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N. Giakoumidis

Infrastructure2017–2024

Photonics Core Technology Platform Laboratory

NYU Abu Dhabi · Core Technology Platforms

Helped establish NYU Abu Dhabi's Photonics Core Technology Platform from faculty concept to sustained shared operation — translating high-speed optical and RF research requirements into an integrated characterization facility spanning tunable lasers, BER testing, arbitrary waveform generation, coherent and vector signal analysis, lightwave component analysis to 67 GHz, microscopy, and polarization and spectral measurement, then stewarding its procurement, commissioning, expansion, and lifecycle.

OPTICAL BENCH — MICROSCOPY & FIBER SETUP
HIGH-SPEED BENCH — AWG & EYE DIAGRAM

My Contribution

Co-developed the equipment architecture, commissioned the characterization facility, and stewarded seven years of operation, expansion, and research enablement — acknowledged across multiple photonics publications.

CONTRIBDesignedCONTRIBCommissionedCONTRIBOperatedCONTRIBSupportedCONTRIBSystem Integration
DOMAINPhotonics & Telecommunications

Facility Narrative

  • Developed the equipment architecture with Prof. Mahmoud Rasras: model-level capital plans and staged priority scenarios for a photonics/RF option set evaluated at ~AED 12.77M, backed by vendor benchmarking visits to research laboratories in France and Germany.
  • Coordinated installation and commissioning end to end — optical tables and Leica M205A microscopy, UPS-backed power, networked TCP/IP instrument control, Keysight BERT/AWG vendor training, Lightwave Component Analyzer calibration, and VSA software integration.
  • Managed lifecycle stewardship across seven years: troubleshooting, calibration, instrument restoration, laser safety and EHS responsibility, access governance, and a 2022–2023 expansion adding three optical tables — sequenced around critical PhD-defense measurements and praised by faculty as "meticulous and thorough".
  • Explicitly named in the acknowledgements of at least six peer-reviewed photonics journal papers (2021–2024) from Prof. Rasras’s group — Optics Express, Journal of Lightwave Technology, Advanced Photonics Research, and npj 2D Materials and Applications — for optical testing, instrumentation support, technical discussions, and experimental characterization in the Photonics Lab.
  • Broader research enablement: CTP characterization acknowledged in a 2019 Journal of Applied Physics paper, capstone projects faculty said "could not have been completed" without CTP support, and demonstrations for the NYUAD Provost and the UAE Space Agency.

Publications & Evidence

Photonics Research Lab page →