CLEO: The Forum for Lasers and Electro-Optics

The Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), to be held May 14-19, marks its 37th year in 2017. It annually brings together industry players, academia and companies from around the world for technical sessions, special symposia, tutorials, business programming, exhibits and special events, all highlighting the latest research, applications and market-ready laser and electro-optic technologies.

This global show also offers an expansive exhibition, giving innovators a venue in which to showcase new products and technologies, and also network with some of the top industry players.

As in years past, Photonics Media (Booth #2335) will again sponsor the CLEO Technology Transfer program in 2017. This program serves as a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their technology, and also learn about funding options, entrepreneurship, intellectual property and the next steps for commercialization. It will be moderated by Giacomo Vacca, president of Kinetic River Corp., with a keynote address given by Magnus Bengtsson, vice president of strategic marketing at Coherent Inc.

Technology Transfer Tutorials are scheduled during this program, and organizations will present their license-ready technologies. The Pitch Panel provides yet another opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their technology, explain why it's valuable and discuss future commercialization.

Technology Playground

Those attending CLEO will be able to interact with exhibitors and company representatives while exploring the latest industry innovations and solutions. With a Technology Playground entry card in hand, attendees visit participating exhibitors and learn about their new products and technologies. Each participating exhibitor then stamps the card, which, when completed, serves as a contest entry.

Companies participating this year include:

• Photonics Media
• TOPTICA Photonics Inc.
• Calmar Laser
• Optimax
• Newport Corp.
• Thorlabs
• OptoSigma Corp.
• Sacher Lasertechnik
• Coherent Inc.
• Gentec EO-USA Inc.

CLEO: Fundamental Science

This segment of CLEO allows scientists and engineers to present the newest research results in physics-related areas of optics, as well as modern spectroscopy, nanophotonics, quantum optics, optical materials and nonlinear optics, among others. Numerous industry experts will be speaking during the segment, in addition to short courses focusing on topics such as nonlinear optics, quantum cascade lasers, optomechanics and ultrafast optics.

CLEO: Science & Innovations

Reporting applied research results on all types of lasers, optical materials and photonic devices, this section focuses specifically on things like laser processing of materials, terahertz technologies, high-field and ultrafast optics, optical communications, biophotonics, optical sensing and metrology, micro- and nanophotonics and non-linear optics.

Among those speaking will be Katarina Svanberg, from the Lund Laser Centre in Sweden, who will talk about challenges relating to laser spectroscopy in medicine, and Heidi Ottevaere from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, who will focus on optofluidic chips for Raman spectroscopy. Several short courses will be held, too.

CLEO: Applications & Technology

During this segment of the conference, the latest advancements in applied optics and photonics are presented, along with discussions about potential product applications. Commercial technologies will be demonstrated in new components, advanced processing technology and optoelectronic systems. Sessions held aim to provide proof-of-concept prototypes, field trials and test data, and manufacturing advances in areas such as metrology, LEDs and solar cells, biomedical applications, industrial instrumentation, and other end-user markets.

Numerous plenary sessions will be held, featuring Christopher Contag of Stanford University, Nergis Mavalvala of MIT, and Ataç Imamoglu and Ursula Keller, both from ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

Networking events, receptions and other special events will round out the week. For more information about CLEO 2017, visit www.cleoconference.org.