IMT Talk : Photonics using functional materials for computing

New terms such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are now used daily. None of these would be possible without the fantastic advances in electronics, but surprisingly, new techniques and architectures for hardware engineering of such devices has only recently become an important topic. In this talk, I shall talk about how both device concepts and new materials can bring about a step change in this field. Photonics and Optoelectronics will become mainstream in the next few years, and I hope to convince you that whatever route these technologies take, a class of materials known as phase change materials will play a key role in their commercialization. I shall give an overview of these with a view towards their near-term applications in displays, and their medium-to-long-term potential in integrated photonic memories to photonic machine-learning hardware components, with a few of our recent results in this area.
I shall also briefly talk about new sustainable and additive nanofabrication technologies that are required to enable these technologies to be manufactured in future - not just on silicon, but on flexible and non-traditional substrates.

Short Bio:

Harish Bhaskaran is presently Professor of Applied Nanomaterials at Oxford. His research interests are in the areas of integration of functional materials in devices, primarily optoelectronic and computing devices, as well as addressing the emerging manufacturing challenges in this area. He holds the EPSRC Fellowship in Manufacturing (since 2013), is a Fellow of the IMechE and a Chartered Engineer.