ODIMAP II has attracted hundred delegates from all over the world
- 25% from Italy, 45% from Europe, 10% from North America, 10% from Japan
and Pacific Rim, and 10% from Russia and Eastern Europe.
The program featured 48 oral papers plus 5 invited papers
and 15 posters.
Invited papers were on Gravitational-Waves Interferometric Detectors
(Giazotto, the Virgo Team), Anticollision Telemeters for the Automotive
(Innocenti, Fiat Research Center), the Matera Geodetic Telemetry Observatory
(Bianco, CNR), Feedback Interferometry (Bosch, University of Nantes, see
photo), Novel Interferometric Approaches (DeGroot, Zygo, USA,
see photo) and EC RTesearch Programmes (P.Salieri see photo).
As the scientific community gathered by Odimap was very homogenous,
the discussion triggered by the papers presented in the 2 and 1/2-day program
was unusually active and always filling all the available time.
As noted by attendees, the Conference was unique in that was able to
combine a blend of scientific innovation with viable reports of engineering
efforts, showing the real world applications of the techniques covered
by Odimap.
Also, instead of sightseeing the old Pavia downtown full of fashionable
and antique shops, the members of Steering and Program Committee were tirelessly
sitting on the first rows listening and putting lot of questions to younger
colleagues presenting papers - and this was perceived with a little awe
but also with much gratification. Actually, since the first edition promoted
by Thierry Bosch of Ecole des Mines de Nantes, the spirit of the Conference
has been that of a cooperative discussion between elder and younger colleagues.
Next Odimap is tentatively scheduled by May, 2001 in Germany.
Papers presented at Odimap II have been collected in a 410-page volume of Proceedings, published by the Italian Chapter and available from AEI.
In Pavia, sessions of Odimap have been held in the 14th-century Aula Magna of the University, a unique ambient with marble colums, stuccos, frescos and oils portraits of Volta and other Italian scientists. The social dinner was held at the Castle of S. Gaudenzio, a 14th century piece of architecture in an Italian garden near the Po river, recently restored and brought to a museum-class ambient.
At the Odimap opening, the Rector of University of Pavia has
presented the scroll and 100 $ honorarium to Maurizio Lenzi, Italtel (see
photo), the first winner of the 'problem of the month in optoelectonics',
an initiative of the IEEE LEOS Italian Chapter.
