Industry Program
20 - 24 July 2025
Hilton Long Beach
Long Beach, California USA
Industry Program
The Industry Program will address disruptive projects and applications as a result of talent drain and transformative processes.
During the 2025 Industry Program, topics discussed at Toulouse 2024 will be expanded, and new topics will be added. However, the program is only the tip of the iceberg for interested attendees. These sessions encourage dialogue, vision, know-how and guidance.
This content model was enthusiastically received by the 500 participants at Toulouse 2024.
Background
We will focus on news, challenges, applications, opportunities and scalability in emerging technologies on a system or component level.
Johannes Kunsch, the Optica Sensing Congress Industry Chair answers the question: What is specific to the Optica Sensing Congress? It is not only a look at the science behind the talks, but also the networking and work-ready inspiration.
Objectives
The goal of the Industry Program is to pave the road toward substantial future growth and give orientation. There is great momentum in the optical sensing industry. This momentum should continue to grow and make optical sensing a preferred career path. The industry team decided to focus mostly on Infrared Photonic Circuits and Biomedical Infrared Spectroscopy and highlights the role of AI.
Chair
Johannes Kunsch
Laser Components Germany GmbH, Germany,
Industry Chair
Borislav Hinkov
Silicon Austria Labs GmbH, Austria,
Industry Co-Chair
Committee
Johannes Kunsch, LASER COMPONENTS Germany GmbH, Germany, General Chair
Borislav Hinkov, Silicon Austria Labs, Austria, Co-Chair
Amber Czajkowski, Alluxa Inc., USA, Co-Chair
Shankar Baliga, LASER COMPONENTS Detector Group Inc., USA
Kurt Hochrein, Dexter Research Center, USA
Timothy Olsen, Omega Optical, USA
| Event name | Tuesday, 22 July | Wednesday, 23 July | Thursday, 24 July |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercializing New Technologies | 15:30 - 17:00 | ||
| Technologies for New Applications and Networking | 15:00 - 17:30 | ||
| PIC-Driven Killer Apps | 10:00 - 11:00 | ||
| Moving Vibrational Spectroscopy Beyond Glucose Monitoring | 10:00 - 11:00 | ||
| Moving Vibrational Spectroscopy Beyond Glucose Monitoring—Software and Cloud Aspects | 10:20 - 11:00 | ||
| SiLC Technologies Tour | 14:00 - 20:00 |
Commercializing New Technologies
Tuesday, 22 July 15:30 - 17:00
International I, II
Presiders
Johannes Kunsch, Laser Components Germany GmbH, Germany
Borislav Hinkov, Silicon Austria Labs, Austria
Examines the transfer of new photonic technologies to useful sensing applications. It will feature a range of examples, from infrared and mid-infrared PICs and sub-ns pulsed lasers, to LIDAR and vision, and presented by companies innovating in these technologies.
Speakers
Johannes Kunsch
Laser Components Germany GmbH, Germany
A Heuristic and Psychological Framework for Implementing Photonic Applications
This talk explores why functional and reasonably priced products, which lack competing methods, sometimes fail to penetrate the market. A key assumption is that measurements bring reality into life, which may not always be welcomed, as existing businesses might thrive on discrepancies from reality. Consequently, successful implementation requires a combination of strong motivations and strong supporters.
Mehdi Asghari
SiLC Technologies, USA, USA
Enabling a Machine Autonomy Industrial Revolution with Human-Like Vision: Technology Needs and Social Implications
In this talk we will review how human like vision is critical to enabling an autonomous future where machines join our society and daily lives to cover for a shrinking work force. We will analysis the technology needs to enable the required vision solution for safe and efficient human – machine coexistence and discuss associated application specific drivers and social implications.
Borislov Hinkov
Silicon Austria Labs, Austria
IR PICs for Industry, from Quantum Telecom to Sensing Applications
The implementation of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) into real-world applications is a current mayor trend in photonics research. This work presents how the mature InP material platform can be used for realizing industry-available PICs in very diverse applications scenarios. Two examples will cover transmitter PICs for QKD at 1550 nm wavelength as well as mid-IR PICs for in-situ applications in (bio-)chemical sensing.
Ryszard Piramidowicz
VIGO Photonics, Poland
Recent Progress in Photonic Integrated Circuits for mid-IR Spectral Range
This work presents the HyperPIC project outcomes, focused on developing a novel integrated photonic platform for the mid-infrared range. The general approach and recent advancements in manufacturing technologies and demonstrator systems are reported and discussed.
Mircea Guina
Picophotonics Ltd., Finland
Microchip High-Energy Sub-ns Pulsed Lasers for 3D Sensing and Time-Gated Raman Spectroscopy
Picophotonics industrial microchip laser platform for generating high energy pulses with sub-ns duration and repetition rates beyond 100 kHz is introduced. Key applications in 3D sensing, Raman spectroscopy and microscopy are discussed.
Technologies for New Applications and Networking
Wednesday, 23 July 15:00 - 17:30
International I, II
Come and engage in this relaxing session that will feature talks that use technologies to address applications in new ways, particularly in biomedicine and laboratory instrumentation. This session ends with opportunities to network.
Speakers
Mihaela Zigman
LMU München, Germany
Latest Advances in Employing Infrared Fingerprinting of Blood Plasma with AI to Serve Medical Diagnostics
Combining blood-based infrared molecular fingerprinting with machine learning offers powerful insights for medical decisioning. This talk explores how the approach could advance in vitro diagnostics in oncology, with a specific focus on cancer screening.
Johannes Koeth
LMU München, Germany
Latest Advances in Employing Infrared Fingerprinting of Blood Plasma with AI to Serve Medical Diagnostic
Combining blood-based infrared molecular fingerprinting with machine learning offers powerful insights for medical decisioning. This talk explores how the approach could advance in vitro diagnostics in oncology, with a specific focus on cancer screening.
Matthias Budden
Wired Sense, Germany
FTIR Beyond the Lab: Simplifying Chemical Analysis for Pharmacies and Industry
Infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool for chemical analysis, traditionally confined to laboratories. Our mission is to make it accessible for non-experts and practical for everyday applications in pharmacies and industry by combining user-friendly hardware with automated analysis.
Werner Mäntele
DiaMonTech AG, Germany
Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Measurement by Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy: Principle and Validation
We will present broad applications of QCLs for non-invasive glucose measurement for diabetes patients. Glucose molecules in skin are excited in the Mid-IR and absorption is detected by photothermal deflection. Miniaturization and clinical validation are reported. Presented by Johannes Kunsch, Laser Components Germany GmbH, Germany.
Bassam Saadany
Si-Ware Systems, Egypt
Extending MEMS based FTS from Near IR to Mid- and Longwave
We did use our long term experience on MEMS based FTNIR modules to extend the spectral range towards MIR and LWIR. Insights on preliminary results and remaining challenges will be given.
PIC-Driven Killer Apps
Thursday, 24 July 10:00 - 11:00
Pacific I
Presider
Mircea Guina, Picophotonics Ltd., Finland
Photonic integration is proving its value in optical communications and is making market entries into areas as diverse as LIDAR, quantum computing and more. What are the trends and opportunities for this technology to find more applications, or even the long-sought “killer app” that might drive volumes to a new level? This session will discuss some examples to help understand the path to a larger PIC-driven industry.
Speakers
Mehdi Asghari
SiLC Technologies, USA
Ryszard Piramidowicz
VIGO Photonics, Poland
Borislav Hinkov
Silicon Austria Labs, Austria
Moving Vibrational Spectroscopy Beyond Glucose Monitoring
Thursday, 24 July 10:00 - 11:00
Pacific II
Presiders
Amber Czajkowski, Alluxa Inc., USA
Aparajita Bandyopadhyay, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
These speakers will address infrared vibrational spectroscopy for applications beyond non-invasive glucose monitoring, for potentially larger volume applications. There will also be a related session that examines just the software and cloud aspects of the topic.
After the two talks there will be a panel discussion, Bringing MIR and LWIR Vibrational Spectroscopy to Broad Relevance beside Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring: Application and Hardware Aspects.
Panelists
Mihaela Zigman
LMU München, Germany
Johannes Koeth
LMU München, Germany
The session ends with closing remarks by Johannes Kunsch, Laser Components Germany, GmbH, Germany and Gilberto Brambilla, University of Southampton, UK.
Moving Vibrational Spectroscopy Beyond Glucose Monitoring—Software and Cloud Aspects
Thursday, 24 July 10:20 - 11:00
Atlantic II
Presiders
Aparajita Bandyopadhyay, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
Timothy Olsen, Omega Optical, USA
This session follows the topic in the previous session—infrared vibrational spectroscopy for applications beyond non-invasive glucose monitoring—but more specifically at the software and cloud aspects of the topic.
Panelists
Bassam Saadany
Si-Ware Systems, USA
Matthias Budden
Wired Sense, Germany
SiLC Technologies Tour
Thursday, 24 July 14:00 - 20:00
SiLC Technologies
Join us for a full-day tour exploring coherent imaging research at SiLC Technologies.
Tour Itinerary
13:45: Meet at Hilton Long Beach for shuttle to SiLC
14:00: Shuttle leaves for SiLC on the hour
15:00: Arrival at SiLC
15:00 - 15:30: Refreshments and address by Monrovia Mayor
15:30 - 16:30: Tour of Live Demos
16:30 – 17:30: Tour of SiLC facilities
17:30 – 18:00: Bio break and trip to restaurant
18:00 – 20:00: Complimentary dinner and open bar
20:00: Ride back to Long Beach
