Tutorials

July 23, 2024, 9:00 - 12:30 with coffee break

The tutorial will be focused on highly accurate and high spatial resolution distributed optical fiber sensors, based on either Brillouin or Rayleigh scattering. The recent trends of the technology and direction of future research in this area will be provided. Finally, potential new applications will be suggested and discussed. In the second part of the tutorial, a distributed optical fiber sensor based on a frequency-domain configuration will be described and demonstrated in laboratory experiments. 

July 23, 2024, 9:00 - 10:30 

The tutorial will be focused on latest advances on optical biosensors, based on either intensity, wavelength and polarization analysis and smart data processing. The recent trends of the biosensing and potential research in this area will be provided. Finally, potential new portable platforms and optical designs will be discussed for hot topic areas.

July 23, 2024, 11:00 - 12:30 

The tutorial will focus on the evolution of solutions proposed over about twenty-five years of research activity at the University of Catania in the field of polymer-based deformation sensors. Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites (IPMCs), based on Nafion, will be described as the initial solution. All-polymeric Ionic Polymer-Polymer Composites (IP2Cs) will be discussed as an intermediate solution. Finally, transducers based on Bacterial Cellulose, as a greener polymer, will be examined.

Lab-scale prototypes, developed with the aim of demonstrating the application potential of the proposed composites, will also be presented. Prototypes for biomedical applications, flow meters, touch systems, and inertial sensors will be described to showcase the continuous evolution of novel composites and their corresponding application potentialities.