Upgrade 2026: Research to Reality
Panel: Beyond the Bottleneck: Photonics and the Future of Sustainable Data Centers
Moderator:
Jan Filip, CEO, fj Scaler
Speakers:
Ryan Hamerly, CTO of Opticore and Senior Scientist / Group Head at NTT Research
Tim McKenna, Scientist, Physics & Informatics Lab, NTT Research
Francis Ho, Partner, Walden Catalyst Ventures
Summary
Panel: Beyond the Bottleneck: Photonics and the Future of Sustainable Data Centers
As AI and cloud workloads surge, the energy demands and scaling limitations of electronic data centers have reached a breaking point. Enter photonics: a transformative approach that replaces electronic bottlenecks with light-speed data movement, unlocking new levels of efficiency, performance, and sustainability. This panel brings together industry pioneers and innovators to explore why photonics isn’t just a research frontier—it’s the future reality for data centers worldwide.