Biomedical Photonics, Quantum Take Center Stage at 2026 CREOL Industrial Affiliates Symposium
Annual three-day program draws hundreds to CREOL to network, learn, and present.
CREOL hosted nearly 300 attendees from around the world for the annual Industrial Affiliates Symposium in March 2026.
The Symposium brings together members of the CREOL Industrial Affiliates (IA) program in an intentional fusion of academia, industry, and government. Students and faculty also took advantage of the many networking opportunities the three-day program created. This year, the growing opportunities in biomedical photonics and quantum photonics were in focus, as well as the initiatives in Florida that aim to support their expansion.
On Thursday, March 5, more than 150 students took part in the Spring Optics and Photonics Career Fair. Later that afternoon, dozens were welcomed to CREOL for lab tours, and to attend a special guest lecture “New Frontier for Quantum Computing” presented by Mikhail Lukin of Harvard University and QuEra Computing, Inc. The evening concluded with the annual Affiliate-Student Mixer event.
On Friday, after a warm welcome from UCF Vice President for Research and Innovation Winston Schoenfeld, CREOL Dean David Hagan gave an overview of CREOL, highlighting recent faculty additions, construction progress on the upcoming new teaching lab, the launch of CREOL’s Teacher and Student Ambassador Programs, and the plans to continue growing the college’s enrollment. Talks and presentations included:
Optical Technologies: New Opportunities for Accelerating Innovation in Biomedical Research
Bruce Tromberg, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health
Biophotonics: From Effective Diagnostics to Untraditional Biomarkers
Aristide Dogariu, CREOL Professor
Relativity Networks Discussion
Jason Eichenholz, Founder and CEO, Relativity Networks
FAQT Overview
Jason Mahon, Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and Chief Manufacturing Officer, Florida Department of Commerce
CREOL’s Quantum Leap Initiative
Andrea Blanco-Redondo, CREOL Professor
Unlocking the Value of Quantum Computing
Paul Parazzoli, Public Sector Business Development, IBM Quantum
Pioneering Quantum Infrastructure
Noel Goddard, CEO, Qunnect
Constructing the Quantum Platform
Augusto Carvalho, Quantum Field Engineer, IonQ
View the full IAS ’26 schedule here.
Participants also heard industry update presentations from Optica President Gisele Bennett and SPIE Director of Technology Outreach John Yoon. Company spotlight presentations were given by Rick Skoglund with Optikos and Larry Boxler of Keysight Technologies, Inc.
Additionally, 29 students debuted CREOL’s new Student Poster Elevator Pitch Competition, during which they each had 45 seconds to present their posters to the conference in a lightning-round style session.
The tech conference portion of the Symposium concluded with the recognition of Gabriel Skowronek as the winner of the poster competition, 2025-2026 Student of the Year Swati Bhargava, and 2026 Distinguished Alumnus Award Honoree Gisele Bennett ’87 ‘89MS.
Industrial corporations and businesses that are involved in the development or use of optics and photonics, or foresee the company’s involvement in future applications and processes using optics and photonics, are encouraged to become involved in our programs through research sponsorship and by enjoying the benefits provided through our Industrial Affiliates program. You can read more about it here.
