The 11^th edition of the classical Optoelectronics and Photonics winter school in Trentino aims at introducing students and post-docs with an optics background to the concepts of neuromorphic photonics, focusing on the hot topics that are driving the technological and scientific research in this field. The target audience are PhD students and young researchers, who will have the opportunity to attend the lectures given by the main scientists leading the neuromorphic photonics community.

This year the school is also organized in the frame of the ERC-AdG project BACKUP, the PRIN 2017 project PELM and of the ETN POST DIGITAL network. Researchers working in the project will present lectures and results on hybrid neuromorphic networks.

University of Trento, the Nanoscience laboratory, and the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC) of the University of the Balearic Islands will organize this edition of the Winter school.

The school will initially introduce the general concepts about the biological brain behaviours and neuroscience, with particular attention to their implementation in machine learning and complex networks. Then the lectures will focus on different kind of neuromorphic photonic platforms (from lasers and diffraction systems, down to integrated photonics chips) and on applications like photonic accelerators, optical device optimization and telecommunications.

In addition to standard classes, rump evening sessions on hot topics in the field with free beers and beverages will be organized to facilitate discussions among students and lecturers. Since this is a residential school, both the students and the lecturers will reside in the same hotel which will easy discussions in an informal venue or on the ski fields.

School History

The international Optoelectronics and Photonics Winter School is a biannual event which is traditionally being held in Trentino Region starting from 2001. This is going to be the 11^th edition.

Typically, the school is addressing specific topics within the international scientific community of Optoelectronics and Photonics. It aims to bring together a large number of PhD students and young researchers from all parts of the world who across a one-week intense schedule follow a series of lectures on selected topics. The lectures are held by internationally recognized experts in the field. At the same time, the students are encouraged to enjoy the beautiful location where the school is organized. To this end a large lunch break is considered to allow skiing and relaxing on the mountains or at the hotel facilities.

The different editions of the school have been organized each other year by the Nanoscience Laboratory of the University of Trento.

Specifically, 

• 2001 Micro-optoelectronics (Directors Pavesi - Ferrari)
• 2003 Advances on Molecular and hybrid Photonics (Directors Iannotta - Monetil)
• 2005 Optical interconnects (Directors Pavesi - Guillot)
• 2007 Biophotonics (Directors Pavesi - Fauchet)
• 2009 CMOS photonics  (Directors Daldosso - Vivien)
• 2011 Physics and Applications of T-rays  (Directors Perenzoni - Douglas)
• 2013 Physics and Applications of Optical Resonators  (Directors Ghulinyan - Van Thourhout)
• 2015 Topological Effects in Photonics (Directors Carusotto - Amo - Hafezi)
• 2017 Integrated quantum Photonics (Directors Pavesi - Ramponi) 
• 2019 Nonlinear photonics (Directors Pavesi - Wabnitz)
   

Throughout these years the School had a continuous success and has gained the fame of an important event among both young students and experts in the field.