Yi Zhao awarded $225,000 grant for bio-inspired optical lens

Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Yi Zhao was awarded a three-year, $225,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to design an optical lens that combines wide-angle view and high-resolution focusing capabilities.
 
Zhao’s work merges two nature-inspired designs. The eyes of insects and other arthropods—which feature many small lenses across a half-dome shape—allow for a wide field-of-view. But those wide-angle images tend to have low resolution. In contrast, the human eye can focus on an object in a scene and acquire high-resolution, sharp images, but has a limited field-of-view. 
 
Modern optical devices feature one design or the other, but by creating a lens capable of achieving both a wide field-of-view and focused, high-resolution images, Zhao’s lens could surpass the current state-of-the-art. The adaptable lens has many promising applications, especially in remote surveillance and laparoscopic surgery. The research outcome of this study will be disseminated to the optics, photonics and biomedical engineering communities through conference presentations, journal publications and social media. [read more about Zhao’s research]
 
Professor Cunjiang Yu from the University of Houston is co-principal investigator on the project.