A lens brings a single plane into focus on a planar sensor; hence, parts of the scene that are outside this planar focus plane are resolved under defocus. Can we break this precept by enabling a “lens” that can change its depth of field arbitrarily? This work investigates the design and implementation of such a computational lens with spatially- selective focusing. Our design uses an optical arrangement of a Lohmann lens and a phase-only spatial light modulator to allow each pixel to focus at a different depth. We extend classical autofocusing techniques to the spatially-varying scenario where the depth map is iteratively estimated using contrast and disparity cues, enabling the camera to progressively shape its depth-of-field to the scene’s depth. By obtaining an all-in-focus image optically, our technique advances upon prior work in two key aspects: the ability to bring an entire scene in focus simultaneously, and the ability to maintain the highest possible spatial resolution.

Yingsi is a PhD candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Prof. Aswin Sakaranarayanan and Prof. Matthew O’Toole. Her research focuses on designing and building next-generation computational imaging and 3D display systems. By integrating computer vision, optics, signal processing, and machine learning, she creates new approaches to capture, process, and visualize three-dimensional information for mixed reality and machine vision applications. Yingsi's work has been recognized with the Best Paper Award at SIGGRAPH 2023, the Best Demo Award at ICCP 2023, and the Best Paper Honorable Mention Award at ICCV 2025. Yingsi is also a recipient of the Tan Endowed Graduate Fellowship and the James Sprague Presidential Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to CMU, Yingsi obtained her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Columbia University and her Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Colgate University. She was a research intern at Meta Reality Labs in the Display Systems Research team (2024, 2025) and Snap Research in the Computational Imaging team (2020). She was also a software engineering intern at Google Search (2019).

Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) combines narrow-linewidth, wavelength-tunable lasers with interferometric detection to achieve high-resolution, depth-resolved imaging in scattering media. This presentation focuses on the implementation of thermally and MEMS-tuned VCSEL sources in compact OCT systems, and their potential to enable next-generation medical diagnostics.

Milana Kendrisic is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine (Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital), specializing in the development of innovative optical coherence tomography (OCT) technologies. Her research spans from designing low-cost OCT systems and capsule endoscopes for accessible diagnostics, to advancing dynamic contrast methods for enhanced imaging performance, with the overarching goal of broadening OCT’s clinical impact.

Recent designs for novel infrared fiber amplifiers in all-optical unregenerated DWDM transmission circumnavigating the Earth with satellite free-space and subsea fiber lightwave systems are discussed. Practical architectures and timelines for deployment of these novel amplifiers and systems are presented. The talk will cover the following points: +Motivation for This Work +Bottom Line Up Front +Basic Elements of Lightwave Communications Systems +Key Spectral Operating Bands for IR Fiber Amplifiers +Design of 1550 nm Fiber Amplifiers for Satellite Free Space DWDM Transmission (Developed at Fibertek) +System Design for 1550 nm 40,000 km Satellite Free Space Unregenerated Transmission +Design of 2000 nm Fiber Amplifiers for Terrestrial/Subsea Fiber Optic DWDM Transmission (Developed at RET and Associates) +System Design for 2000 nm 40,000 km Fiber Optic DWDM Unregenerated Transmission +Comparison of Free Space Satellite and Fiber Optic Terrestrial/Subsea Fiber Amplifiers and All-Optical Unregenerated Transmission Systems that Circumnavigate the Earth +Conclusions and Summary

Dr. Robert E. Tench received a B.A. in Physics with High Honors from Swarthmore College in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT in 1985. The title of his dissertation was "Precision Studies of Atom-Field Interaction in Vapors" and his thesis supervisor was Prof. Shaoul Ezekiel of EECS and AeroAstro. His photonics and fiber optics career has involved research, development, and manufacturing at AT&T and Lucent Bell Labs, Agere Systems, the National Security Agency, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Cybel LLC, and Fibertek. He is currently President and Chief Scientist at RET and Associates LLC (www.retandassociatesllc.com). He has placed over two dozen photonics and fiber optics products into manufacture, has twelve patents granted or pending, and has published over 115 journal and conference papers.

I will show an application of the Lean automated theorem proved in physics.

BSc: Victoria university of Wellington, NZ MSc+PhD: Uppsala University, Sweden Postdoc: MIT