2013:


• June 2013: Welcome two new members who joined the group recently: Nasrin Ehteshami, PhD student; Bruno Romeira, post-doctoral fellow funded by the Portuguese government.
  
• May 2013: Congratulations to Hiva on being selected to receive an SPIE scholarship ($3000)! This is a second scholarship received by Hiva from a major photonics/optics society. In 2012, Hiva was awarded an IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Fellowship.
  
• April 2013: Wangzhe Li successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "Photonic Generation of Microwave and Millimeter Wave Signals" on 3 April 2013. His thesis was nominated by the defense committee for best thesis award.
  
  
  
• March 2013: A new NSERC Discovery grant "Silicon Photonics for Microwave Photonics Applications" was approved for 5 years, $61,000 per year.
2012:


• October 2012: Prof. Yao was appointed as an IEEE Distinguished Microwave Lecturer for 2013-2015.
• October 2012: Prof. Yao was selected to recieve an inaugural OSA Outstanding Reviewer Award.
• September 2012: Welcome new students who joined the Group in September: Jiejun Zhang (PhD student), Yang Chen (exchange PhD student), and Gao Liang (exchange PhD student).
• August 2012: Welcome new students who joined the Group in August: Xiang Chen (PhD student) and Fanqi Kong (MASc student).
• August 2012: Welcome Tong Shao who joined our Group as a post-doctoral fellow on August 1, 2012.
• July 2012: Congratulations to Hiva, who has been selected to receive an IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship for 2012. The IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship Program was created to honor outstanding Photonics Society student members pursuing graduate education within the Photonics Society field of interest. Ten fellowships are awarded each year. The award ceremony will be made during the 2012 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC) which will be held on September 23 - 27, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, Burlingame, California, USA.
• May 2012: Prof. Yao’s University Research Chair in Microwave Photonics has been renewed. Read More
• April 2012: Prof. Yao was elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). Members of the CAE are nominated and elected by their peers (current CAE members) to honorary fellowship in the Academy in view of their distinguished achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession. The Academy has approximately 300 active members and 100 emeritus members.
  
  
  New Fellows inducted into the Academy at the Annual Symposium on Thursday June 21, 2012 at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
• February 2012: Hiva Shahoei, a PhD student from the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, was selected to receive a poster award (third place) at the Research Day Poster Competition organized by the Faculty of Engineering on the 9th of February 2012.
  
  
  Hiva with her poster.
• February 2012: Welcome Dr. Mugang Wang who joined the the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory in January 2012 as a Visting Reseracher.
  
  2011:
• December 2011: Prof. Yao was recently interviewed by Dr. Rachel Won, senior editor of Nature Photonics, to talk about microwave photonics. Microwave photonics shines, Rachel Won, Nature Photonics, 5, 736 (2011)
• November 2011: Prof. Yao was elevated to IEEE Fellow for contributions to photonic generation and processing of ultra-wideband signals.
  
  
  Photonics Society members who have been elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellows: (From left to right) Hideo Kuwahara (Photonics Society President), Jianping Yao, Ashok Krishnamoorthy, Yuichi Matsushima, Tetsuya Mizumoto, and Ping-Kong Wai..
• November 2011: Welcome a new student who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently: Weifeng Zhang, PhD student.
• November 2011: Prof. Yao received a Strategic Projects Grant of $438,000 over three years from The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), to develop optical broadband infrastructures for wired and wireless area networks.
  The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology announces Strategic Project Grants to support 70 scientific teams at universities across the country.
• October 2011: Chao Wang and Weilin Liu received their PhD and MASc degrees at the Fall convocation of the University of Ottawa on 30 October 2011.
  
  
  Chao received his PhD degree at the Fall convocation on 30 October 2011.
  
  
  Weilin received his MASc degree at the Fall convocation on 30 October 2011.
• September 2011: Weilin Liu successfully defended his MASc thesis entitled "Real-Time Interrogation of Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors Based On Chirped Pulse Compression" on 19 September 2011. The thesis was nominated by the defense committee for best thesis prize.
• September 2011: Yichen Han successfully defended his MASc thesis entitled "All-Optical Microwave Signal Processing" on 8 September 2011.
• September 2011: Welcome two new students who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently: Peiwen Chen, MASc student, and Wentao Cui, MASc student.
• July 2011: Congratulations to Honglei and Wangzhe on being selected to receive an IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship for 2011. The IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship Program was created to honor outstanding Photonics Society student members pursuing graduate education within the Photonics Society field of interest. Ten fellowships are awarded each year. The award ceremony will be made during the Awards Banquet at the 2011 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC) at Arlington, Virginia, USA on Monday 10th October, 2011.
  
  This is the second and third graduate fellowships received from the Photonics Society by PhD students from the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory. In 2009, Chao was awarded a Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship. In addition to the Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship, Chao and Wangzhe also received an MTT-S (IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society) Graduate Student Fellowship for 2010 and 2011.
  
  
  Honglei was presented the student fellowship certificate at the 2011 IEEE Photonics Society Conference.
• May 2011: Weilin Liu, a MASc student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been recently awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship as an international student. In Ontario, only 60 international students are selected each year to recive the scholarship. Congratulations!
• April 2011: Congratulations to Wangzhe who was recently selected by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Education Committee to receive an MTT-S Graduate Fellowship for 2011. The award consists of a check for $6,000 and a certificate of recognition from the society and is presented at a special Student Awards Luncheon held during the IMS 2011 (June 6-9). This is the second consecutive year that an MTT-S Graduate fellowship was presented to a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory. Last year, Chao Wang was selected to receive the fellowship for 2010. Chao is currently an NSERC post-doctoral fellow in UCLA.
• March 2011: Wangzhe Li, a PhD student of the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, was awarded a scholarship of $5,000 from the China Scholarship Council. The scholarship program was created to support outstanding self-financed students studying abroad. Congratulations!
• February 2011: Wangzhe Li and Yichen Han, a PhD student and a MASc student from the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received the first-place and third-place poster awards at the Research Day Poster Competition organized by the Faculty of Engineering on the 3rd of February 2011.
• January 2011: Chao Wang completed his PhD studies in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory and joined UCLA as an NSERC post-doctoral fellow in January 2011.
  
  2010:
• December 2010: Chao Wang successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "Photonic generation and processing of microwave arbitrary waveforms based on advanced fiber Bragg gratings" on 15 December 2010. His thesis was nominated by the defense committee for best thesis award.
  
  
  Chao and the members of the defence committee.
• December 2010: Dr. Shilong Pan, a Vision 2010 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory from Aug. 2008 to Nov. 2010, was recently offered a position as a Professor in the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
• October 2010: Congratulations to Chao Wang, who has been awarded a best student paper award (second place) at the IEEE International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP 2010), held in Montreal, Canada, from October 5-9, 2010.
• September 2010: Welcome two new members who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently (September 7, 2010): Dr. Montasir Qasymeh, MITACS post-doctoral fellow and Imran Khan, MSc student.
• April 2010: Congratulations to Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, who was recently selected by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Education Committee to receive an MTT-S Graduate Fellowship.
  
  Chao was presented the student fellowship certificate at IMS 2010.
• March 2010: Congratulations to Honglei Guo, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, who was recently awarded an NSERC post-graduate scholarship. The NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships (PGS) Program provides financial support to high-calibre students who are engaged in master's or doctoral programs in the natural sciences or engineering.
• March 2010: Congratulations to Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, who was recently awarded an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship. The NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowships Program provides support to a core of the most promising researchers at a pivotal time in their careers.
• March 2010: Wangzhe Li, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received the first prize ($10,000) at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation competition organized by the Faculty of Engineering. Congratulations!
• March 2010: Honglei Guo, a PhD student of the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, was awarded a scholarship of $5,000 from the China Scholarship Council. The scholarship program was created to support outstanding self-financed students studying abroad. Congratulations!
• February 2010: Honglei Guo, a PhD student of the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been selected as one of the three finalists in the OCRI Futures Award: Student Researcher of the Year. See Faculty of Engineering news.
• February 2010: Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received a poster award (second-place) at the Research Day Poster organized by the Faculty of Engineering on the 4th of February 2010.
• The 2010 International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP 2010) will be held in Montreal, Canada, from October 5-9, 2010. Please click to view the first Call for Papers.
  
  2009:
• Welcome Ze Li who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently (November 23, 2009).
• Prof. Jianping Yao was elected by the Board of Directors of The Optical Society of America (OSA) a fellow of the Society for major contributions to the optical generation and processing of microwave and UWB signals.
  
  
  Dr. Yao was presented the fellowship certificate by the OSA president Dr. James C. Wyant at OFC 2010.
• October 2009: Prof. Jianping Yao received a New Collaboration Grant from the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations to develop a high speed miniaturized sensor interrogator based on mechanically scannable planar optical waveguides. The work would be a collaboration with The National Research Council Institute for Microstructural Sciences (NRC-IMS).
• September 2009: Welcome new students who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently: Yichen Han, MASc student, Weilin Liu, MASc student, Hiva Shahoei, PhD student, and Shawn Kostyk, MASc student.
• September 2009: Chao Wang won the 2009 IEEE Photonics Society (formerly LEOS) Ottawa Chapter Student Paper . His paper "Simultaneous optical spectral shaping and wavelength-to-time mapping for photonic microwave arbitrary waveform generation" is recognized by the selection committee an excellent representation of high quality research and technology advancement. Congratulations!
• Welcome Junqiang Zhou who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently (August 6, 2009) as an exchange PhD student from Nanyang Technological University.
• Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has recently been selected by The IEEE Photonics Society Membership Committee to receive a prestigious 2009 IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship . Congratulations!
  
  Chao ( third from the left) was presented the student fellowship certificate at the 2009 IEEE Photonics Society Conference.
• Congratulations to Chao Wang, who was awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship! Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, at $50,000 per year for a maximum of three years, is the most important, prestigious and sought-after scholarships for doctoral students. See uOttawa news.
• Honglei Guo, a PhD student of the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been selected by the SPIE Board of Directors and the Scholarship Committee to receive a 2009 SPIE Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering in the amount of $3,000. Congratulations!
• Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received the best student paper award at the 2009 Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics Conference. The conference was held in Beijing from 22 to 24 April 2009.
• Welcome two new members who joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory recently (April 1, 2009): Dr. Ming Li, post-doctoral fellow and Dr. Davide Janner, visiting post-doctoral fellow.
• Honglei Guo, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received the second prize ($7,500) at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation competition organized by the Faculty of Engineering. Congratulations!
• Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received recently a scholarship ($5,000) from the China Scholarship Council. The scholarships are awarded to outstanding self-financed students studying abroad. Congratulations!
• The MWPLab received a grant of $41,364 from CMC Microsystems to fabricate DFB semiconductor laser and laser array with chirped structure based on the equivalent chirp technology. The fabrication will be done in the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre.
• Dr. Byung-Min Jung, a post-doctoral fellow in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, was recently offered a position as a Research Professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea.
• Wangzhe Li, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, received a poster award (first-place) at the Research Poster Competition organized by the Faculty of Engineering.
  
  2008:
• Dr. Shilong Pan was awarded an Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation sponsored Vision 2010 Postdoctoral Fellowship. The fellowship is valued at $50,000 per year for two years.
• Honglei Guo, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, was awarded a Doctoral Research Scholarship of the University of Ottawa.
• Chao Wang received a travel grant from the Ontario Centres of Excellence to present a paper at IEEE/LEOS Annual Meeting, held on 9-13 November 2008 in Newport Beach, CA, USA.
• On October 1, 2008, the International Steering Committee approved our proposal to hold 2010 IEEE International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Dr. Afshin Daryoush and Dr. Jianping Yao will serve as the General and TPC chairs of the conference.
• Welcome two new members who joined the MWPLab recently (August and September 2008): Haiyin Xia, visiting PhD student, Hongqian Mu, visiting PhD student.
• Prof. Yao has been awarded an NSERC 2008 Discovery Accelerator Supplements award. The Discovery Accelerator Supplements award is valued at $120,000 for three years.
• George Qi successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "Optical generation and distribution of millimeter-wave signals and optical up-conversion for radio-over-fiber applications" on 29 April 2008.
• Chao Wang, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been recently awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Congratulations!
• Chao Wang, a PhD student of the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been selected by the SPIE Board of Directors and the Scholarship Committee to receive an SPIE Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering in the amount of $2000. As one of the recipients of the 2008 SPIE Scholarships, the organization recognizes Mr. Wang as a future leader of photonics in Canada, and in the World in general. Congratulations!
• Prof. Yao (with Prof. Azana) received an NSERC Strategic project grant to develop ultrahigh-speed optical signal characterization techniques for real-time evaluation and monitoring of photonics and electro-optic devices and systems.
• Prof. Yao received a research grant from OCE - Centre of Excellence for Photonics to support his collaboration with ICFO in developing innovative photonic systems for applications in broadband wireless access networks, sensor networks, and biomedical systems.
  
  2007:
• Yu Yan successfully defended his Master's thesis entitled "Photonic microwave filters with negative and complex coefficients" on 27 November 2007. He is currently employed by OZ Optics, a supplier of fiber optic products in Ottawa.
• Welcome three new members who joined MWPLab recently (in November 2007): Xihua Zou, exchange PhD student, Wangzhe Li, PhD student, and Byung-Min Jung, Post-doctoral fellow.
• Prof. Yao (with Prof. Darcie) received an NSERC Strategic project grant to develop Tera-Hertz Imaging and Spectroscopy technologies.
• On 15 June 2007, the fourth NSERC strategic project meeting was held in the School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa. At the meeting, a radio over fiber (RoF) system was demonstrated in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory. The RoF system supports duplex operation with two channels optically multiplexed based on optical WDM technology. The transmission of high-definition video signals for both channels was demonstrated. Nine presentations were also given at the meeting to report the progress of the project.
  
  
  
  
• Prof. Jianping Yao has been invited to present a tutorial on Microwave Photonics at OFC2008, to be held from February 24-28, 2008 in San Diego, CA, USA. As the largest (over 13,000 participants in 2007) and most comprehensive international event for optical communications, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) provides an established forum for optical communications education and development.
• Prof. Jianping Yao received an NSERC SRO (Special Research Opportunities) grant of $187,000 for the pioneer work in UWB over fiber. This work is carried out at the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory in collaboration with European partners under the project ISIS.
• Prof. Jianping Yao received an NSERC RTI (Research Tools and Instruments) grant of $129,966 to purchase a signal source analyzer, a microwave down-converter and a broadband microwave amplifier.
• Fei Zeng, a former PhD student of the MWPLab, was selected as one of the three finalists for the OCRI (Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation) Student Researcher of the Year Award.
• Prof. Jianping Yao was the recipient of the 2007 George S. Glinski Award for Excellence in Research of the Faculty of Engineering.
  
  2006:
• Fei Zeng defended his PhD thesis on 20 December 2006. His thesis was nominated by the defense committee for Doctoral Award! Fei will be working as an NSERC post-doctoral fellow in MIT from January 2007. Congratulations!
• Howard Rideout, a MASc student, defended his Master's thesis on 23 November 2006. Howard's thesis was nominated by the defense committee for best thesis award. Howard was offered a research position in the Communications Research Centre after his defense. Congratulations!
• Prof. Jianping Yao received a New Collaboration Grant from CIPI to set up a collaborative project with NRC-IMS, to develop a miniaturized sensor interrogator for air vehicle structural health monitoring.
• Fei Zeng, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been awarded the prestigious NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations!
• The Microwave Photonic Research Laboratory is one of the nineteen participants (also the only participant from Canada) in a European project ISIS, to develop low-cost optical solutions for broadband access and the merging of wireless and photonic technologies. This project, started from January 2006, is funded by the European Commission under the sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.
• Zhichao Deng (a MASc student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, who received his MASc degree in 2005) received a job offer from Lucent Technologies to work in the DWDM Department as a Research Engineer. Congratulations!
  
  2005:
• Prof. Jianping Yao was awarded a strategic grant by NSERC (with K. Wu, R. Kashyap and X. Zhang) for a 3-year project "Millimeter-wave Photonic Techniques for Broadband Communication and Sensor Applications" funded at $156,000 per annum.
• George Qi, a PhD student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been awarded the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Congratulations!
• Prof. Jianping Yao received a New Collaboration Grant from CIPI to set up a collaborative project with CRC, to develop an all-optical software-defined radio transceiver at mm-wave frequencies.
• Prof. Jianping Yao received the 2005 International Creative Research Award of the University of Ottawa.
• Prof. Jianping Yao received an NSERC equipment grant of $75,910 to purchase an ultrashort pulsed laser source and an optical auto/cross correlator.
• Sebastien Blais, a Master's student in the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, has been awarded an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship to support his PhD research in the University of Ottawa. The scholarships are awarded only to top-ranked PGS applicants. Congratulations!
• Prof. Jianping Yao was invited by the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, as an invited professor from January to March 2005.
  
  2004:
• A paper co-authored by Sebastien Blais and Jianping Yao received the "Best Poster Award" on 27 September 2004 in Ottawa at the 2004 Photonics North Conference.
  
  2003:
• Our work on diffuse infrared (IR) wireless home networking was featured in the June 2003 issue of Photonics Spectra: Holography offers eye-safe IR networking.
• Prof. Jianping Yao received major funding of $597,648 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ontario Innovation Trust, to set up a Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory in the University of Ottawa.