The fact that light is the best way to send information from A to B is already known for a long time. What we need to figure out is how to make photonics more flexible and more accessible to those who want to deploy it…

Oded Raz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven Technical University of Technology (TU/e). His areas of specialization include optical communication networks, optical interconnects and programmable photonics. His research focuses on the development of novel packaging solutions for data communication modules inside data centers and the introduction of programmability into photonic integrated circuits by investigating new materials. Oded is the co-founder of PhotonX Networks, a TU/e spin-off aiming to commercialize the packaging technology developed in the TU/e for data comm products. He is also an enthusiast teacher, sharing his passion for technology and communication by teaching introduction courses for both EE and AP students in the early years of their studies. His other fields of interest include optical communications systems, and microwave photonics.

Oded Raz received his BSc (Cum Laude) in Electrical engineering from the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel in 1993 and obtained his MSc (Cum Laude) in Electrical engineering and his PhD with his work on Microwave Photonics from Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2002 and 2006 respectively. After working for two years as a postdoc in the TU/e Electro-Optical Communication Group, he was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor. He has more than 15 years of teaching experience and is/has co-supervised 6 PhD students (of which three already graduated) between 2009-2018. Since 1/2017 he is an Associate professor in the ECO group where he is leading the activities in the area of optics for data centers. Oded is author/ co-author of more than 160 journal and conference papers and has generated 5 provisional/full patents in the past 6 years.

Industry background

Before joining the TU/e Oded held several industry positions including with Lucent Technologies and Corrigent Networks. Since 2018 he is acting as the CEO of PhotonX networks, next to his TU/e appointment, where he is leading the effort for commercialization of TU/e research knowhow in the area of packaging of Data Comm devices.