Lasers & Sources

Quantel and OSA Foundation announce four finalists in Bright Ideas Competition

May 12, 2017

Quantel Laser and the OSA Foundation announced the four finalists in the inaugural Bright Ideas Competition.

High-power solid-state laser manufacturer Quantel Laser (Les Ulis, France) and the OSA Foundation (Washington, DC) announced the four finalists in the inaugural Bright Ideas Competition [trademarked].

The Bright Ideas Competition provides students, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs with an opportunity to win up to $30,000 in laser equipment from Quantel Laser. The winner will be selected from applicants' proposals based on the most innovative, original, and feasible use of a Quantel laser. In addition, the winner will receive a Gentec-EO power meter.

The four finalists will present their proposals at a special seminar session during the upcoming Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, CA on May 17, 2017. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges and will be awarded the Bright Ideas Competition prize immediately after.

The four finalists are:

1. Duke University - Connecting the Brain Hierarchy: Quad-scale Photoacoustic Imaging of Brain Functions

2. Wayne State University - Transfontanelle Photoacoustic Imaging: Towards Neonatal Functional Brain Imaging

3. Cal Polytechnic State University - A PIV laser to enable cutting-edge automotive aerodynamics research

4. University of Otago - Bright Ideas: Photon triplets for quantum optics and secure communication

"Though this is our first year holding this competition, we were overwhelmed with the response from the laser community," saidGreg Smolka, VP, sales & marketing at Quantel. "Submissions were more than double what we expected and the quality and variety of the proposals were outstanding. The OSA Foundation has been a terrific partner both in administering the competition as well as providing, through its membership, a truly exceptional panel of judges throughout the competition. In addition, Gentec-EO came forward with a generous donation making this competition even more valuable."

Chad Stark, executive director of the OSA Foundation, said, "The OSA Foundation provides programs to inspire, support and mentor the next generation of leaders in optics and photonics. This competitionis a great example of bringing the academic and industrial worlds together and we’re thrilled to have Quantel as our partner."

The winners and all finalists will be honored with a reception immediately following the presentation of the award hosted by representatives from Quantel, Gentec-EO, and the OSA Foundation.

Quantel, founded in 1970, has design centers in Paris, France and Bozeman, MT. Quantel lasers are used in applications ranging from spectroscopy to atom cooling and LIDAR to combustion research.

The Optical Society Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation established by the Optical Society (OSA) in 2002 to carry out charitable activities that support the society’s mission of promoting the generation, application, archiving and worldwide dissemination of knowledge in optics and photonics.

SOURCE: Quantel; http://www.quantel-laser.com/en/news-article/items/quantel-and-osa-foundation-name-bright-ideas-competition-finalists.html

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.