SPIE’s annual showcase for mission-critical sensing innovation returns to the Orlando area for a five-day conference and exhibition April 30 to May 4. The Defense + Commercial Sensing (DCS) show will deliver more than 1150 presentations and host over 275 exhibitors. The Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center just outside Orlando will once again host the event. Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center. The Symposium Plenary on Tuesday evening, May 1, will feature Whitney Mason, deputy director of the Strategic Technology Office at DARPA, and Douglas Maughan, office head for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator at NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships. New trends and initiatives, presented by DARPA, and an introduction to NSF’s directorate for technology, innovation, and partnerships will be the focus of the session. Subsequent plenaries will include insights from Dartmouth University’s Eric Fossum, inventor of the CMOS image sensor; Rochester Institute of Technology’s Jeyhan Kartaltepe, principal investigator of the James Webb Space Telescope’s COSMOS-Web program; Bryan Mitsdarffer, Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment director of technology, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; and Keith Krapels, senior executive service, director, applied technology, deputy chief technology officer for critical technologies, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering. Leaders from industry, government, and beyond will present innovations in technology areas including lidar, fiber sensing, infrared imaging, laser systems, directed energy, photon counting, and next-generation spectroscopic techniques, in 38 conferences grouped into four industry tracks. The “Materials and Devices” track will showcase infrared materials, image sensors, photon counting, energy harvesting, and quantum technologies, with applications spanning wearables, cybersecurity, information processing, energy storage, and drones. The 11 conferences in the “Imaging and Analytics” track focus on spectral imaging, computational image processing, metrology, and 3D imaging. Applications in security and defense, climate monitoring, big data, deep learning, machine vision, target detection, and tracking will be discussed. In the “Advanced Sensing and Imaging” track, presenters will lead sessions on topics in infrared and thermal imaging, fiber optic sensors, lidar, radar, laser radar, x-ray detection and imaging, advanced optics for imaging, and image processing using artificial intelligence/machine learning. Applications range from novel defense and security systems for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, to infrastructure monitoring, energy, autonomous vehicles, and remote sensing. DCS 2023’s largest track, “Next-Generation Sensor Systems and Applications,” will host 12 conferences and explore emerging technologies for specific applications such as autonomous systems; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives; agriculture and food safety; cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things; and more. Technical events feature six panel presentations, including topics such as machine learning for automatic target recognition and synthetic data and the future of machine learning. Technology showcases and industry events taking attendees in depth on novel laser systems, lidar performance, and cybersecurity requirements for defense contractors will be held throughout the week. The SPIE-led advocacy and public policy and photonics market updates will once again be included as part of the industry program. SPIE DCS 2023 is scheduled for April 30 to May 4 at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center. The exhibition will run May 2-3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and May 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration and additional event information is available at www.spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions/defense-and-commercial-sensing?SSO=1.