Andrew Weiner, Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of ECE, speaking at STIx on the Hill 2019

ECE Prof. Andrew Weiner recently participated in STIx on the Hill 2019, a Congressional briefing on Science, Technology, and Information Exchange, hosted by the Coalition for National Security Research (CNSR) and the Department of Defense. The event is a showcase of DOD-funded research for members of Congress and their staff. It brings together both internal and external members of DOD’s technology community to discuss new ideas and share novel approaches to confronting the scientific challenges that face the defense community.

Weiner’s talk was entitled “Signal Processing at Light Speed: Ultrafast, Broadband, and Quantum.” He says he used his 30 years of research on broadband signal processing to make the case that basic research can evolve in ways that are interesting and impactful but often hard to foresee. Weiner says he also illustrated the evolution of femtosecond pulse shaping, a technology which he helped invent, from large and bulky laboratory prototype to compact commercial packages to current research on chip scale implementations.

"I enjoyed the opportunity to share my own story on DoD-funded basic research and talk with one of the few Ph.D. scientists in Congress as well as several staffers - some of whom were Purdue graduates,” says Weiner. “It was an interesting exercise to put together remarks for a mostly nontechnical audience and was hopefully helpful in some small way to promote continued support for basic research funding in the Department of Defense."

STIx was started in 2017 by the Basic Research Office to showcase the transformative impacts of the DoD's science and technology programs. Weiner was one of four speakers from universities at the 2019 event.