SUNLAB welcomes German federal minister of education and research

SUNLAB researchers and students were delighted to meet German federal minister of education and research Ms. Bettina Stark-Watzinger and her delegates last Thursday, June 9. Ms. Stark-Watzinger visited the SUNLAB facilities where senior research scientist Dr. Chris Valdivia gave an overview of the "Artificial Intelligence Enhanced Design and Manufacturing of Infrared Photonic Power Converters for Power+Telecom" (AIIR-Power) project.

Led by SUNLAB director Dr. Karin Hinzer, AIIR-Power involves researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy and AIXTRON, based in Germany, as well as the National Research Council of Canada, Optiwave and Broadcom, based in Canada. AIIR-Power aims to develop artificial intelligence techniques to design and manufacture elevated-voltage photonic power converters. It is funded by the "3+2 Canada-Germany Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Program" through the National Research Council of Canada and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Dr. Chris Valdivia and Ms. Bettina Stark-Watzinger discuss the AIIR-Power project.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and her delegation from @BMBF_Bund and @GermanyInCanada to highlight major research partnerships between @uOttawa and German institutions, including leading-edge research collaborations in photonics. pic.twitter.com/S92tVSlJt3

— Recherche et innovation uOttawa (@uOttawaResearch) June 9, 2022

Ms. Stark-Watzinger also met with uOttawa Vice-President, Research Dr. Sylvain Charbonneau.