Optical Believe it or Not: Key Lessons Learned

Abstract

This event is dedicated to the sharing of key optical lessons learned. Nearly all optical engineers, scientists, researchers, or managers have dealt with the unexpected. Many of these situations in hindsight are quite funny, and have buried within them key optical/managerial lessons learned. The problem with simply listing lessons learned is that as a simple listing, they are clearly hard to remember, thus history repeats itself much to our collective debit. This event will help us all remember the important take-aways by presenting a collection of small stories or optical parables from Leaders in the fields of optics and optical systems engineering. Please note that our Lessons Learned Speakers are encouraged to embellish their material (within editorial limits), and names, places, and dates may be changed to protect the guilty, but all the take-aways will have a basis in truth as avowed by the author. Audience participation will be allowed/ encouraged, as time permits. For a full description, see https://spie.org/OP/special-events/Technical-Event#believe