Optica Imaging Congress

About the GEMM Initiative

Founded through partnership of two international scientific societies, Optica and the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the GEMM Initiative aims to leverage existing and emerging measurement technology to address pervasive environmental and climate challenges impacting diverse communities across the globe.

Through the work of regional GEMM Centers, the Initiative pursues solutions for air and water quality, climate (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions and urban heat islands), environmental contaminants (e.g., microplastics, pathogens, and toxins) and resource management (e.g., water scarcity).

GEMM brings together community leaders, researchers, technology developers and policy shapers to cultivate actionable solutions to community priorities.

Join fellow attendees to celebrate the capabilities and achievements of the GEMM Initiative.

Join the Laser Systems Technical Group for “Novel Optical Coherence Control for Beam Shaping and Optical Communications,” a special talk from Milo W. Hyde of the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Controlling the spatial correlation or coherence of light is a relatively new aspect of beam control and holds great promise for use in optical communications. By manipulating spatial coherence, light beams can be generated that are resistant to scintillation or speckle and can change shape and polarization as they propagate. Currently, the primary challenge for applying coherence control in optical communications (and many other applications) is the inability to generate beams with complex (or spatially varying) coherence states in real-time. This challenge is due to the fact that generating such beams requires optical systems that are space-varying or anisoplanatic, and these are difficult to construct. It is my belief that recent advances in metasurface and metamaterial technology can be leveraged to overcome this challenge. In this talk, I will present and discuss results from a recent project where we applied custom refractive optics and metalenses to generate a real-time partially coherent beam with a space-varying coherence state.

Attendees are invited to stay after the talk to connect with colleagues over refreshments.

Please RVSP here to let us know you will be attending. 

Panels

From Benchtop to Marketplace

A focus on the challenges of converting new inventions from the lab to commercially viable product.  Panelists will discuss a range of topics including:

• IP/Technology transfer considerations
• How to identify commercial market pain points to ensure product/market fit
• System design cost considerations
• Strategies for breaking into the marketplace

Join your fellow attendees for a festive evening.

The congress concludes with a toast — a time to reflect on the week and discuss learnings with fellow attendees.