MIRTHE at CLEO 2011 Conference & Exhibition
By Bernadeta Wysocka, MIRTHE Industrial Liaison
| CLEO conference and exhibit attracts every year thousands of visitors and exhibitors who showcase their newest technologies in laser and electro-optics industry. This year, MIRTHE's scientists and students contributed about 60 technical papers and posters to the technical conference and we were also present at the exhibit floor where our booth experienced a strong interest from the CLEO attendees. Many visitors stopped by our booth asking questions about the compact QCL based CO2 sensor for atmospheric monitoring displayed at the booth. It was an excellent opportunity to present new technology developed in the lab that is ready to be moved into the commercial market and used in a real-world applications. The MIRTHE booth, which was attracting potential industry partners, also served as a |
 Michael Wanke from Sandia National Laboratory testing the CO2 sensor displayed at the MIRTHE booth. |
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 MIRTHE students and a visitor from Corning with Bernadeta Wysocka, MIRTHE Industrial Liaison at the MIRTHE booth at CLEO. |
communication center for existing industry members, faculty and students. "Working the MIRTHE booth is a good networking experience. I have a chance to meet potential collaborators and employers by working the booth. It also provided an opportunity for those who had heard my talk earlier to find me and talk to me further about my research," said graduate student from Princeton Tracy Tsai. On Tuesday, as part of MIRTHE post-doc mentoring plan, we convened a post-doc round-table lunch meeting, where young scientists enjoyed meeting Prof. Frank Tittel from Rice University who shared his experience working in academia, as well as industry, as a former industry employee of General Electric. "Although the topic of the round-table was actually about applying for faculty |
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| positions, we could benefit from both, Frank's experience as a faculty member (and a member of search committees) as well as someone who has worked for industry. This roundtable was one of the highlights of CLEO, because we could meet up with the other postdocs in MIRTHE, since not everyone knew each other. Also, the informal atmosphere allowed to change the discussion topics freely and to ask supposedly silly questions," said Maike Waldmann a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University. On Wednesday MIRTHE hosted a networking dinner meeting for the industry members, faculty and students. Prof. Claire Gmachl MIRTHE Center director welcomed about 80 MIRTHE guests who |
 MIRTHE Post-doc round-table meeting at CLEO 2011 with a speical guest, Prof. Frank Tittel from Rice University. |
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 From left to right: David Thomazy and Stephen So of Sentinel Photonics, MIRTHE startt-up, at the CLEO Technology Transfer Show displaying their newest technologies. |
joined the meeting and enjoyed sharing ideas, talking and exchanging recent research results, and possibilities of joint proposals and collaborations. The last day of the exhibition concluded with a Technology Transfer Panel Discussion. Joe Montemarano, MIRTHE executive Director, as one of the panelists discussed the Investment Focus Group established by MIRTHE as a driving factor for creating infrastructure to transition early stage technologies to commercial use at Princeton University. A day long tabletop session featured Sentinel Photonics, MIRTHE's start-up company displaying their vision for QCL sensor systems sensor mock-up and other emerging technologies. |
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We look forward to continuing our strong presence at CLEO with new exciting developments and activities next year in San Jose, CA. We hope to see you there! |
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