Optica Sensing Congress

In August, Jane Hodgkinson and Dan Francis travelled to Munich to attend the Optica Sensing congress. Dan presented work on the development of an external-cavity quantum cascade laser spectrometer and Jane chaired a session on gas sensing. The conference, held in the Munich Hilton Park hotel in Tivoli, featured a good mix of spectroscopy talks combined with other areas of optical sensing.

Munich Marienplatz from Peterskirche

Jane and Dan at the Optica Sensing congress

EP paper

A pulsed laser spectrometer for volatile organic compound measurement
D Francis,  J Hodgkinson, and R P Tatam

Jane Hodgkinson in Top 100 Women in Engineering

Congratulations to Jane Hodgkinson who was a highly commended finalist, finishing in the top 100 of the prestigious 2023 Top 50 Women in Engineering awards. Jane was selected as a  finalist for her work developing new sensors that are focused on saving or improving lives.

SPIE: Optical Metrology

SPIE’s Optical Metrology conference held in conjunction with the World of Photonics congress took place in June in Munich. Tom Charrett, Kieran Wiseman, and Sivaji Pillai attended and presented their work. They were joined in Bavaria by former colleague Thomas Kissinger, currently at TU Ilmenau, who was chairing a session on interferometric techniques at the conference.

Kieran, Sivaji, Tom, and Thomas (L to R) at the Schneider Weisse Brauhaus.

Sivaji presenting his work at SPIE Optical Metrology

EP presentations

A fibre optic angle sensing tape for applications in robotics and automation
S Pillai, T O H Charrett,  T Kissinger, and R P Tatam

Long-term wavelength stabilisation of widely modulated lasers
K B Wiseman,  T Kissinger, and R P Tatam

Application and performance of laser speckle odometry applied to a mobile industrial robot
T O H Charrett, S Gibson, and R P Tatam

Graduation 2023

Congratulations to Sam Gibson who graduated this year! Her thesis described the development of a laser speckle tilt sensor.

Sam’s graduation

Dual-wavelength laser speckle technique for absolute angle sensing in two dimensions
Sam Gibson

 

GASG 30th anniversary celebration

In June, the 30th anniversary celebration of the Gas Analysis and Sensing Group was held at the site of Crowcon in Didcot, Oxfordshire. The colloquium hosted a series of talks reviewing the history and looking towards the future of gas sensing.

Gas Analysis and Sensing committee members past and present.

A birthday cake was prepared to celebrate the anniversary.

The 30th anniversary birthday cake.

EWOFS 2023

The European Workshop on Optical Fibre Sensors (EWOFS) was held at the University of Mons in Belgium from May 23rd to May 26th and is one of the major international events for the optical fibre sensors community. Steve James and James Barrington attended to present their work on range resolved interferometry in wind tunnel testing. Steve was also on the technical program committee and chaired one of the sessions.

James (right) presenting at EWOFS 2023.

The conference dinner was held at the Château de Belœil, a 15th century castle located 20km north-west of Mons. (Click the images to see full size)

Château de Belœil

Château de Belœil lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EP papers

The use of range-resolved interferometry for multi-parameter sensing in a wind tunnel
J Barrington, S W James, T Kissinger, S E Staines, S Prince, E Alcusa Sáez, N J Lawson, and R P Tatam
Presented at SPIE EWOFS, Mons, Belgium, May 2023

 

SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics in Prague

In April, Nina Binaei attended SPIE’s Optics and Optoelectronics conference in Prague to present her work on optical contamination monitoring in wire and arc additive manufacturing.

Nina at the SPIE conference and giving her presentation.

In-process optical monitoring of contamination in an additively manufactured titanium alloy
N Binaei, J Hodkinson, K Mullaney, E Chehura, S W Williams, and R P Tatam
Presented at SPIE Optics and Optoelectronics, Prague, Czechia, April 2023

GASG at Chicheley Hall

The 84th Gas Analysis and Sensing Group symposium was held at Chicheley Hall in Buckinghamshire. The symposium focused on early career researchers with several presentations by past and present members of EP including Nick Davis, Nina Binaea, Célia Lourenço, and James Bremner.

Chicheley Hall

 

Prizes were awarded for the best talks with Cranfield University researcher Valerio Feracci winning first prize for his work on natural emissions of trace gases. Célia was awarded third place for her work on airborne pesticide residue monitoring in museums.

Celia being awarded third place for her GASG talk.

 

EP connected presentations

Oxygen monitoring in wire and arc additive manufacturing
Nina Binaei

Anti-gas detection – making measurements between water absorption lines
Nicholas Davis

Interferometric fringe fighting In TDLS
James Bremner

Non-invasive determination of airborne pesticide residues in museum collections
Célia Lourenço