Photonics is a Key Enabling Technology
Here you will find a series of images which outline some of the many applications of photonics and how they can help society to tackle some of the most relevant challenges of our time.
- Academia
- Industry
- Other
- Engineering
- Telecommunications
- Health
- Agrifood
- Art
- Energy
- Research
- Technology-Transfer
- Business-Development
- Communication
- IP
- Technical
- Diversity
- Women
- Skills
Photonics for health
Photonics plays an important role in helping us live healthier and longer lives. Applications already include advanced analytical tools and imaging techniques to identify ill cells with high accuracy, phototherapy for treatment and medical lasers for minimally invasive surgery.
To give you an idea of the magnitude of healthcare photonics, the worldwide market is about 50 billion Euros!
In the future we will see photonics improve high precision medicine, combining innovative diagnostic with fast and optimized therapies, and develop advanced wearable devices capable of monitoring medical treatments and health in real time. Also, the digital solutions brought about by photonics will massively benefit the healthcare sector, allowing for bigger and faster data analysis.
Photonics for smart cities
How will our homes, offices and cities look like in the future?
Urban spaces are increasingly incorporating technology and becoming “smart”, adapting to our needs. This revolution is supported by photonic innovations such as sensors, cameras, displays and optical IT, leading to IoT, signals connectivity, cybersecurity and advanced lighting.
Photonics for agrifood
The potential of photonics in generating advanced sensors can help us monitor the food chain from the field to our table.
High precision farming, which is a $ 5.9 Billion global market, will facilitate soil and produce analysis, allow for early detection of contaminants, reduce the need for chemicals and improve food quality and safety.
Customized lightings will optimize growth in greenhouse, photonics sensing will improve aquaculture and next generation spectrometers will help us know better what we buy and eat!
Photonics for a digital society
In the future to increase connections among individuals and things, advance industrial production, link homes and cities and allow automated driving, we will produce a huge amount of data. Can our current electronic-based communication technology handle the load and speed required? Nope, but optical and quantum computing are here to help!
These systems will be powerful, energy efficient and allow for higher levels of encryption and shielding, ensuring the safety required for full transition to a digital society.
Photonics for industry
The future potential of industry will be enabled by photonic technologies such as lasers, sensors and digital applications, which will also help in turning it greener, cheaper and highly flexible.
Combining high-precision lasers and digital design tools, we will be able to produce previously unthinkable products in terms of shape and dimension, in a totally customizable way and with high efficiency. On top of it, processes will be further automatized, digitalized and connected, placing photonics at the heart of the industry 4.0 thanks to an advanced use of sensors, imaging tools, optic fiber…
Photonics for sustainability
We love our planet, don’t we? Photonics minds the environment!
Laser-based industrial processes will save energy and resources, allowing for a longer lifetime of the final products and easier recycling. Optic fiber, advanced lighting, photonics-enabled sustainable agriculture and next generation photovoltaic technology will all reduce energy waste. Pollution detectors and advanced tools for waste sorting will also contribute to a greener future.
Photonics for mobility
Aren’t we tired of traffic and pollution?
The potential of photonics in advancing sensing and imaging techniques will enable automated driving, increase mobility safety and improve the quality of commuting time with the aid of augmented reality.
Additionally, new laser-based manufacturing technologies will open up opportunities for cheaper generation of lighter cars with fuel-efficient engines to reduce air pollution. And Light-based sensors will simplify accurate detection of contaminants in the atmosphere!
Photonics for the future
We agree that photonics is hugely beneficial for our society, don’t we? To be able to fully take advantage of the opportunities that photonics offers, we will have to take actions in educating, training and transferring skills to the future generation of innovators.
Efforts should be made to create awareness, connect stakeholders, encourage a multidisciplinary and international vision of science and close the gender gap. These are the pillars of the CARLA project.
