Virtual symposium on Seeing Through Obscuration

6-8 July 2020

Opaque materials, including most living tissues, scatter the light that propagates through them. This scattering prevents the direct formation of images, obscuring our ability to see objects behind or inside the scatterer. However, the light passing through these materials has not been absorbed and lost – just redirected. The last five years has seen the emergence of remarkable techniques to overcome scattering and reconstruct images in situations previously considered intractable. These techniques promise a range of powerful new imaging systems, capable of seeing deep inside the human body using non-ionizing visible light, imaging around corners using back scatter from rough surfaces, and ultimately seeing through rapidly changing scattering environments such as mist and fog.

Originally planned as a conventional face to face symposium, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a transition to a virtual format. Although undoubtedly curtailing both the informal networking and the communal hill top walk, the revised format allowed us to trial new aspects to our format including the use of pre-recorded talks so that our zoom time was wholly devoted to discussion, facilitated poster sessions to engage in detailed technical exchange and panel session to explore the opportunities and challenges of a research career.  The success of these alternative approaches will undoubtedly feed through to the relaunch of our continuing face-to-face events.

Organisers

Dr Amanda Foust (Imperial College)

Professor David Phillips (University of Exeter)

Professor Miles Padgett (University of Glasgow, Member of the Optoelectronics Committee)

Dr Akhil Kallepalli (University of Glasgow)