Webinar on metasurface optics design

Metasurface Optics for Information Processing and Computing

Presented by Shane Colburn

Thu, Oct 9, 2025 1:00P EDT

Webinar registration link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6394629234437980504?source=website

Optics has long played a central role in information processing, from early analog computing systems to modern optical imaging and communication platforms. Recent advancements in nanofabrication and wavefront control have enabled a new class of ultrathin optical elements known as metasurfaces, which significantly expand the design space for manipulating light. By tailoring local phase, amplitude, and polarization responses at subwavelength scales, metasurfaces offer a compact and highly controllable platform for performing complex transformations on optical wavefronts.

Metaoptics for optical information processing leverages co-design of optical elements and computational algorithms to perform operations typically handled in the digital domain. Metasurfaces can be engineered to modify the point spread function of imaging systems, enabling custom optical transformations that enhance task-specific performance. Convolutional metaoptics, in particular, allow spatial convolutions to be executed directly in the optical domain as part of a hybrid analog-digital pipeline. These approaches present opportunities for reducing latency and energy consumption in computational imaging and embedded vision systems. Key challenges remain in achieving robustness, scalability, and seamless integration with electronic hardware, motivating continued research at the intersection of optics, machine learning, and photonic device design.

Who should attend:

This session is ideal for professionals involved in research and development, optical engineering, photonic device development, computational imaging, machine learning for optics, and advanced nanofabrication. It is particularly relevant to those working with technologies such as metasurfaces, wavefront shaping, hybrid analog-digital imaging systems, convolutional metaoptics, embedded vision hardware, and optical information processing platforms.

About the presenter:

Shane Colburn received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington. His research primarily focused on dielectric metasurfaces for computational imaging and information processing, emphasizing hybrid optical-digital systems that leverage the compact form factor offered by metasurfaces and the aberration mitigation capabilities of computational imaging. He developed design methods using metaoptics for object detection and performing convolutions in the optical domain. Additionally, he investigated methods for reconfiguring metasurfaces, including novel architectures, electromechanical tuning, and phase-change material metasurfaces.

Colburn was previously the director of optical design at Tunoptix, where he led the development of its proprietary designs and nanofabrication efforts for building robust, high-performance imaging systems using metaoptics. Colburn is now the founder and managing director of Edgedyne, a company that develops information processing technologies based on metaoptics and provides photonic design and consulting services to clients in a range of sectors, including telecommunications, semiconductor, remote sensing, medical imaging, and consumer electronics.

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