DCU
Coordinator
Liam Barry
About
Dr. Lakshmi Narayanan Venkatasubramani
Dr. Lakshmi Narayanan Venkatasubramani received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) in Chennai, India, in 2021. He then spent time as a Postdoctoral Researcher at IIT Madras and Dublin City University (DCU), where he focused on improving transmission throughput in short-reach systems. His research involved using advanced signal processing schemes and novel optical devices to optimize data transmission performance. Since June 2024, he has been a Research Fellow at the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory within the School of Electronic Engineering at DCU. He has been conducting research on the implementation of optical frequency combs and fast-switching optical sources for optical-switching fabrics and high-capacity transmission within data centre networks. Dr. Venkatasubramani has authored and co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He is a member of IEEE, as well as an early-career member of Optica and SPIE.
Eblana Photonics
Partner
Jim Somers
Jim Somers (CEO) obtained a B. Eng (Electronics) from University of Limerick (Ire) and M. Sc. (Industrial Eng) from the University of Tennessee. Before joining Eblana Photonics as CEO, he worked at Bourns Inc, a global manufacturer of automotive electronic components, circuit protection, magnetic and resistive products as a General Manager with WW responsibility for their Networks and
Magnetics Business Unit. For fifteen years prior to Bourns, Inc he worked at Verbatim Corporation, a leading global manufacturer and distributor of Data Storage and computer related products headquartered in North Carolina, USA in a variety of roles including engineering, product development, marketing and sales management in various locations such as Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan and the US.
Dr. Prajwal Doddaballapura
Dr. Prajwal Doddaballapura received his Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) and M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Communication Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India, in 2013 and from the University of Kassel, Germany, in 2016, respectively. In 2017, he joined the Photonics Systems and Sensing Laboratory (PSSL) at Dublin City University, Ireland, for his Ph.D. In 2022, he successfully graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Photonics Communications. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on reconfigurable multicarrier sources and has authored over 40 articles published in internationally peer-reviewed journals and conferences. In 2022, he transitioned from academia to industry and joined Eblana Photonics Ltd, Dublin, where he currently leads the R&D in optical communications. Some of his research interests include high-speed semiconductor lasers, direct and external modulation lasers, ultra-narrow linewidth lasers, optical injection locking and feedback, optical frequency combs for optical networks, and mmW/THz generation for 6G and beyond.
X-CELEPRINT LIMITED Ireland
Partner
Dr Alin Fecioru
Dr. Fecioru has a Doctoral Degree in Physics from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. From 2006 until 2014, he has held several positions with Seagate Technology in research, integration, and product development. In his current role, he is involved in developing micro-transfer printing solutions, project leadership and interfacing with customers on the value of heterogeneous integration.
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS FR
Partner
Dr. Erwan Lucas
Dr. Erwan Lucas is a French researcher. He graduated from École Polytechnique (X2009) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, MsC 2014). He obtained his PhD in 2019 in T. Kippenberg’s lab at EPFL, on the generation of low-noise optical frequency combs by nonlinear frequency conversion and Kerr soliton formation in micro-resonators. He then joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Colorado, to develop a method for inverse design and optimization of combs on micro-resonators.
He joined the French Centre national de la recherche (CNRS) in 2022, as a permanent research fellow in the Laboratoire ICB in Dijon. His research aims at developing innovative photonic architectures (complex effective dispersion, multimode resonators, …), to study and control the effect of additional parameters on the shape and dynamics of the resulting optical comb. The objective is to optimize the characteristics of a comb for a targeted application.
ENLIGHTRA SARL Switzerland Associated
Partner
Alain Yuji Takabayashi, PhD
Dr. Takabayashi received his BSc and MSc in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), respectively. He obtained a doctoral degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in the department of microsystems and microelectronics. There, he focused on the introduction of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to an industrial Silicon Photonics foundry platform to enable field programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs). At Enlightra, as part of a DARPA-funded project for low-noise microwave frequency references, he focused on optical frequency comb generation using photonic wire bonds and bulk crystalline microresonators. He currently leads Enlightra’s efforts in two EU-funded projects based on the silicon nitride material platform. One seeks to implement all-optical digital logic using a frequency-comb based clock signal, and the other engages in heterogeneous integration of active components using micro transfer-printing