CICECO News » HAPPY International workshop explored hybrid approaches in photonics

The DFis - Physics Department of University of Aveiro hosted the international workshop “Hybrid Approaches in Photonics: Prospects for Year 2030” on 9 September 2026, bringing together researchers working across photonics, luminescent materials, digital technologies and emerging applications.

The event brought together invited speakers, researchers and PhD students for a day of scientific exchange, combining invited and contributed talks with short research pitches.

The morning programme featured invited international talks by Rogéria Gonçalves (Laboratório de Materiais Micro e Nanoestruturados - Mater Lumen, USP - Universidade de São Paulo), Lauro Maia (Grupo Física de Materiais, UFG - Universidade Federal de Goiás) and Celso Molina (Departamento de Química, UNIFESP - Universidade Federal de São Paulo), addressing topics including lanthanide-based molecular information processing systems, smart human-centric lighting and communications, and luminescent lanthanide materials for flexible polymers and thin films, with applications in optics and biophotonics.

The afternoon session featured contributions from Carlos Brites, Sandra Correia, Rute Ferreira and Luís Carlos, members of CICECO, followed by a dedicated session of researchers and PhD pitches (listed below).

Topics included long-lived and metal-free afterglow materials, hybrid photonic-digital neuromorphic computing, multimodal luminescence and piezoelectricity, luminescent solar concentrators, flexible hydrogel waveguides, airborne microplastic detection and optical sensing.

“The workshop provided an opportunity to bring together complementary research perspectives around photonics and luminescent materials, while creating space for researchers and PhD students to present their work and discuss future directions. By connecting materials, photonics and digital approaches, we aimed to encourage new interactions and identify opportunities for collaboration towards addressing the challenges of the upcoming years,” said Rute Ferreira, organiser of the workshop.

By bringing together different research approaches and career stages, the workshop created a forum for discussing the development of photonic and luminescent materials and their integration with digital technologies and applications towards 2030.

The workshop was organised within the scope of four research projects: “Cutting-edge Photonic-Digital Hybrid Architecture for Next-Generation PHOTON-AI”, “Smart Human-Centric Lighting and Communications through the Internet of Things – SLICIoT”, “The Shape of Water: Part II – Unveiling the Hidden Architecture” (AQUA-II), and “Lanthanide-based Molecular Information Processing Systems” (LUMINOUS). The projects are funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT/MEC (PIDDAC), with SLICIoT supported through CENTRO2030-FEDER.

Check the photos of the event: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NTn9pDBECmEKDzMi9