SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION: Corning sponsors Outstanding Student paper competition

Spotlight on inspiring the next generation of scientists and business leaders

Three future leaders in the field of optical communications were recognized through the Corning Outstanding Student Paper Competition held during the 2010 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) in San Diego, CA. The winners were announced on Mar. 21, 2010 at the conference Plenary and Awards Session.

David Hillerkuss of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), was named the 2010 grand prize winner for his paper “Novel Optical Fast Fourier Transform Scheme Enabling Real-Time OFDM Processing at 392 Gbit/s and Beyond.” Two Honorable Mention prizes were awarded, to Jonas Geyer, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), for his paper “Efficient Frequency Domain Chromatic Dispersion Compensation in a Coherent Polmux QPSK-Receiver,” and David Sinefeld, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), for his paper “Photonic Spectral Processor Employing Two-Dimensional WDM Channel Separation and a Phase LCoS Modulator.” Hillerkuss received a $1500 USD award; Geyer and Sinefeld each received prizes of $1000 USD.

The three winners were selected from among five finalists, who were in turn chosen from a field of more than 430 student paper submissions. The finalists presented their research to the OFC/NFOEC general chairs and program chairs during the conference and were judged on innovation, research excellence, and author presentation skills.

Sergejs Makovejs from University College (London, UK) and Quoc Nguyen from Lab CNRS FOTON, University de Rennes (France), were the remaining finalists. Makovejs’s paper was titled “Experimental investigation of PDM-QAM16 transmission at 112 Gbit/s over 2400 km”; Nguyen’s paper was “24 channels colorless WDM-PON with L-band 10 Gb/s downstream and C-band 2.5 Gb/s upstream using multiple-wavelengths seeding sources based on mode-locked lasers.”

“These students demonstrated a highly sophisticated quality of work, far superior to their years of experience,” said Mehran Esfandiari of AT&T, one of this year’s OFC/NFOEC technical program chairs. “It is with distinct admiration that we recognize these young scientists for their talented research. I look forward to seeing what further innovations they will contribute to the field in the years to come.”

The competition is endowed by a grant from Corning Incorporated and administered by the OSA Foundation. It was established in December 2006, with the first award presented at the 2008 conference. Papers are submitted and accepted during the regular call for papers process for OFC/NFOEC, and the student authors present their papers orally the during the conference. The presenting author must be an undergraduate or graduate student of an educational institution of collegiate grade who is devoting more than half time to studies within the institution.

Corning Incorporated is a provider of specialty glass and ceramics. Drawing on more than 150 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, Corning creates and makes components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications, and life sciences. Products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware, and equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy, and metrology.

The OSA Foundation was established in 2002 to support philanthropic activities that help further the Optical Society's (OSA) mission by concentrating its efforts on programs that advance youth science education, provide optics and photonics education to underserved populations, provide career and professional development resources, and support awards and honors that recognize technical and business excellence. The grants funded by the OSA Foundation are made possible by the generous donations of its supporters as well as the dollar-for-dollar match by OSA. The Foundation is exempt from US federal income taxes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is a public charity. To learn more about the OSA Foundation or to find out how to donate, please visit www.osa-foundation.org or e-mail [email protected].