Photonics for a Better World

SPIE’s #FacesofPhotonics is a showcase across social media that connects SPIE members in the optics and photonics community around the world. Clément Fallet It serves to highlight similarities, celebrate differences, and foster a space for conversation and community to thrive. This week on #FacesofPhotonics we are sharing the story of   Clément Fallet, Project Manager at Parrot,  a high tech company specializing in drone manufacturing located in Paris .  Clément recently presented his research at SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing in Orlando, and was president and treasurer of the  Ecole Polytechnique SPIE Student Chapter. He is currently an active member of the SPIE Scholarship Committee.  We hope you enjoy his interview. 1. Share your favorite outreach or volunteer story.  Meeting a Nobel laureate is something extraordinary you always remember. So, imagine meeting not one, not two, but eight of them at the same time and place! Th...

The first International Day of Light was 16 May 2018, and SPIE joined citizens around the globe in celebration of lifesaving, life-enhancing light. To assist communities in the organization of their own celebrations of light, SPIE made available micro-grants worth up to US$3,000 to help fund and execute their events.  Available to SPIE Members, the grants provided for planned activities that highlighted the critical role that light plays in our daily lives. The activity also had to occur during the month of May 2018 and tie directly to the inaugural event on the 16th. Our 2018 SPIE IDL Micro Grant recipients included: Martina Mrongovius and the Center for the Holographic Arts (USA) Thouakesseh Jeremie Zoueu and Institut National Polytechnique Felix Houphouet-Boigny (Cote D'Ivoire) Amar Deo Chandra and IISER Kolkata (India) Jesús Carlos Alberto Obando Aguirre and the Instituto de Luz Ambiente y Visión (Argentina) P.T. Ajith Kumar and Light Logics Holograp...

Guest Blogger: Paul Gordon is the current Texas A&M SPIE student chapter president, and PhD student in the Optical Biosensing Lab.  In the fall of 2016, our SPIE chapter received a unique request; would we be able to help design a visual aid for a young boy with severe visual impairments? It was an easy answer; we would certainly try! A few months later Sully and his family traveled to Texas A&M for a day of activities, and a meeting to assess his condition. Meeting Sully As we found out, Sully was a lively kid who didn’t slow down much just because his vision wasn’t so good. He loves running, roughhousing, and all things baseball. It was a blast to meet and work with him and his family. Meeting the family What we learned is that Sully’s condition causes him to only be able to see out of a small, solid arc in the central periphery of one eye. With input from his parents, we decided that we would start simply and try to redirect his vision so that he can see obj...

The future happens at SPIE Optics + Photonics What will the future look like? For technologists, policy makers, and venture capitalists alike this is the million-dollar — really billion-dollar — question. For scientists and engineers working on the technology that will fuel this future, the question is more about where to secure funding, where to publish, and where to present their research. SPIE’s Optics + Photonics symposium in San Diego this August is the choice of many of these top researchers to present their latest iterations on future-impacting technology. The future of medicine Technology will most certainly play a large role in the future of healthcare, from innovative imaging techniques and personalized medicine to further understanding of the brain and how it functions and malfunctions. While not a major focus of the symposium, many healthcare-enabling technologies will be presented. A group of Italian researchers will be presenting their work utilizi...

Ultraviolet image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows NGC 3242, a planetary nebula frequently referred to as “Jupiter’s Ghost.” Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech Are there any connections between space technologies and healthcare? You bet there is, says Shouleh Nikzad, senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the principal engineer, co-lead, and technical director for JPL’s Medical Engineering Forum. Numerous optics and photonics technologies originally developed for space applications have found their way into consumer and medical markets, Nikzad writes in the April 2017 issue of SPIE Professional magazine . Infrared thermometers, workout machines, compact cameras in mobile phones, and imaging technologies are just a few familiar examples. Ultraviolet imaging is also used in medical applications to reveal disease, as in this image of cancerous brain tissue. ...