News!

Date : 27/05/2011

The 2nd annual Galway Garden festival will be held on the 9th and 10th of July in Claregalway Castle in aid of Christian Blind Mission Ireland.

Galway Garden Festival  

Date : 10/05/2011

Excerpt....'Christopher Dainty discusses what lies ahead for the global optics community. The Optical Society of America (OSA) was founded in 1916 with the mission "To promote the generation, application, archiving and worldwide dissemination of knowledge in optics and photonics." Based in Washington, DC, it has a staff of about 130 and an annual operating budget of around $30m (€21m). With more than 16,000 members in 95 countries, including some 220 active student chapters in 48 countries, the OSA serves about 100,000 optics professionals globally. Christopher Dainty is the society's current president; he is also professor of applied physics at the National University of Ireland in Galway. In recent years his research has focused on adaptive optics and other aspects of imaging.'

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Date : 11/02/2010

The Applied Optics Group in collaboration with IMDA (Irish Medical Device Association) will soon host the "Optics as an Enabling Technology for the Medical Device Sector" conference. This offering to Ireland’s FDI and indigenous medical technology companies will take place here in Galway on Feburary 24th 2010. IMDA anticipates that 50-70 participants from industry will attend, the majority of whom are expected to be engineering/technology managers, R&D managers, senior manufacturing/process engineers, QA engineers etc. The conference program and speaker profiles are available in the links below.

Speaker Profiles and  Program

Date : 13/02/2009

The Applied Optics Group was visited on 13/02/2009 by Professor Tom Baer, President of the Optical Society of America. Prof. Baer attended a forum in the Applied Optics Group, which included researchers from industy and academia in Ireland, as well as representatives from Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). The event was deemed a great success, with well-received presentations and lively debate.

Photographs

Date : 19/03/08

The Royal Irish Academy announced in mid-March that Prof. Chris Dainty, the Director of the Applied Optics Group at NUI Galway, has been elected a member of the Academy, in recoginition of his academic achievement and standing. Chris will be admitted formally to the Academy at a meeting in Academy House, in Dublin in mid-May. The Royal Irish Academy ( http://www.ria.ie/ ), founded in 1785, is the principal learned society in Ireland.

The Royal Irish Academy

Date : 19/11/07

The Applied Optics Group through LightHOUSE, the Centre for Applied Photonics at NUI Galway is pleased to announce in collaboration with the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science that funding of €651,000 has been approved  by Skillnets Ltd  for the BESTNet Training Network. Skillnets is the Irish Government Agency whose mission is to enhance the skills of people in employment in Irish industry to support competitiveness and employability. This funding will facilitate the delivery of state of the art training in Laser and Optics Technologies, as well as Biomedical and Professional Training for multinational companies and indigenous small to medium enterprises. A total of 57 multi-sectoral companies were recruited to the training network by the two NUI Galway teams, ranging in size from 3000 employees to 2 employees. The sectors which will most benefit from this major technical skills initiative are the Medical Device, Photonic, Pharmaceutical, Biopharma, Aerospace, Precision Engineering, Engraving, ICT Manufacturing and Industrial Diamond Manufacturing.

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Date : 5/11/07

The Applied Optics Group has announced that it has been awarded two IRCSET (Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology) PhD Scholarships, under the Enterprise Partnership Scheme.  The Enterprise Partnership Scheme provides industry with flexible and easy access to an exceptional pool of competitively pre-selected, high calibre researchers. It then jointly funds these researchers together with the individual companies who pay a proportion of the funding involved.

Date : 3/10/07

Prof. Chris Dainty, the Director of the Applied Optics Group was recently elected a Fellow of the European Optical Society. The citation for Chris's election as Fellow of the EOS referred to his "highly influential contribution to optics teaching and research and his committed leadership of the optics community in general and the European Optical Society in particular".

EOS

Date : 3/10/07

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) announced that Prof. Chris Dainty, the Principal Investigator, and Director of the Applied Optics Group, has been awarded over €4.5 million to continue his research program in applied optics techniques.  This is the largest Principal Investigator funding award announced to-date for the 2007 -2012 SFI program.

SFI

Date : 2/10/07

The Applied Optics Group hosted the first conference organised by the Irish Optics and Photonics Network,  “Photonics Ireland 2007” in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill, Galway from Sept 24th to 26th 2007.  This all-Ireland conference aimed at covering most aspects of photonics research in universities and institutes of technology in the Island of Ireland, and included an industry session and a poster session.

The Conference was a major success for all involved, with 180 participants representing the Photonics Research Community in Ireland. 30 scientific papers were presented, 6 of which were delivered by invited international speakers.  The Conference was formally opened by Prof. Fionn Murtagh, Director of ICT Directorate at SFI (Science Foundation Ireland).

There was a most impressive poster session with 140  posters. This scientific exhibit was opened by Martin Hynes, Director of IRCSET (Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology).

The next Photonics Ireland Conference is scheduled to be held in Cork, in 2009.

Photographs

Date : 13/07/2007

The third annual lightFORUM seminar was held in Galway on October 18th 2007. The theme of this year’s seminar was “Competitive Advantage through Photonics”. The event was targeted at engineers, scientists and researchers from industry and academia. The seminar was very well attended and delegates were provided with an interesting  series of presentations  by a panel of national and international photonics experts.

The next lightFORUM  Industry Seminar is scheduled for May 2008.  Further details will be provided early in 2008.

More Info

Date : 13/07/2007

Photonics Ireland Conference – Galway – Sept 24th to 26th ‘07

The Applied Optics Group is hosting  the first conference organised by the Irish Optics and Photonics Network,  “Photonics Ireland 2007” in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill, Galway from Sept 24th to 26th ’07.  This all-Ireland conference aims at covering most aspects of photonics research in universities and institutes of technology, and includes an industry session and a poster session.

More Info

Date : 12/07/2007

“From Astronomy to the Consumer Market”

Prof. Chris Dainty has published a very interesting article entitled “From Astronomy to the Consumer Market: today’s industrial and medical application of adaptive optics” in the Jul/Aug’07 issue of ‘Technology Ireland’.

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Date : 06/07/2007

Applied Optics becomes a member of  Photonics Cluster UK (PCUK)

The Photonics Cluster UK has announced that the Applied Optics Group, through LightHOUSE has been accepted for membership of the cluster.
Photonics Cluster (UK) is a business network dedicated to supporting the optoelectronics industry in the UK. The overall aim of PCUK in partnership with others, is to establish a dynamic hub of activity within an integrated supply chain or researchers, suppliers, manufacturers and sales distributors.

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Date : 18/06/2007

AOIM ‘07

On June 11th 2007, 140 engineers and scientists converged at NUI Galway to participate in the 6th International Workshop on Adaptive Optics in Industry and Medicine.  This was the largest ever of these biennial meetings, and an industry exhibit was held for the first time. With over 90 scientific presentations, it was an outstanding success for the host organisation the Applied Optics Group, and the organising committee.
A highlight of the workshop was the disclosure by a major Japanese company that it uses adaptive optics in its DVD players!

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Date : 28/05/2007

The Applied Optics Group is pleased to announce that it has joined the Welsh Opto-Electronics Forum (www.wof.org.uk/) through LightHOUSE.
The invitation to join WOF resulted from the visit to the OpTIC Technium earlier this year.  The Forum is a consortium of companies, University research groups, users and support organisations dedicated to the development and profitability of the opto-electronics sector in Wales and internationally.

Date : 14/05/2007

Applied Optics visit to OpTIC Technium Wales

In April 2007, Chris Dainty and Una Murphy were invited to visit the OpTIC Technium in St. Asaph,  North Wales.  The OpTIC Technium is an Opto-electronics Technology and Incubation Centre. Inside the Technium, companies are supported by a team of business and technical support staff and have access to specialist laboratory facilities and communal networking areas.
  Chris  delivered a lecture to a multidisciplinary group of 28 optics entrepreneurs and scientists from the region.

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