Plenary Speakers

Abstract
Swept lasers are at the cutting edge of laser technology, known for their ability to “sweep” through a range of wavelengths, have wide applications including laboratory testing and industrial inspection of optical devices, interrogation of optical sensors, optical metrology, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and optical coherence tomography (OCT). This talk will introduce the fundamental principle, key technology, and the applications of two kinds of highly coherent swept lasers including Fourier domain mode locked laser and time stretched swept lasers.
Biography  
Professor Ping-kong Alexander Wai is the President and Vice-Chancellor of Hong Kong Baptist University. Professor Wai received the Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree from the University of Hong Kong, and his Master and PhD degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests include theory of solitons, nonlinear optics, fiber lasers, simulations of integrated optical devices, fiber optic communications, and network theory. Prof. Wai is an active contributor to the technical field, having over 500 international publications. He participated in the organization, served as invited speakers, and keynote speakers in many international conferences. With the approval of the State Ministry of Science and Technology, he is also listed as one of the experts in the National Science and Technology Programme Expert Database. He has been elected as Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES).

Abstract
In the last two decades, optical fibre distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) systems have experienced an extraordinary success, resulting in deployment in a variety of sectors, ranging from border security to traffic monitoring, smart cities, and structural health monitoring, just to cite a few. Recently, DAS systems have also been proposed in seismology because of they provide an equivalent large number of sensing locations and an ultrafast communication to the tsunami monitoring centre. This talk will summarise the research carried out at the University of Southampton using DAS systems for seismic monitoring, including the efforts that resulted in an extended sensing range, an improved signal to noise ratio, and a rapid data analysis and interpretation. In particular, the use of a classifier based on convolutional neural networks has provided a means to identify tectonic tremors and discriminated them from local and teleseismic earthquakes.

Biography
Prof. Gilberto Brambilla is the Associate Dean (International) of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. He is professor in Photonics within the Optoelectronics Research Centre, where he heads the group working on Optical Fibre Sensors and Devices. He was the Director of the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing (which secured £6M from the research councils and £4M from industry) and General Manager/Deputy Director of The Future Photonics Hub (which secured £12M from the research councils and £24M from industry). He is the current OPTICA Sensing Division Head and has been general/programme chair of the major conference on Optical Sensors. He has been consultant for a number of industrial partners, including Microsoft. He has published 500+ journal papers/conference proceedings, has 15+ patent applications and 70+ plenary/keynote/invited talks.

Abstract
The integration of a variety of functional materials within thermal-drawn fibers has emerged as a versatile platform for the fabrication of advanced functional fiber electronics. A single strand of fiber that incorporates materials with disparate electronic, optoelectronic, thermomechanical, rheological, and acoustic properties can see objects, hear sound, sense stimuli, communicate, store and convert energy, modulate temperature, monitor health, and dissect brains. Integrating these functional fibers into fabrics is setting the stage for fabrics to be the new frontier in flexible electronics for a human-centric digital society.

Biography
Dr. Lei Wei is a Professor and Provost’s Chair Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Dr. Wei’s research focuses on fiber-based devices, functional fibers, bio-fiber interfaces, in-fiber energy generation and storage, and smart fabrics. At NTU, he serves as Associate Chair (Research) and Director of the Centre for Optical Fibre Technology. He is also the Chair of the Optica Singapore Section and a Fellow of Optica.