Abstract: Forward looking research and technology innovation remains a vibrant and critical component of today's technology vendors and consumers. Particularly in the telecommunications sector, several factors, such as increased global competition, have increased the pressure on the available corporate and venture capital research dollars over the past decade. Prior to this, dollars spent on research generally were not as heavily scrutinized for their return on investment as they are today. Therefore, researchers must look to address problems with solutions that are practical, economical and relevant. This requires those proposing and performing the research to possess an increasingly encompassing perspective on the technology and economics of the target applications and market spaces in order to best frame the problem statement and guide the output to derive the maximum value out of a project.

Biography: At JDSU, Brandon oversees the Optical Networks Research Lab which focuses on understanding transmission system issues, network architecture evolution, system requirements, and product applications to advance JDSU's component and subsystem leadership. Prior to joining JDSU, Brandon was a consulting level engineer with Ciena and led the development of conventional and ROADM optical system architectures and maintained responsibilities of optical system and transceiver performance specification and characterization; as well as technical marketing and customer support. He came to Ciena through their 2004 acquisition of the equipment vendor start-up Internet Photonics, where he was a founding employee in 2000 and responsible for many facets of the specification and development of their C/DWDM filter, transceiver and amplifier product lines as well as service provider network design, sales support and in-the-field troubleshooting. Prior to Internet Photonics, Brandon was an MTS at Bell Labs performing research on advanced optical communication network designs and non-linear performance impairments. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University where his graduate research, preformed in conjunction with Bell Labs, focused on compact ultrafast laser research.

Abstract: Optoelectronics brings together the fields of electronics, laser physics, semiconductors, nanotechnology, chemistry, materials science, mechanics and biology, to name a few. Why should this "turn on" a college student and future researcher? This multidisciplinary environment, as well as being very interesting, is extremely fertile ground for discovery. Optoelectronics applications have become pervasive in our everyday life. From the seemingly commonplace, such as car headlight design, to more exciting emerging applications such as laser-based television, we have become dependent on optoelectronics to help navigate our daily activities...a trend expected to increase over the next decades.

Biography: Michael Lebby joined OIDA in 2005 and became its president and CEO in February, 2006. With more than 170 U.S. patents issued in optoelectronics, Lebby's career has spanned all aspects of the optoelectronics business ranging from research and development, manufacturing, and finance, to sales, marketing, and investing.

Biography: Adrienne D. Stiff-Roberts joined Duke University in August 2004 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research interests encompass the molecular beam epitaxy growth and characterization of inorganic, compound semiconductor nanomaterials ; the synthesis and characterization of hybrid organic/inorganic nanocomposite thin films; the design, fabrication, and characterization of optoelectronic and photonic devices featuring hybrid nanomaterials (especially in the infrared regime); and the application of hybrid nanomaterial multi-spectral photodetectors and multi-functional sensors to atmospheric, chemical, and biological sensing. Dr. Stiff-Roberts received both the B.S. degree in physics from Spelman College and the B.E.E. degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999. She received an M.S.E. in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in applied physics in 2001 and 2004, respectively, from the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , where she investigated high-temperature quantum dot infrared photodetectors. Dr. Stiff-Roberts received the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Graduate Scholars Fellowship and the AT&T Labs Fellowship Program Grant from 1999-2004. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Pi Sigma, IEEE, and MRS. She is also a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2006 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award in 2007.