sensor prototypes and products. These events will be presented in a hybrid conference format using a program schedule based on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-07:00).

Media registration is free with credential. Digital assets are available as requested. Registrants have the opportunity to attend technical sessions from a combined nine topical meetings—which exemplifies the topical synergies that exist between optical imaging and optical sensing. A combined exhibition and increased special events provide enhanced opportunities to learn from and network with a significantly larger community of scientists and industry professionals.

About Optica

Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica's renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement. Discover more at: Optica.org

Media Contact

mediarelations@optica.org

Share:
Image for keeping the session alive