(A) World Association of Laser Therapy Conference 2008
The WALT conference held in South Africa is the largest world conference that addresses the current uses of lasers for therapeutic medical purposes. The event covers basic and clinical research, education, and
procedures and applications in medicine, surgery, dentistry, healthcare safety, new instrumentation, optical diagnosis, and a broad range of activities related to the understanding of biophotonics in medicine.
The various lectures provided a great amount of information for the NSC task “Biophotonic
applications of telecom photonic devices.” Among the ideas generated from the conference are (1) the use of VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) arrays to light therapy; (2) methods for efficiently coupling light from diverse optical sources into biophotonic-specific fibers; (3) inexpensive spectrometric techniques for assessing medicine purity; (4) need for efficient coupling standard single-mode fiber to photonic crystal fiber; (5) optical probe techniques for locating nerves during light therapy; and (6) the effects of optical fiber coupler characteristics on the performance of optical coherence tomography accuracy.
In addition the attending the paper presentations at the conference, Gerd Keiser gave an invited talk entitled “Optical Fibers for Laser Medicine: A Review,” which was related to research carried out on the NSC project NSC97-2218-E011-007-MY3.
(B) Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference 2009
The IEEE/OSA-sponsored Optical Fiber Communications/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference
(OFC-NFOEC) is a leading world conference that addresses all aspects of lightwave communications ranging from active and passive components to test equipment to large-scale telecom systems. Over 12,000 engineers, scientists, and manufacturers typically attend the conference and there are about 600 exhibitors.
In addition to the conference having numerous oral presentations and poster papers related to all aspects of the NSC project, there were workshops for discussing and debating the latest technology developments, a symposium on next-generation optical networks, panel discussions on a variety of issues related to network installations, and a good selection of short courses. Gerd Keiser taught one of these short courses (Basics of Optical Communications and WDM).
The following papers were of particular interest to the NSC project: (1) JThA20 “Waveguide coupler formed by a graded photonic crystal,” (2) JThA18 “Fused coupling between a SMF and a PCF,” (3) JThA36
“High bit rate polymer optical fiber links,” (4) JThA37 “MMF transmission at 40 Gb/s,” (5) JThA72 “Hybrid PON planning,” (6) JThA78 “A remotely reconfigurable PON,” (7) JWA3 “Statistics of splice losses,” (8) JWA4 “Deterioration of optical fiber joints.”
(C) Knowledge Globalization Conference 2009
One area of the NSC research project “Advanced Photonic Technology Developments and Applications”
(NSC97-2218-E-011-007-MY3) is “Communication Networks for Healthcare Services” which deals with the following topics:
Advanced photonic devices for remote health monitoring
Local networks (for example, within a home) that provide an interface between these devices and a healthcare-monitoring computer
Photonic communication network services for transmitting the health status of monitored people to healthcare facilities
Online education (or distance learning) for informing homebound recovering patients or elderly people in Taiwan about their health conditions.
Whereas the technical solutions to these topics can be achieved in a number of ways, the national culture in certain countries may hinder widespread acceptance of the device or method. Research and application engineers must be aware of strong beliefs by the public in traditional oriental healthcare methods and a cautionary or even distrustful view of western-based solutions. As an example, the above item related to distance learning is particularly important but challenging. Models for such applications and trial systems are being developed and tested in western countries, such as Germany and the USA. However, the cultural acceptance of some aspects of distance learning and specifically how it applies to healthcare in Taiwan differs from the acceptance in the USA. The Knowledge Globalization 2009 Conference had a number of
presentations related to such cultural concerns. Several key presentations are summarized below.
(1) A highly useful paper “The Impact of National Culture on Distance Learning Effectiveness” by A. Gaspay and L. Legoretta (published in Journal of Knowledge Globalization, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 2009) presents a comprehensive view of distance learning and its relation to national culture. The paper discusses the basic concepts of different learning models, for example, the distance learning application needs to consider
whether factors such as grades, learning satisfaction, or skill development are most important to the learner. In addition, the presentation methodology needs to take into account whether the society is individualistically based (such as is prevalent in the USA) or whether the society is more collectivistic or family oriented. This is important when trying to adapt individualistic style western distance-learning home-healthcare modules to the more family-oriented Taiwan society.
In the western countries, disabled or elderly people who cannot take care of themselves anymore typically are moved to a nursing home or assisted-living facility. In those facilities these people have private or semiprivate rooms, and a staff of nurses, dieticians, and personal-assistance workers monitor and care for a group of residents in the facility. Thus, online training or distance learning modules can be presented
relatively easily to such a group of staff members. The situation is quite different in Taiwan where infirm people typically are cared for at home by a non-skilled caretaker who often comes from another country.
Since such caretakers are dispersed among the community, distance learning methods for them need to be approached differently from those of western societies. Therefore we will be studying the ideas presented in this paper to guide our distance-learning developments in order to make them acceptable to Asian societies.
(2) A presentation by R. Sukanya et al. other addressed healthcare needs of adolescents, adults, and their families in different ethnic and immigrant communities in the US. Since such people often belong to a poorer disadvantaged class, the challenges of healthcare providers are how to connect with individuals and family members both in the context of therapeutic intervention and for prevention or outreach programs. The authors
highlighted basic challenges in undertaking community oriented programs because of the complexity and multifaceted healthcare needs of diverse groups and their perspectives on healthcare and therapeutic strategies.
The concepts presented here are of interest to the NSC project goal of studying how to provide
advanced healthcare monitoring devices, networks, and services to remote areas in Taiwan where people may have difficulty (or cultural reluctance) to seek preventative or therapeutic medical services. For example, we may need to decide what formats the human-to-device and the device-to-network interfaces should have.
(3) The talk by N. Wyche discussed the wide health gap between the population in general and minority groups (such as Haitians) in the US. In particular the study examined the effects of lifestyle, values, and beliefs unique to Haitians that often prevent these people from seeking healthcare. Similar culture, language, and economic barriers can exist for ethnic groups in Taiwan and other Asian countries. Taking such factors into account when researching new and advanced healthcare monitoring devices, networks, and services on the NSC project will result in affordable, efficient, and user friendly devices and methods for addressing the healthcare needs of poor groups in Taiwan. For example, one optoelectronic healthcare monitoring device we are researching on the NSC project involves the use of miniaturized, inexpensive electronic components that consume very little power. The objective is to make this a continuously wearable device that can interface by means of a low-cost wireless link to an inexpensive central monitoring station in the form of a small
electronic box. We now realize that it is an interesting challenge to make this system and its interface to a medical person or facility acceptable to various ethnic groups in Taiwan.
(4) The presentation by H. Agourram discussed the potential of national culture as a major barrier to
knowledge creation. The argument was that natural culture may constrain people in general and managers in particular from fully utilizing western-based concepts such as knowledge management systems and business intelligence applications which enable firms to gain and sustain competitive advantages. The same concepts can be applied to collecting and managing patient data, which is a part of knowledge management. On the NSC project we need to be aware of cultural differences when extending to the Taiwan society any
western-based knowledge-creation processes for collecting and managing information from advanced remote health-monitoring photonic devices and data gathering networks. Whereas such knowledge creation processes applied to health status monitoring might not be a problem for people residing in a western nursing home facility, in Taiwan the importance of gathering and processing healthcare data from home-based patients needs to be stressed to family supporters and domestic caretakers. Thus, in our ongoing research to create advanced health-monitoring photonic devices that can be operated and read from a remote location, we are starting to look at knowledge creation methods for automatically reading, storing, and processing the data.
(D) International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN 2009)
The 8th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN 2009) took place on 15-16 September 2009 in Beijing, China. Gerd Keiser was a General Chair of ICOCN 2009 and also was invited to give one of the two keynote speeches at the conference, “Applications of Photonic Devices to Life Sciences and Healthcare Systems.” This talk was related to research carried out on the NSC project
NSC97-2218-E011-007-MY3. In addition, prior to the conference, on 14 September Gerd Keiser visited the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) and the Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU).
The following paragraphs give some details of the trip.
1.0 ICOCN 2009 Highlights
The aim of ICOCN 2009 is the presentation of high-quality recent research results in the areas of optical devices, components, communications, transmission, network architectures, protocols, design, management and operation. The main goal of the conference is to bring together academics, scientists, professionals, engineers and industrialists who work in the field of optical communications and networks and to foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among them in this fast-moving and exciting field. ICOCN 2009 has been held annually in Asia-Pacific region since 2002.
In addition to the wide selection of contributed papers, there were 24 invited talks presented by
researchers from Australia, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The topics ranged from photonic components to optical signal processing to fiber optic sensors.
2.0 BUPT Visit Highlights
Recently BUPT established the Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications (IPOC Lab). The facilities of the IPOC Lab are located in a new spacious multi-story building that is dedicated to photonics explorations. The major research areas of the IPOC Lab include (1) fundamental theories of information photonics, (2) new types of photonic materials and components; and (3) advanced optical communication systems and photonic networks. To encourage the exploratory aspects, striving spirit, and dedication needed in scientific research, the operating principles of the BUPT IPOC Lab have been set to be open, sharable, collaborative, and competitive. Accordingly, the IPOC Lab has provided Open Projects and has established Open Labs to attract excellent domestic and international researchers to work directly in the IPOC Lab or be involved on joint projects.
3.0 BJTU Visit Highlights
Similar to BUPT, the Beijing Jiaotong University has numerous spacious facilities for photonics research.
For example, the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology (IOET) has 1500 square meters of space for
laboratories, which contain advanced equipment. An interesting observation is that many of the devices used in the experiments (such as a larger selection of optical fiber polarization controllers) were custom-made by IOET researchers. Similarly, much of the equipment in the Key Laboratory of All Optical Network and Advanced Telecommunication Networks were custom-made by graduate students and researchers. This includes a special fiber preform manufacturing machine, a custom-built fiber drawing tower that can accommodate almost any type of standard and specialty fiber preform (such as various forms of photonic crystal fibers), and several racks of 40-Gb/s optical transmission equipment for long-haul experiments. The optical fiber group has made hundreds of kilometers of various types of fibers and also has fabricated a wide variety of fiber Bragg gratings for 40-Gb/s long-haul transmission experiments.
(E) Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference 2010
The IEEE/OSA-sponsored Optical Fiber Communications/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC-NFOEC) was held in San Diego in March 2010. This is a leading world conference that addresses all aspects of lightwave communications ranging from active and passive components to test equipment to large-scale telecom systems. Over 12,000 engineers, scientists, and manufacturers typically attend the conference and there are about 600 exhibitors.
In addition to the conference having numerous oral presentations and poster papers related to all aspects of the NSC project, there were workshops for discussing and debating the latest technology developments, a symposium on next-generation optical networks, panel discussions on a variety of issues related to network installations, and a good selection of short courses. Gerd Keiser taught one of these short courses (Basics of Optical Communications and WDM).
The following workshops and sessions were of particular interest to the NSC project: (1) Workshop OME: Microfibers and Nanofibers: Are they here to stay? (2) Radio over Fiber; (3) Advanced PON
Technologies; (4) Advanced Network Applications; (5) Novel Component Technology for WDM-PON; (6) Fibers for FTTX and In-Home Networking.
(F) OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (OECC) 2010
On 5-9 July 2010, Gerd Keiser attended the IEEE-sponsored 15th OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (OECC-2010) in Sapporo, Japan. In addition to listening to presentations of the latest research in communications, he also presented technical paper entitled “Effects of Acid Rain on Optical Fiber Patch Cord Connectors.” This paper described research carried out on the NSC project NSC97-2218-E011-007-MY3. The objective of the paper was to examine and compare the reliability of optical fiber patch cord connectors in an outdoor environment. Optical connectors from three different manufacturers were compared. The
experimental focus was on the accelerated occurrence of corrosion induced by acid rain, high temperature, and rotation environmental testing. During the evaluation following the test, the connectors were checked for insertion loss and changes occurring on the tip shape of the patch cord connectors.
The OECC-2010 themes covered a broad range of communications topics. The topics included WDM access network technologies, high-speed transmitters and related photonic devices, network control
applications, novel photonic devices and technologies, high-speed TDM-PON technologies, radio-over-fiber technologies, and advanced optical code-division multiplexing (OCDM) for passive optical networks (PON).
(G) ICUMT-2010 Conference
On 18-20 October 2010, Prof. Gerd Keiser attended the International Congress on Ultra Modern
Telecommunications and Control Systems (ICUMT 2010) in Moscow, Russia. He had been invited to be a member of the Technical Program Committee by Edvin Skaljo, Head of the Department for Cable Systems at the BH Telecom Directorate in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH).
At ICUMT, Dr. Keiser presented an invited keynote speech entitled "Applications of Photonic Devices to Life Sciences and Healthcare Systems." In addition, he presented another technical paper “Status Monitoring
Concept for a WDM PON.” These talks were presented at the ICUMT “Fiber Optic Access Networks”
(FOAN) Workshop and described research carried out on the NSC project NSC97-2218-E011-007-MY3.
ICUMT is an annual international conference providing an open forum for researchers, engineers, network planners, and service providers in telecommunications. The presentations are targeted on newly emerging algorithms, systems, standards, services, and applications. The theme of the overall ICUMT-2010 conference included topics such as (1) wireless access technologies and related systems and protocols, (2) green communications, (3) information and coding theory, (4) digital broadcasting technologies and services, (5) intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), (6) social networks, and (7) distributed computing technologies and services.
The FOAN Workshop addressed implementation aspects of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, which are being installed worldwide at a rapidly growing rate. Today there are already more than 30 million FTTH connections in the world. One of the main drivers for the growing number of FTTH connections was appearing PON network. The evolution of PON technologies has provided an attractive area for telecom researchers and development engineers in a wide range of telecom disciplines. This goal of the FOAN workshop was to collect the latest research and engineering experience from all aspects of PON implementations. The four main topics addressed by the speakers were (1) How to connect PONs to other telecom networks. (2) Strategies for solving the growing bandwidth demands on passive optical networks. (3) Descriptions of the status of component and modules needed for PONs. (4) Overviews of new services that might be desired by users on a PON and how to offer these services.
Following the ICUMT conference, Prof. Gerd Keiser, Dr. Jeng-Ywan Jeng (Director of the Taiwan National Science Council Science and Technology Division in Russia), Prof. Kuei-Chu Hsu (National Central University, Taiwan), and Prof. S.K. Liaw (NTUST) visited the International Laser Center at Moscow State University. The visit was hosted by Dr. Svyatoslav Shlenov, Vice Director of the International Laser Center.
The meeting started with overview presentations of ongoing research by Prof. Vladimir Makarov (Chair of General Physics and Wave Processing; Director of the International Laser Center) and Prof. Alexander Priezzhev (Head of the Laboratory of Biophotonics). The research areas of the Laser Center cover various fields of laser physics, including nonlinear optics and photonics, nonlinear spectroscopy and laser diagnostics, interaction of laser radiation with matter, laser and mathematical biophysics and biomedicine, quantum and statistical optics, and x-ray optics. Several research labs were toured after the overview lectures.
(H) Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference 2011
The IEEE/OSA-sponsored Optical Fiber Communications/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC-NFOEC) was held in Los Angeles in March 2011. This is a leading world conference that addresses all aspects of lightwave communications ranging from active and passive components to test equipment to large-scale telecom systems. Over 12,000 engineers, scientists, and manufacturers typically attend the conference and there are about 600 exhibitors.
In addition to the conference having numerous oral presentations and poster papers related to all aspects of the NSC project, there were workshops for discussing and debating the latest technology developments, a symposium on next-generation optical networks, panel discussions on a variety of issues related to network installations, and a good selection of short courses. Gerd Keiser taught one of these short courses (SC289:
Basics of Optical Communications and WDM).
In addition, Gerd Keiser was a contributing author to the paper “Power consumption in hybrid access and home networking networks” presented at the conference. This paper described research carried out on the NSC project NSC97-2218-E011-007-MY3.
(I) Quality in Research (QiR) Conference 2011
On 03-06 July 2011 Gerd Keiser attended the Quality in Research 2011 (QiR 2011) Conference in Bali, Indonesia. In addition to attending the technical sessions, he also presented an invited technical paper entitled
“Acid Rain Corrosion Effects on Outdoor Optical Patch Cord Connectors.” This paper described research carried out on the NSC project NSC97-2218-E011-007-MY3. The objective of this study was to examine and compare the reliability of various brands of optical fiber patch cord connectors in a corrosive outdoor
environment.
The goal of the QiR 2011 conference was to bring together national and international researchers, academics, executives, government and business officials, practitioners, and technology leaders to discuss a wide range of engineering, design, and research issues in the achievement of excellence in products, projects, and services in urban eco-technology. In this situation, eco-technologies can facilitate, conserve, and restore the environment through the integration of sound engineering and ecological principles. Papers were
presented from a wide range of engineering areas including materials, mechanical, industrial, chemical, civil, computing, electrical, and environmental engineering.
The invited paper addressed the rapidly growing worldwide demands for high-speed Internet access, which has resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of subscribers connected to optical access networks. For example, there will be over 20 million fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) subscribers in Japan by 2010. In FTTP installations a number of reliability questions arise, since the optical connectors attached to
The invited paper addressed the rapidly growing worldwide demands for high-speed Internet access, which has resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of subscribers connected to optical access networks. For example, there will be over 20 million fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) subscribers in Japan by 2010. In FTTP installations a number of reliability questions arise, since the optical connectors attached to