An IES Seminar on Smart Lighting

The Illuminating Engineering Society's Chicago sectional held the most significant, exhilarating, and challenging seminar I have attended, featuring RPI's Prof. Robert Karlicek.

The topic for the evening was smart lighting and the evening's speaker was from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center. To set the scene, it was yet another wintery night in Chicago. That didn't stop the 80 resilient lighting pros from getting there and settling in for a night of SSL acumen enrichment. Conviviality and camaraderie abounded among my colleagues. The pre-seminar discussions were vibrant; the food and drink were a cut above; and we were ready to review, learn, and confer.

Prof. Karlicek had a considerable amount of information to review and frame for the session. His brisk pace of review of LED basics and issues of constructs and approaches was done with an understanding that those in his audience were knowledgeable lighting professionals. The audience's rapt attention was befitting of the level of expertise we shared. And I do mean shared. There were good questions and people with interesting tangents. The consensus was we were gaining wisdom from a savvy individual with a long background in both the commercial lighting business and the academic sphere (as well as from one another). As a point of reference, I thought the trio of place, topic, and presenter made this a meeting a standout amongst the many IES meetings I've attended.

Many topics were to be covered and the professor's presentation cadence was glorious. So while we started with the basics as a point of review, there was no need for hand holding. We covered SSL architecture and construction of light engines. We heard Prof. Karlicek speak of shelf-ready products and things not yet in production. There was coverage of how vision works, the role of human-centric lighting, and the implications of better lamp engineering. The speaker touched on product planning both past and present. The discussion branched into the expected impact of things like ROHS 2 and printed electronics and OLEDs. Best-practices, marketability of wares, and the Hawthorne effect were discussed and debated.

The seminar was, intellectually speaking, a joy to experience. And it was a tremendous value -- $20 to attend. Kudos to the good folks at the IES Chicago's lead team for bringing in a speaker of Prof. Karlicek's caliber.

Local IES seminars are going on at all of the various local sectionals -- there is a good chance one is near you. Make your way to these meetings. You won't regret it.