Abstract:
Internet data travels seamlessly around the world thanks to optical fiber. A single fiber is about the same thickness as a strand of human hair, yet it transports terabytes of data each second. In recent years, fiber-to-the-home has enabled broadband Internet for many families. A key challenge to further shrinking fiber communication, such as towards the goal of integrating fiber directly between different chips inside a computer, is that fiber cannot be tightly bent or densely integrated. In the first part of this talk, he will describe recent collaborative work towards solving this issue by creating arbitrary 3D light paths within the volume of a porous chip. In the second part, he will discuss the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access.
Biography:
Lynford L. Goddard is a professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the University of Illinois. His research group, the Photonic Systems Laboratory, studies the ways that light, and lasers in particular, can be used for sensing and measurement, communications, and data processing. He is also the inaugural director of the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access. Professor Goddard has been involved in and spearheaded numerous diversity efforts. Since 2010, hundreds of K-12 students have attended on-campus summer camps he helped to develop, including Girls Learning Electrical Engineering, Brain Fitness Fridays, Illinois Summer Academy, Illinois-ChiS&E Alliance for Nurturing Excellence in STEM Education Leadership (ICANEXSEL), and I-STEM/Urbana High School Student Athletes in Research.
