Successful HiPPo Industry Day marks a milestone in smart high-power lasers
Academics and industry partners gathered in February for the successful inaugural HiPPo (Smart Fibre High Power Photonics) Industry Day which celebrated the achievements of the first year of this Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC)-funded programme.
Over 70 delegates from academia and industry participated in the event, offering a platform for early career researchers and PhD students to present their research outputs in the Smart High Power Photonics field through an engaging poster session.
The posters featured a diverse array of research areas, including but not limited to, advanced beam shaping with speciality fibres, power scalable fibre lasers in the visible and ultraviolet wavelength bands, indirect imaging of laser-processed materials via machine-learning plasma analysis, and real-time phase identification and correction in coherent beam combination using machine-learning algorithms.
Professor Michalis N. Zervas, the HiPPo principal investigator commented: “This event has been proven extremely valuable to us, bolstering our ties with our industrial partners and providing an ideal platform to share early experimental findings, fostering discussions on the potential for deeper future collaborations.”
The event also featured talks throughout the day, delivered by the HiPPo co-investigators, early career researchers, and PhD students. These presentations emphasised the industrial applications of the research and discussed the integration of artificial intelligence in laser control and material processing.
Dr Andy Gillooly, Fibercore said “For Fibercore, this was an extremely informative event balancing new academic findings with real industrial needs. The ability to meet industrial and academic partners between the academic presentations was very valuable and will help further build the UK high power photonics ecosystem’’.
Looking ahead, anticipation builds for the developments and outstanding impact expected in year two, signaling a promising future for the HiPPo programme.