Photonics Applications in Railways and Medicals

Speaker: Prof. Hwa-yaw Tam, Ph.D.
Affiliation: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hosted by IEEE Photonics Society LA Chapter, The Optical Society (OSA), and SPIE Student Chapter

Abstract: This talk introduces the photonics research activities at the Photonics Research Centre of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Centre’s research activities span from basic research to large-scale optical fiber systems, from materials to high-speed optical fiber communication systems and large photonics sensing networks. It has strong international collaborations with Huawei Technology Ltd., Corning, and NEC Research Lab. in ultra-high speed optical transmission systems. This talk focus on the R&D of photonics devices and large-scale sensing networks for railway and medical industries. The Centre has developed mask-less lithographic systems that permit rapid fabrication of biochips, as well as miniature optical sensors at the tip of an optical fiber. The Centre also developed the world’s first citywide smart railway monitoring networks in Hong Kong and Singapore. It spun-off a company that manufactures intelligent railway monitoring systems based on optical fiber sensing networks.

Biography: Hwa-yaw Tam, received his primary and secondary education in Sabah, Malaysia. He studied B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Manchester (UK). From 1989 to 1993 he was with Hirst Research Center, GEC-Marconi Ltd. (London), working on optical components and systems, and erbium optical fiber amplifiers. He conducted pioneering works in optical fibre amplifiers, and in 1992 built two of the first batch of optical amplifiers for Italian PTT. Prof. Tam joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1993 and is currently the Head of Department, Chair Professor of Photonics at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Photonic Research Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Tam established several world-class research facilities at PolyU, including two fibre-drawing towers for fabrication of photonics crystal fibres and polymer optical fibres, an ultra high-speed communication laboratory, and laser platforms for the fabrication of advanced fibre gratings. His current research interests include fabrication of special optical silica fibres and polymer fibres, optical fibre communications, and fibre sensor systems based on fibre Bragg gratings and photonic crystal fibres. Prof. Tam published more than 500 technical papers and awarded/applied about 20 patents, has extensive international research collaborations with many universities around the world and is a keynote/invited speaker at more than 40 international conferences. Prof. Tam has strong R&D collaboration with industry and his team installed many FBG sensing systems, including an FBG-based SHM system for the 610-m Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China and several condition-monitoring systems for railways in Hong Kong, China mainland, Taiwan, and India. Currently, Prof. Tam’s R&D team is building the world’s first city-wide fibre-optic sensing network for condition-based monitoring of metro systems in Hong Kong. Prof. Tam won numerous international awards for his inventions, and is the Third Prize Winner of the Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis 2014. Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis is a biennial event and it is one of the highest remunerated international innovation prizes for laser technology.

For further information, contact Prof. Bahram Jalali (jalali@ucla.edu)

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Feb 02, 2018
3:45 pm - 5:00 pm

Location:
E-IV Tesla Room #53-125
420 Westwood Plaza - 5th Flr., Los Angeles CA 90095