Industry Day

IPC 2022 Industry Day Program
Monday 14 November 2022
Regency A

Panel on Photonics Startup Opportunities and Challenges – A Canadian Perspective
8:30 am – 10:00 am

Chair:
Dalma Novak, Octane Wireless
Hanover, MD, USA

Panelists:

Philippe Babin
Aeponyx
Montreal, QC, Canada

Bio:

Philippe Babin , CEO of AEPONYX, has over 25 years of experience in product and market development in the telecommunication field. He co-founded AEPONYX Inc and leads the company. With his team, he develops and brings to market photonic integrated circuits and products for a broad range of applications. Philippe holds both an Electric Engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Sherbrooke.

James Pond
Ansys Lumerical
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Bio:

Dr. James Pond was a co-founder and CTO of Lumerical and was a driving force behind the company’s core software algorithms, technology, and advanced photonic modeling capabilities. He has more than two decades of experience in optical and photonic simulation, and is the author of numerous papers, patents and conference presentations. Currently he is a Distinguished Engineer at Ansys where he continues to work on the core photonic technology, in addition to integrating Lumerical products into the Ansys portfolio.

Matthew Posner
Optonique,
Montreal, QC, Canada

Bio:

Matthew T. Posner is the Director of Workforce & Photonics Education at Optonique, the photonics industry cluster of Québec, Canada. His interests are in pedagogy for education, device fabrication for applications in telecommunications, sensing, and quantum, and career development strategies. He is an active science communicator and passionate about “getting the science out of the lab.” He is a Young Professional of IEEE, Chair of the IPS Chapter of the Montreal Section, with degrees in electronics and optoelectronics, and an avid cyclist, skier, and hiker.

Panel on Promoting a Diverse and Inclusive Photonics Industry
10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Moderator:
Matthew Posner
, Optonique
Montreal, QC, Canada

Panelists:

Stephanie Simmons
Photonic
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Bio:

Dr Stephanie Simmons is an Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair, and CIFAR Quantum Information Science Fellow, based out of the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and is the Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic Inc. Her work on silicon quantum technologies was awarded a Physics World Top Ten Breakthrough of the Year of 2013 and again in 2015, and she is one of only 5 individuals to have ever won this award twice. She was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2020, and her work has been covered by the New York Times, CBC, BBC, Scientific American, the New Scientist, and many others.

Jacobus (Jim) Oschmann
Photonect Interconnect Solutions Inc.
Anacortes, WA, USA

Bio:

Jim Oschmann is Co-founder and Advisor at Photonect Interconnect Solutions Inc. He is a past president of SPIE and a retired executive from Ball Aerospace. He has worked ground and space systems as an engineer, manager, and executive. He currently volunteers on review and advisory committees and mentors students. He has an undergraduate degree in Optics from the University of Rochester and a Masters Optical Sciences and MBA from the University of Arizona.

Dalma Novak
Octane Wireless
Hanover, MD, USA

Bio:

Dalma Novak is VP of Engineering at Octane Wireless where she develops advanced RF-over-Fiber technologies. Previously she was a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Melbourne and held positions at Dorsál Networks and Corvis Corporation. Dr. Novak received the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Queensland. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and is the current Chair of the IEEE TAB Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

Hot Topics in Industry
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Chair:
Rod Waterhouse
, Octane Wireless
Hanover, MD, USA

Speakers:

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Insights into Starting a New Business in Plasmonics

Claudia Hössbacher
Polariton Technologies
Zürich, Switzerland

Bio:

Claudia has always been fascinated by light. After her B.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering at KIT, Germany, the Master program in “Optics and Photonics” stimulated her interest in the interaction of light with smallest structures. Following this interest, she researched integrated photonics, plasmonics and electro-optics during her PhD at ETH Zurich. In 2019, she was awarded the ETH Pioneer Fellowship to transfer her research project into innovative products and co-founded Polariton Technologies to accelerate information transport and reduce its power consumption.

2:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Enabling More Efficient Optical Networking using Ultra-high Speed, Ultra-low Power, Ultra-small Foundry based Polymer Modulators

Michael Lebby
Lightwave Logic
Englewood, CO, USA

Abstract:

The issue of reducing power consumption in datacenters, and optical networks has become a huge topic of discussion at major optical communication conferences, and industry in general.  Ultra-high speed, ultra-low power modulators, ultra-small foundry based polymer modulators are seen to be an enabling technology that can help mitigate power consumption in transceivers, line cards, servers, and routers.  

Electro-optic polymer modulators are now poised to address power consumption with their inherent ultra-high speed and very low power properties.  Electro-optic polymers are now additive with silicon foundries to integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics to increase performance significantly. The latest performance of polymer modulators is extremely exciting with 3dB bandwidths over 100GHz with sub-1V voltages and extremely small footprints (<1mm length) which are ideal for optical engines that go into pluggable transceivers and/or co-packaged modules.  This talk will also review the latest work in photonics industry roadmaps on both the integrated photonics (PIC) level as well as PIC packaging level. 

Bio:

Dr. Michael Lebby has served as CEO of Lightwave Logic since May 1, 2017 and as a Director since August 26, 2015. Previously he has held a range of senior positions including President and CEO of OneChip Photonics, a privately held company headquartered in Ottawa that is a leading provider of low-cost, small-footprint, high-performance InP PICs and PIC-based OSAs for the Data Center markets, and President and CEO of Oclaro, President. Dr. Lebby holds a Doctor of Engineering, a Ph.D., a MBA and a bachelor’s degree, all from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom. He has over 200 issued utility patents with the USPTO.

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm
Photon Sources for Quantum Applications

Lute Maleki
OEWaves
Pasadena, CA, USA

Bio:

Lute Maleki is a Co-founder, President and CEO of OEwaves, Inc, productizing advanced lasers, sensors and optical communication components. Previously he led the Quantum Technologies group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of Optica, and a Fellow and Life Member of IEEE.

Roundtable on Topics in Entrepreneurship
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Moderator:
Milan Mashanovitch
, Freedom Photonics
Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Participants:

Claudia Hössbacher
Polariton Technologies
Zürich, Switzerland

Bio:

Claudia has always been fascinated by light. After her B.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering at KIT, Germany, the Master program in “Optics and Photonics” stimulated her interest in the interaction of light with smallest structures. Following this interest, she researched integrated photonics, plasmonics and electro-optics during her PhD at ETH Zurich. In 2019, she was awarded the ETH Pioneer Fellowship to transfer her research project into innovative products and co-founded Polariton Technologies to accelerate information transport and reduce its power consumption.

Michael Lebby
Lightwave Logic
Englewood, CO, USA

Bio:

Dr. Michael Lebby has served as CEO of Lightwave Logic since May 1, 2017 and as a Director since August 26, 2015. Previously he has held a range of senior positions including President and CEO of OneChip Photonics, a privately held company headquartered in Ottawa that is a leading provider of low-cost, small-footprint, high-performance InP PICs and PIC-based OSAs for the Data Center markets, and President and CEO of Oclaro, President. Dr. Lebby holds a Doctor of Engineering, a Ph.D., a MBA and a bachelor’s degree, all from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom. He has over 200 issued utility patents with the USPTO.

Lute Maleki
OEWaves
Pasadena, CA, USA

Bio:

Lute Maleki is a Co-founder, President and CEO of OEwaves, Inc, productizing advanced lasers, sensors and optical communication components. Previously he led the Quantum Technologies group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of Optica, and a Fellow and Life Member of IEEE.

Philippe Babin
Aeponyx
Montreal, QC, Canada

Bio:

Philippe Babin , CEO of AEPONYX, has over 25 years of experience in product and market development in the telecommunication field. He co-founded AEPONYX Inc and leads the company. With his team, he develops and brings to market photonic integrated circuits and products for a broad range of applications. Philippe holds both an Electric Engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Sherbrooke.

Rod Waterhouse
Pharad/Octane Wireless
Hanover, MD, USA

Bio:

Rod Waterhouse is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer at Pharad/Octane Wireless. He is world-renowned for his innovative approaches to creating optimally performing antennas as well as highly efficient radio over fiber communication links. During his career, Dr. Waterhouse has undertaken pioneering endeavors in both academia and venture backed industry, focusing on breakthrough technologies in antennas, electromagnetics and microwave photonics engineering.

Dr. Waterhouse is an IEEE Fellow and in 2018 was elected to the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Administrative Committee. He is the current Chair of the IEEE AP-S Industrial Initiatives Committee and also serves on the IEEE AP-S Future Directions and Strategic Planning Committees. Dr. Waterhouse is also a member of the IEEE Future Networks Initiative Steering Committee. Dr. Waterhouse received his BEng, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 1987, 1989 and 1994, respectively, and has over 300 publications to his credit, including two books.