OpTeC Colloquium
OpTeC sponsors a colloquium throughout the academic year. This is a forum where a wide range of optical science and engineering topics are discussed at a level that can be understood by a broad spectrum of optics students, staff, and faculty. The primary purposes are to train students to give effective scientific talks and to promote cross-disciplinary interactions of students, staff, faculty, and local industry employees. Speakers include MSU students, staff, and faculty, and visitors from external universities, research labs, and companies.
Join our colloquium held during academic semesters on Thursday at 4:10 pm.
Norm Asbjornson Hall, Room 153
WebEx Link
March 30, 2023
Thomas Coleman
General Manager
Silixa, LLC
Fiber optic distributed sensing for environmental and infrastructure monitoring
Abstract
Distributed fiber optic sensing is a powerful monitoring technology that allows optical fibers, most typically used for telecommunications, to be transformed into vast sensing arrays with up to many thousands of independent measurement locations over distances of up to 100 kilometers by leveraging the principles of optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR). Quantification of temperature, strain, and acoustics is possible at all points along an optical fiber, simultaneously using a single fiber optic cable. Some of the most advanced applications of distributed sensing are in the earth sciences, due to the simplicity and inherent reliability of fiber optic sensors when deployed in harsh environments. In particular, borehole deployments are becoming widespread for reservoir characterization and monitoring. This presentation will provide an overview of Silixa’s technology as well as highlight recent and current earth sciences and infrastrucutre monitoring projects carried out by Silixa’s Missoula, MT office. The challenges of extracting the maximum value from big data along with a vision for the future of advanced, multi-application permanent monitoring systems will also be discussed.
Biography
Thomas joined Silixa in 2014 and has been involved in activities ranging from field installations and surveys, data analyses, installation and component design, and business development. In his current role, he oversees Silixa’s Environmental and Infrastructure business in North America including the CCUS, Geothermal, Geotechnical, Industrial, and Defense sectors. Thomas holds a B.S. in Geosciences from the University of Montana, an M.A.Sc. in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Guelph, and is currently working towards an M.B.A. from the University of Montana. Thomas has numerous publications related to fiber optic sensing applications and is co – principal investigator of Department of Energy funded research programs. In 2021, Thomas was awarded the U.S. D.O.E. Secretary’s Achievement Award as part of the Source Physics Dry Alluvium Geology Team for contributions advancing the science of nuclear explosion monitoring.
Upcoming Speakers
Date | Speaker | Group | Summary |
---|---|---|---|
April 27 |
Allison Barto |
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp |
Engineering the James Webb Space Telescope |
Past Speakers
Date | Speaker | Group | Summary |
---|---|---|---|
March 23 |
John Howell |
Chapman University |
Doppler Gyroscopes: Do we really understand the gyroscope? |
2/16/2023 |
Krishna Rupavatharam, Ph.D. |
Spectrum Lab |
Perspectives on the evolution of microwave and quantum photonics at Spectrum Lab |
2/9/2023 |
John W. Sheppard, Ph.D., FIEE |
MSU Gianforte School of Computing |
Demystifying machine learning through eXplainable AI |
1/26/2023 |
Finland Photonics |
Finnish Photonics Cluster |
Photonics in Finland |
12/8/2022 |
Nicholas Borys. Ph.D. |
MSU Physics |
An introduction to the MonArk NSF Quantum Foundry |
10/12/2022 |
Alex Hills |
Carnegie Mellon University |
Mitigating LEO-to-GEO satellite interference |
4/14/2022 |
Stephen Schultz |
Brigham Young University, Electrical & computer Engineering |
Dynamic measurement of soft body armor using optical fiber sensing |
3/31/2022 |
Bradley Whitaker |
MSU Electrical & Computer Engineering |
How machine learning can help scientists who shoot fish and insects with lasers |
2/24/2022 |
Tom Hausekn |
Optica |
Hot topics in optics and photonics |
2/25/2021 |
Jim Webb1 & Scott Wohlstein2 |
1 G.L. Services, Hertfordshire, England |
Using the LaserSafePC software for laser safety calculations |
2/4/2021 |
Brian D'Urso |
MSU Physics Department |
Towards precision pulsed levitated optomechanics in a magneto-gravitational trap |
1/21/2021 |
Wataru Nakagawa |
MSU ECE Department |
Nanophotonics Applications and Sabbatical Exploration |
1/14/2021 |
Nathan Kuehl Bryan Scherrer |
MSU Physics and ECE Dep'ts | Kuehl: Troubleshooting, repair and calibration of Burleigh WA-1500 Wavemeter. Scherrer: Model and simulation of wing-beat modulation lidar for making 3D maps of flying insects . VIDEO |
11/19/2020 | Dr. Charles Kankelborg | MSU Physics Department |
Designing a far ultraviolet spectrometer for the sun as a starAbstract |
11/12/2020 | Dr. Ioannis Roudis | MSU ECE Department | Nonlinear noise in coherent optical communications systems Abstract |
4/09/2015 | Dr. James G. Wessel | Seagate Corporation | Hard Disc-Drive Recording |
3/19/2015 | Dr. Jake Jacobsen | Synopsys, Optical Solution Group | A review of optical design software at Synopsys |
2/05/2015 | Dr. Mark A. Wistey | ECE Department, University of Notre Dame | Paths to record lasers and solar cells--and on cheap silicon |
11/24/2014 | Dr. Olav Solgaard | ECE Department, Stanford University | Miniaturized endoscopes and implantable sensors for in-vivo studies of cancer biology |
11/6/2014 | Dr. Kirk Knobelspiesse | NASA Ames Research Center | Cloud thermodynamic phase detection with polarimetrically sensitive passive sky radiometers. |
10/30/2014 | Dr. Kris Merkel | President & CEO S2 Corporation, Bozeman, MT | S2 Extreme Bandwidth Analyzer and Correlator (EBAC):Updates on Improvements and Demonstrations |
11/14/2013 | Dr. Upendra Singh | NASA Langley Research Center | Development of a pulsed 2-micron integrated-path differential absorption lidar for CO2 measurements |
10/31/2013 | Qing Gu | University of California - San Diego | Semiconductor nanolasers for dense chip-scale integration |
9/16/2013 | Dr. Jim Schwiegerling | College of Optical Sciences - University of Arizona | Leading edge optics for optimizing vision |
5/14/2013 | Dr. John Egan | Advanced Photonic Crystals | The benefits of low temperature hydrothermal crystal growth |
4/25/2013 | Dr. Edwin ("Ted") Heilweil | National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) | Time-resolved terahertz studies of carrier dynamics in P3HT and zinc-phthalocyanine/C60 nanolayered thin films |
2/26/2013 | Dr. Larry Johnson and Dr. Mark Carroll | Newport Corporation | Part 1. Overview of laser diode technology and applications; Part 2. Job opportunities and desired skills for graduates at Newport/ILX Lightwave |
2/8/2013 | Dr. Toralf Scharf | Institute of Microtechnology, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland | From achromatic microlenses to submicron focusing: physical optics at the micro-scale |