Nonlinear Fourier Transform Workshop

This was a 2-day workshop located in TU Delft in the Netherland on 3th-4th February 2020. One of the main organizers was the FONTE project (https://fonte.astonphotonics.uk/) in which I am one of the ESRs (early-stage researchers). 

The topics that were discussed in the workshop can be found in this link (https://nft-workshop.astonphotonics.uk/schedule/), together with abstracts. The atmosphere was pleasant, fulfilled with engaged researchers actively answering numerous questions and starting state-of-art discussions. For those who engaged recently in the topic and those who were like to review and rethink the concepts, we had the opportunity to have a great introduction in the theme given by Professor Sander Wahls. 

The nonlinear Fourier transform, in a few words, is a method to solve some non-linear partial differential equations such as the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, which describes the propagation of light in optical fibers.  In other words, solving/understanding this equation allows us to design signaling schemes tailored to optical fibers and thus increase the speed of communications (more speed for the internet!).

It was also my first time in Delft and I must say I really enjoyed the event and of getting to know so many brilliant minds. The city itself is a must see- a small and cozy urban area painted with several canals. The historical center is a joyful place to visit and to have great traditional meals. The university is stupendous and I was really impressed by the mixture of traditional and contemporary architecture. It was a great experience!

PhD Workshop on Next-Generation Cloud Infrastructure - Microsoft Cambridge

The workshop in Microsoft Cambridge was a two-days of multidisciplinary topics for the next-generation of cloud infrastructure in Europe. I was able to talk to researchers of different fields about the common topic of data-center, which is one of the goals of my current research. We were hosted in a hotel in Cambridge/UK near the event location, and it was easy to arrive and have a good rest in the night.

The first lecture was about "how to give a research talk" with Simon Peyton Jones, which was informative and fun! We also heard about optical storage for long-term using ultrafast laser optics to store data in quartz glass (project silica). The honeycomb project which proposes specialized hardware for storage systems (project honeycomb), and the iris project to use new hardware and optical technologies for regional and Wide Area (WAN) cloud networks (project iris). It was well organized, and the topics of the lectures were enlightening.

Besides the Microsoft research lectures, we had two poster sections. It was an informal and enjoyable part of the workshop about the general topic of cloud infrastructure. I was also able to present some of the results of my research project (link to Stenio's poster).