UNC Charlotte Hosts International Meeting on High-Capacity Optical Networks

Researchers from around the world gathered at UNC Charlotte in December for the 11th annual IEEE International Meeting HONET-PfE, to share knowledge about high capacity optical networks and enabling technologies.

During the three-day event, speakers provided more than 80 technical presentations to attendees from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Korea, Jordon, UAE, Egypt, Australia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand. Hosts were the Charlotte Research Institute and EPIC (Electric Power Infrastructure Center) at UNC Charlotte, with support from the Department of Physics and Optical Science in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The HONET annual meeting brings together researchers from academia, industry, and government in a setting of high-level yet still informal technical interchange. It alternates between venues in the developed and developing world. Previous meetings have been held in Pakistan, US, UAE, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey, Cyprus and previously at UNC Charlotte.

Building from an initial core focus of optical and communications networks, the meeting’s scope has grown to include such diverse areas as big data, solar energy, distributed energy networks, smart-grid technologies, photonics, and semiconductor material science. The intent is to use the opportunity of technical interchange conference to build inter-personal collegial relationships with a goal of promoting mutual understanding across cultural and geographic boundaries.

UNC Charlotte Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Joan Lorden provided welcoming remarks, joined by Conference General Chairs Glenn Boreman, chair of UNC Charlotte’s Department of Physics and Optical Science and director of UNC Charlotte’s Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications; and Ian T. Ferguson, vice provost and dean of the College of Engineering and Computing at Missouri State University.

Steering Committee Chairs M. Yasin Raja of Physics and Optical Science, and S.M.H. Zaidi, dean of the National University of Sciences and Technology School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Islamabad, also joined the provost in opening ceremonies.

IEEE Xplore will publish the papers that were presented and the proceedings. The12th annual HONET will be hosted by the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) at Islamabad, Pakistan on December 21-23, 2015, with the theme consistent with the International Year of Light (IYL’2015) [ http://honet-ict.org ].

Speakers from UNC Charlotte included Mirsad Hadzikadic, professor and director of Complex Systems, Johan Enslin, professor and director of EPIC, Michael A. Fiddy, professor and director of the Meta-materials Center, Raphael Tsu, distinguished professor with Electrical and Computer Engineering, Yong Zhang, Bissell Professor with Electrical and Computer Engineering, Asis Nasipuri, professor and interim chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Badrul Chowdhury, professor with Electrical and Computer Engineering and EPIC.

The notable list of presenters included Rajendra Singh, distinguished professor, Clemson University; Hussain T. Mouftah, distinguished professor, Ottawa University; M. Ilyas, dean and professor, Florida Atlantic University; Colin J. McKinstrie, Applied Communication Sciences, New Jersey; Karen R. Forsten, director, Power Delivery & Utilization EPRI; and Alex Gurary Pr. Dev. Engineer, Veeco Corporation.

Additional notable speakers from other institutions and industry were Benjamin Klein Optics and Photonics (Group Chair) Georgia Tech; Nikolaus Dietz, professor, Georgia State University; Arindam Maitra, Principal Tech-Lead, EPRI; Thomas M. Fenimore, technology development manager, Duke Energy; Arshad Mahmood, project director, NILOP, Islamabad, Pakistan; and Young Min Song, GIST and Pusan National University (PNU), Republic of Korea.

Pictured: Glenn Boreman, Yasin Raja, Joan Lorden, Ian Ferguson