Masterclass in Semiconductor Photonics
Abstract
In this invited talk, I will summarize recent research results in the field of universal light encoders. These components represent a particular class of metasurfaces implementing optical hardware feedforward neural networks that can universally approximate any user-defined input-output function. In the first series of applications, I will discuss the exploitation of this technology to implement ultra-flat (60 nm thick) optical components for vectorial light control with near-unity experimental efficiencies in the visible. In the second part, I will discuss a new area of research that focuses on the implementation in the hardware of software machine learning concepts for various applications in machine vision. I will summarize the fundamentals of HyplexTM, a new hyperspectral technology platform that allows the acquisition and processing of high-resolution videos in real-time for a broad spectrum of applications, including remote sensing, medical diagnosis, precision agriculture, and security.
Brief Biography
ndrea Fratalocchi is a Full Professor (from Jan 2023) in the Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division at KAUST University. He joined KAUST in January 2011 as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2016. Before joining KAUST, Andrea Fratalocchi was a Research Fellow at the Sapienza University of Rome under a KAUST Fellowship Award. From 2007 to 2009, Andrea Fratalocchi worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Sapienza University under a "New Talent" Award from the research center "Enrico Fermi." In 2012 he was appointed as Editor of Nature Scientific Report. In 2017, he won the Middle East GCC Enterprise Award as the best electrical engineer of the year. In 2019, he became a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA): "For pioneering innovations in the use of complex optical systems and the development of creative technologies in clean energy harvesting, bio-imaging, and advanced optical materials". According to the standardized citations index collected by Plos (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918) Andrea Fratalocchi is in the top 2% of Optics worldwide. Andrea Fratalocchi authored more than 200 publications, including three books and six patents. Andrea Fratalocchi is the co-founder of Pixeltra (www.pixeltra.com), a startup company implementing artificial intelligent hardware and software for security, food safety, and biomedical applications.