Nonstop Photonics: Photonics West Energizes with Education, Events, Awards

SUSAN PETRIE, SENIOR EDITOR, susan.petrie @photonics.com

With over 5000 presentations, more than 1300 exhibitors, 70 courses, three separate conferences, a two-day AR|VR|MR immersive, Prism Awards, a Startup Challenge, and a generous list of other special events, SPIE’s Photonics West will again be the most comprehensive and well-attended annual global event for the photonics and laser industries.

SPIE Photonics West offers opportunities to immerse in the latest photonics research, education, and industrial applications.

The 2019 exhibition takes place at San Francisco’s Moscone Center Feb. 2-7, and boasts the biggest industry program ever.

Industry events

The industry program runs from Feb. 3-7 and includes workshops, panels, and keynotes, as well as a two-day conference focused on augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) (Feb. 3-4). Included in the immersive are courses, panel discussions, and presentations from some of the biggest names in the AR/VR space, such as 3M, Intel, Amazon, uSens, Meta Vision, and Google.

On Wednesday, Feb. 6, from 3 to 4 p.m., and just prior to the Prism Awards, plan to visit Photonics Media (at booth 444-445) for our annual Meet the Editor event.

The AR|VR|MR conference will also feature a range of reservation-only, hands-on demos and the Optical Design Challenge. The competition — chaired by Bernard Kress, partner optical architect at Microsoft on the HoloLens project — challenges students to submit cutting-edge research aimed at improving optics in augmented, virtual, and mixed realities. There will be over $50,000 in prizes, including $5000 each for three first-prize winners.

Photonics West, now in its 25th year, is expecting an estimated 23,000 attendees, 1300+ exhibitors, and more than 5200 papers.

Industry events include two popular and anticipated events: the Prism Awards (Feb. 6), now in their 11th year, and the Startup Challenge (Feb. 4-6), a global, high-stakes competition for entrepreneurs who will vie for more than $20,000 in awards.

Special events are rounded out with a job fair and women’s executive meetup.

OPTO highlights

The OPTO technical conference will offer attendees the opportunity to immerse in international perspectives on silicon photonics, photonic crystals, optoelectronics, semiconductor lasers, quantum dots, and nanophotonics. Conference chairs are Connie J. Chang-Hasnain (University of California, Berkeley) and Graham T. Reed (Optoelectronics Research Centre).

LASE highlights

Look to learn more about laser manufacturing, laser materials processing, micronano packaging; fiber, diode, and solid-state lasers; laser resonators; ultrafast, semiconductor lasers and LEDs; and 3D fabrication at LASE. This year’s event features a plenary with three world-class experts: Earl Maize (NASA Cassini mission), Yuji Sano (ImPACT program manager), and Günther Tränkle (Ferdinand-Braun-Institut).

BIOS highlights

The BIOS technical conference will include hot topic technologies such as biomedical optics, diagnostics and therapeutics, biophotonics, new imaging modalities, optical coherence tomography, neurophotonics, optogenetics, tissue optics, and nanobiophotonics. Symposium chairs are James Fujimoto (MIT) and R. Rox Anderson (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School). Running simultaneously is BiOS Expo (Feb. 2-3).