Photonic Information Processing

Dr. Ravi Athale.

Photonics Program Manager

Microsystems Technology Office

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Tuesday, November 2, 2004, 2:00-3:00pm

110 Jerry Junkins Building

Abstract

Use of optical, electro optic and optoelectronic technologies in various information-oriented applications is as old as smoke signals and as new as all-optical switching for ultra-fast dense wavelength division multiplexed networks. In this talk, I will give a broad survey of one particular aspect of this broad field – information processing. I will briefly review the evolution of research concepts, technologies and applications. I will conclude by describing some of the current programs at DARPA and speculating about future directions.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Athale received his B.S. (1972) from the University of Bombay and M.S. (1974) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, both in physics. He finished his Ph.D. (1980) in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. His thesis research was in the area of "Digital Optical Processing".

From 1981 to 1985 he worked as a Research Physicist at the US Naval Research Laboratory, in Washington, DC. His areas of research were optical signal and image processing systems. From 1985 to 1990 he was a Senior Principal Staff Member at BDM Corporation in McLean, VA, where he headed a group in Optical Computing. His research there was in optical interconnects, multistage switching networks and optical neural network implementations. From 1990 to 2001 he was an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at George Mason University, in Fairfax, VA. His research at GMU was in the areas of fiber optic signal processing, analysis of fundamental limitations in optical interconnection networks, and hyperspectral sensing architectures. He is currently on assignment to defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a Program Manager in Photonics.

Dr. Athale was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 1989 and he is a member of Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, IEEE. He has published over 50 journal papers and holds several patents in the area of optical processing.

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