Three Cal Poly students were honored at the 2024 Robert S. Hilbert Memorial Optical Design Competition for their work with photonics.
Electrical engineering students Kaleb Bellenbaum, Nick Ghaffarian and Lucas Lucia partnered with Synopsys Optical Solutions to use their computer-aided design tools to simulate custom photonic integrated circuits.
“The technology of electronic integrated circuits is well established with a long history back to the days of Intel producing the first 8080 microprocessor in the 1970s,” said electrical engineering Professor Dennis Derickson, who has worked closely with the students throughout their time at Cal Poly.
In the present day, electronics and optical communication components have merged to create photonic integrated circuits, which are used for sensing, biomedical applications, aerospace use and more.
“The design competition was an incredible opportunity, and I was very grateful for being a part of it,” said Ghaffarian, whose project was an optical 2×1 multiplexer design, which can be scaled and used in optical computing systems for high-speed data applications.
While most students awarded at the competition are at the Ph.D. level, Cal Poly’s Bellenbaum and Ghaffarian were recognized for their work as undergraduates, and Lucia was honored as a graduate student, exemplifying their high-level projects.
The annual design competition, named in honor of Optical Research Associates’ former President and CEO Robert S. Hilbert, recognizes excellence in student optical design projects. For more information on the 2024 competition and the winning projects, go to the competition results page here.
