Professor Ellis has recently been awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER award, supporting research on freeform optics metrology. This award, CAREER: Breaking the Freeform Optics Metrology Barrier with Synthetic Wavelength Interferometry, supports $500k in research over 5 years. More information on this award can be found here.
Kaitlin and Mike successfully defend their PhD Proposals
Two PhD students, Kaitlin Wozniak (Optics) and Michael Echter ( Mechanical Engineering), have successfully defended their PhD proposals, outlining the scopes of their respective research to finalize their degrees. Kaitlin’s proposed work is on Properties and Safety of Femtosecond Photo-modification in Hydrogel and Cornea as part of the IRIS: Intra-tissue Refractive Index Shaping program at the University of Rochester. Mike’s work is on Composite Laminate Characterization and Piezoelectric Actuator Testing for
the Design of a Precision, Adaptive, High-Strain Composite Hinge, working with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Congratulations to both!
Xiangzhi Yu successfully defends PhD!
Xiangzhi Yu, Mechanical Engineering PhD student, has successfully defended his PhD work entitled Multi-Degree of Freedom Optical Metrology Techniques. Xiangzhi is the second student graduate with his PhD from the group. After graduation, Xiangzhi will head to FARO where he has accepted a position as a Senior Systems Engineer. Congratulations and good luck on the next step in your career!
Undergraduate Bill Green gives talk at ASPE Annual Meeting
Undergraduate student Bill Green from Mechanical Engineering recently presented his work on Gradient Index (GRIN) Metrology at the 31st Annual ASPE Meeting. His work, entitled Development of a Twyman-Green Interferometer Capable of Measuring the Thermal Properties of Optical Materials, was presented on behalf of co-authors James Corsetti, Greg Schmidt, Duncan Moore, and Jonathan Ellis. It is a pretty rare feat for an undergraduate student to be selected to present at a major international conference. Well done Bill!
Professor Ellis gives invited talk at Frontiers in Optics; Julia hands out awards
Professor Ellis recently gave an invited talk at the Frontiers in Optics conference held in Rochester, NY this past October. The subject of his talk, IRIS – A new paradigm in laser refractive correction, was an overview of how femtosecond lasers and multi-photon absorption can induce meaningful refractive change in cornea and hydrogels. This work, with co-authors Gustavo Gandara, Dan Brooks, Kaitlin Wozniak, Sara Gearhart, Len Zheleznyak, Paul Funkenbusch, Wayne Knox, and Krystel Huxlin, is part of a larger research program centered on non-invasive vision correction.
In addition to that talk, Professor Ellis was not the only person in the family participating in OSA’s 100 year celebration. Julia Ellis, his daughter, was selected to hand out awards to the panel of seven Nobel Laureates.
Group of Piglets finishes second in ASPE Student Competition
Ethan Burnham-Fay, Xiangzhi Yu, Fenghe Zhong, and Allie Browar placed second in the 3rd Annual ASPE Student Competition held in Portland, Oregon in late October this fall. The group spent all night working on a laser scanning system using MechBlocks from MOTUS Mechanical.
Also, these four students, along with Chen Wang, Dan Brooks, Kaitlin Wozniak, and Bill Green were all recipients of NSF Grantee Scholarships to attend the ASPE Annual Meeting.
Xiangzhi defends his PhD Dissertation today
Xiangzhi Yu, PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, will defend his dissertation work Wednesday, November 11 at 9:30 AM (today!!!). His PhD work is on Multi-Degree of Freedom Optical Metrology Techniques. We wish Xiangzhi well during his presentation and defense.
New Papers Online
Papers by Chen Wang and Bill Green have appeared in their final form online. Chen’s paper, Data Age Error Compensation for Nonconstant Velocity Metrology, was recently accepted in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. Bill’s paper, with a PhD student James Corsetti from Optics, was recently accepted and published by Applied Optics. This paper is on Simultaneous interferometric measurement of linear coefficient of thermal expansion and temperature-dependent refractive index coefficient of optical materials. Links to both papers can be found on the publications page. Nice job and congratulations!
Bill Green has co-author paper accepted
Bill Green, Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Student, has had a paper accepted as a co-author by Optical Engineering. This is Bill’s first time co-authoring a paper. Additionally, Bill will be presenting his work on thermal expansion and dn/dT metrology at the upcoming ASPE Annual Meeting in Portland, OR. When the final version is published and online, we’ll be sure to update.
Congrats Bill!
Xiangzhi and Chen have papers published
Xiangzhi Yu and Chen Wang both have had first author publications accepted recently. Chen’s paper is Data age error compensation for non-constant velocity metrology, which advances his previous work on data age error to arbitrary orders. This paper has been accepted into IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. More details will be posted when available.
Xiangzhi had two 1st author papers published. His first is with Dr. Tieli Zhang, a former visiting scientist in the group from the Beijing Aerospace Institute for Metrology & Measurement Technology, on Absolute air refractive index measurement and tracking based on variable length vacuum cell. This work was supported by NIST and the paper was published in Optical Engineering. Xiangzhi’s second paper was with co-authors Dr. Steven Gillmer (now at MIT Lincoln Labs) and Dr. Shane Woody (InSituTec, Inc.) and was published in Review of Scientific Instruments. This work was on the Development of a compact, fiber-coupled, six degree-of-freedom measurement system for precision linear stage metrology with research support from NIST and NSF.
Congratulations to both students and the rest of their team! Well done!