Charlotte NC, October 25, 2002 -- The Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte will host its first symposium on November 7.

Since 1995, optoelectronics researchers at UNC Charlotte have disclosed 18 inventions, licensed 15 products to industry and created three spin-off companies. This symposium will introduce the community to the center that grew out of these successes. It will also focus on the local and regional optics communities and introduce attendees to the scholarship that informs and drives the development occurring throughout the area.

The center has gathered some of the nation's top optics experts for the day-long event. Fred Welsh, executive director of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, will be the first to take the stage, discussing "Global Perspective of the Optoelectronics Industry."

Other speakers include Don Keck, vice president at Corning and one of the "fathers" of the optics field; Sid Ragona, senior project manager at EXFO and Jagdeep Shah, DARPA's Photonics Program manager. Companies such as Corning, Waveguide Solutions, Agilent, Digital Optics Corporation and Spiricon will showcase recent products throughout the day.

Mike Morris, incoming president of the Optical Society of America, will address a joint audience of symposium participants and the local OSA chapter at 7 p.m. to end the program.

For more information, visit opticscenter.uncc.edu .

Laser Focus World

Fri Oct 25 08:33:00 CDT 2002