The Spotlight Report

In this episode, I sat down with Heejoo Choi. Heejoo recently won the Kevin P. Thompson Optical Design Innovator Award He won the award for an innovative UV cross-dispersion space telescope and engineering of a laser-truss LBT metrology system. He is currently an assistant research professor at the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences and an Optical Scientist at the Large Binocular Telescope.

Heejoo discusses the motivations for why innovative designs were required in the LBT metrology system as well as the Hyperion cross-dispersion space telescope. He goes into what drove the design choices and how that impacted the system performance overall. These are both cutting-edge optical designs so I am sure the audience will have a lot to explore in both.

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Youtube video version here.

Resources:

1. Andrew Rakich, Heejoo Choi, Christian Veillet, John M. Hill, Matthieu Bec, Yang Zhang, Trenton Brendel, Breann Sitarski, Michael Gardiner, Dae Wook Kim, Stephanie Rodriguez, "A laser-truss based optical alignment system on LBT," Proc. SPIE 11445, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VIII, 114450R (13 December 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2558013

2. Heejoo Choi, Isaac L. Trumper, Yi-Ting Feng, Hyukmo Kang, Joel Berkson, Haeun Chung, Erika T. Hamden, Dae Wook Kim, "Long-slit cross-dispersion spectroscopy for Hyperion UV space telescope," J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst. 7(1) 014006 (12 March 2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.7.1.014006 

 Link to read paper ungated

In this episode, I sat down with David Shafer. David has been creating incredible and cutting edge lens designs for decades; my first introduction to his work were his free slides he posted which looked like magic to me at the time. David discusses how he got into optics, his background in philosophy and how that guided his approach to optical design, and his optical design methodology. He also touches upon his insights about operating as a consultant, and how he created a successful career in optical design consulting. Overall this has been one of favorite interviews, David's experience and thoughts on optical design is incredible and I hope you enjoy the episode as well. 

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Resources: 

In this episode, we do something a bit new, in that I am the person being interviewed by previous guest Kris Ford. I talk about my own perspectives on being a co-founder of ELE Optics, the general experience , fun, and stress of a startup. I do want to give warning this episode is lighter on technical aspects or science and instead focuses on our experience in business. Kris is an excellent interviewer and I believe sheds light on some interesting topics. We also touch upon Kris' experience in his own startup. If you are interested in my own thoughts on a startup, or hearing two scientists talk about the business and ethical considerations of forming a company, please give it a listen!

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View the Youtube video version of the episode here.

Resources:

1. Life After Faith

2. Meditations on Moloch 

3. After Virtue

4. The Nuts and Bolts of a Business Plan MIT OpenCourse (free!)

5. West with the Night 

6. Notes from the Underground

7. Master and Man (free!)

8. The Myth of Sisyphus

In this episode, Bob Parks discusses his background in optics. For those who are not aware, Bob has been a key figure in the world of optics, being a force to establish using an auto-stigmatic microscope for all sorts of alignment and assembly of optical systems (and that is only a small portion of his contributions). Bob explains how he entered optics, his early experiences at the Kodak company and how rich that experience was, his work on the Hubble Investigatory committee, and his work involved in creating the Point Source Microscope. We also explore recent innovations for using the PSM, and how computer generated holograms tie into these potentials. Bob is truly and incredible optical scientist, and was one of my favorite guests to interview. We only scratch the surface of topics I would like to discuss this episode but I highly recommend it.

After the end of the episode Bob shared a few more thoughts, which I am putting here. Bob Parks:"At the very end you asked me about advice for younger people and I mentioned diversity in interests. Another thing is being open to taking risks, much as you guys are. It is so much nicer to suggest a new adventure and have a yes response than no. And one other thing. As we talked about, science and engineering get you hard facts, and just one "right" answer. If a colleague gets a different answer, don't call them out, but ask what assumptions they made deriving their answer. That you differ is often that you have made different assumptions."

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REPLY

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Video version of this episode can be viewed here. Comment and discuss the episode here.

Resources:

1. Optical Perspectives Group LLC , Bob Parks optical engineering company. 

2. Alignment with Axicon Plane Gratings, by Robert Parks

3. Aligning Reflecting Optics with Bessel Beams, by Robert Parks

4. The Autostigmatic Microscope and How It Works, by Robert Parks

5. Hubble Space Telescope Secondary Mirror Vertex Radius/conic Constant Test Final Technical Report, by Robert Parks

6. A Canticle for Leibowitz, an excellent Sci-Fi book exploring meaning, ethics, and science.

In this episode, Craig Ament discusses thin films and their near universal application in the optics industry. He comments on how he started his company, Arizona Thin Films, key considerations in incorporating films into a design, and what unique features his company provides. Craig also discusses some of the key lessons learned with regards to founding a company, and addressed common questions he gets when a customer needs a new thin film for their product. Highly recommended!

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Resources:

I sat down with Dave Aikens and Eric Herman to discuss their recent book “Modern Optical Drawings: The ISO10110 Companion”, which they co-authored along with Richie Youngworth. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for those who need to get an optic made. It concisely serves as a companion reference book for when you need to know how to define certain aspects of your system, and it contains practical guides on how to utilize the ISO10110 standard in your design process to assure you get your system made correctly, from design to drawing to verification and testing. Dave and Eric discuss why they made the book, some of the art and subtleties behind what goes into getting a design made correctly, and the benefits of using the ISO10110 designation in your drawings.

View the video of the conversion on Youtube.

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Resources:

This week I spoke with Dr. Shelby D V Ament, who is currently a senior optical scientist at Arizona Optical Metrology. Shelby discusses how she decided to enter optics, why art was an essential aspect of arriving into the field, and her dissertation work pairing holograms and solar energy. She also discusses her passion for optics outreach and teaching the community and younger generation about optics. I have had the pleasure of working with Shelby in a professional role, and her knowledge and expertise in optics is consistently inspiring. I highly recommend this episode, for insights on how optics bridges seemingly unrelated areas like art, and for absolutely the best explanation of computer generated holograms, and how they are used in practice, that you can get anywhere.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/BA4HkQa9QBA

Additional Links:

This week we spoke with Erin McDermott, who has most recently created Odd Engineer, a service for companies to find experts in a field who they can quickly speak to for expert advice. Erin discusses how she got into optics, the many obstacles she faced along her career, and the stunning determination she has cultivated and maintained to get to where she is at now; namely being her own boss, and creating her own career. She also discusses her recently published book, Freelancer’s Framework, where she discusses how engineers of physical products can succeed as freelancers. I have had the pleasure of working with Erin in a professional role, and her knowledge of how to succeed and thrive in the world of optics, which she shares here, has been invaluable. I am sure listeners will find this episode to be a great resource.

Video version of this episode.

Episode forum, where you can comment and discuss this episode further and leave us feedback. 

Additional Links:

* Odd Engineer, Erin’s platform securing expert engineering advice.

*  Freelancer’s Framework, Guidebook 1, Erin’s recent publication.

* College Co-Op programs article from 2020.

* Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) pdf explaining the general concept.

* Youtube video of a Goniophotometer in action. 

In this episode, Henry Quach, who is in his third year of the Wyant  College of Optics graduate program, discusses how his research has been  affected by COVID-19. This is a fascinating topic as we discuss how this  period of graduate school is already typically one of the more  challenging yet formative phases of a graduate program, and Henry  explores how the unique constraints have required creative inspiration  on the student's part to maintain forward progress. We discuss mental  health, research, and the meta-purpose of graduate school; and if all of  that doesn't meet the science/engineering expectations for this  podcast, Henry also shows off some very cool home built devices and 3D  printed tools he has created.

For updates on Henry's, and the LOFT group's, research, see: http://www.loft.optics.arizona.edu/ 

For the full video of the episode, please visit: https://youtu.be/WsofGJlQ1IY 

Our guest this week is Julius Muschaweck, who has an extensive and impressive background in illumination. He discusses his prior work in the field, the importance of LEDs, and his current work on fostering education on this overlooked area of physics and creating an active illumination community. I greatly enjoyed this conversation, Julius is clearly an expert in illumination, and is excellent and teaching about these topics.  I strongly encourage listeners to explore is personal page, his announced courses (I intend to attend them), and his free webinars, shared in the related resources section.

Related Resources:

Julius' Personal Website

Julius' LinkedIn Page

Julius' Illumination Course Announcement

OSRAM Company

Arri Cameras Company

Communities of Practice Introduction

Julius' Webinar "What is Etendue and Why is it Important?"

Julius' Webinar "Source Modeling in Illumination Optics"

Data Format Standard for Sharing Light Source Measurements

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Watch the youtube video of the discussion: https://youtu.be/YmOZ7lGkXPU