Review of the V Symposium “Optics in Industry”
Eric Rosas

The V Symposium “Optics in Industry “(V SOI) was held on last September 8 & 9 in the city of Santiago de Querétaro, having as hosting hotel the Fiesta Americana and reached record assistance of above 200 people as well as record presentation of poster contributions.

At the V SOI opening ceremony Dr. J. Salvador Echeverría Villagómez, Director of Physical Metrology at the Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM) who assisted also representing Dr. Héctor Nava Jaimes, General Director of CENAM, thanked the optical Mexican community for having trusted in CENAM for organizing the fifth edition of the Symposium and warmly welcomed all the audience; next Dr. Oracio Barbosa, president of the Academia Mexicana de Óptica, A. C. (AMO) emphasized the forum consolidation in this its fifth celebration and acknowledged CENAM for its hospitality and dedication in organizing the event and then invited Eng. Oscar Anaya Muñoz, Director for the development of MPYMES from the Querétaro State Government and personal representative of the Governor of the State of Querétaro in this ceremony, to formally declare the opening of the V SOI. Besides the distinguished speakers already mentioned, el Ing. Anaya was accompanied at the presidium by Mr. Oscar A. Vega Pérez, personal representative of the Mayor of Querétaro, by Dr. Eric Rosas, chairman of the V SOI and by M. Sc. Eduardo Gómez Chibli, Technical and Long Distance Director of Telmex, who gave the opening talk entitled “Optical Technologies in Telecommunications: The Way to a New Era”.

In the V SOI eight invited speakers gave their plenary talks, among which there were distinguished members of the Mexican optical community from the academy, the industry and the government. Besides some important people from international organizations also assisted as Dr. Silvia Mioc, who works for the Colorado Photonics Industry Association and came to the Symposium representing the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) as well as Dr. Yoshi Ohno from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and liaison with the Council for Optical Radiation Measurements (CORM).

They also were presented 103 poster contributions and the technological offer from the seven institutions promoting the Symposium, the Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, A. C. (CIO), the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), the Instituto de Investigación en Comunicación Óptica of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (IICO-UASLP), the Centro de Óptica del Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), the Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnológico of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CCADET-UNAM) and the División de Óptica y Radiometría of the Centro Nacional de Metrología (DOR-CENAM).

The activity of both days was closed with a discussion panel on the topic of the day which for September 8 was the definition of strategic development areas in optics for Mexico, while for Friday it was the mechanisms for the integration of R&D networks in optics. The chairs for those panels were Dr. Francisco Javier Mendieta Jiménez and Dr. J. Salvador Echeverría Villagómez, respectively; and some of the panelists were Dr. Eugenio R. Méndez Méndez who is the Senior Scientific Officer of the Consorcio Binacional de Óptica, the Eng. Antonio Sierra Gutiérrez, General Director of the Centro de Ingeniería y Desarrollo of Condumex, among other.

One more activity carried out during the V SOI was the presentation of successful collaboration experiences between academy and industry. Those cases were presented in two sessions and six members of the Mexican optical community had the opportunity to share their experiences to some colleagues of the industry.

The innovative activity introduced to the Symposium’s format in this edition, the hands-on workshops had a great demand. This time four hands-on workshops were given: “Criteria for indoors illumination evaluation”, “Optical fibers splicing”, “GUM method for measurement uncertainty estimation” and “Colors vision evaluation”; all of them were given on September at the CENAM facilities and the assistants took this opportunity to visit their interest areas in the National Metrology Laboratory of Mexico.

The V SOI had also a products and services exhibition by the sponsors and promoting institutions; and the Local Organizing Committee offered a welcome cocktail to all the assistants in the beautiful colony building which holds the “Casa de la Zacatecana”.
In the closing ceremony the review of the V SOI was given by the Symposium chairman and then Dr. Héctor Nava Jaimes acknowledged the presence of the Mexican optical community and wished all the success for the future editions of this. Finally Dr. Rufino Díaz Uribe, president of the División de Óptica of the Sociedad Mexicana de Física announced the city of Monterrey, as the venue for the VI SOI, which will be held in Spring 2007. This IV SOI will be organized by Dr. Alfonso Serrano Heredia, from the Centro de Óptica of the ITESM; ¡see you all there!

Co-organized by:
	AMO, Academia Mexicana de Óptica, A. C.
	DIVO, División de Óptica de la Sociedad Mexicana de Física, A. C.
	SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, Chapter Mexico

For more information please contact:

Eric Rosas
erosas@cenam.mx
Ph. ++52 442 211 05 54

Gabriela Lima
glima@cenam.mx
Ph. ++52 442 211 05 00 x 3349