Ohio State & MMEC Midwest Infrared Semiconductor Technology (MIST) Workshop
Blackwell Inn and Conference Center, Ohio State Columbus Campus
The Midwest Infrared Semiconductor Technology (MIST) Workshop: From Atoms to Arrays is a new, high-impact regional gathering designed to energize the future of the Electro-Optics and Infrared (EO/IR) field. This two-day, in-person event brings together the nation's brightest emerging engineers with top minds in defense, government, academia, and industry to explore innovations in EO/IR and strengthen the domestic talent pipeline.
Hosted by The Ohio State University College of Engineering and the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium (MMEC), with support from the Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research (IMR), the MIST Workshop directly supports strategic priorities of the DoD, the State of Ohio, and MMEC to develop next-generation technical leaders in microelectronics and sensing technologies.
The interest window for the MIST Workshop 2026 has closed. Registration is by invitation only, and invitations will be sent to eligible participants directly. If you missed the interest window and would still like to be considered for attendance, please contact Joanna Gardner at gardner.306@osu.edu
Registration
Advanced registration is required for all participants: including academic, industry, government professionals; undergraduate and graduate students; and sponsors and exhibitors. On-site registration will not be available.
Eligibility: Participation is by invitation only. You will be asked to certify that you are a U.S. person (citizens and permanent residents).
Cost/Financial Support:
Academic, Industry & Government Professionals:
- Early Bird: $350.00 – July 6 through August 14
- Regular: $450.00 – August 15 – September 7
- Registration Deadline: September 7
Students:
- Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, all student registration fees have been waived.
- Fellowship applications (travel and hotel stipend) are currently under review.
- Explore the fundamentals of electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) semiconductor technologies ahead of the MIST Workshop. These short read-ahead resources introduce the key concepts, applications, and innovation ecosystem shaping this rapidly advancing field. Download the student read-ahead materials here.
Receptions and meals are included in the price of registration.
There is no virtual registration option available.
Lodging:
Invited participants will receive a room block link to book lodging at the Blackwell Inn for Monday, September 28 – Wednesday, September 30.
MIST 2025 Highlights
Sanjay Krishna, professor at The Ohio State University:
MIST is the mid-infrared semiconductor technology workshop. It's co-hosted by Ohio State and MMEC, which is the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium. We have a critical shortage of semiconductor engineers in this area, and Ohio State has some of the best talent that we can tap into. So the goal of hosting this inaugural workshop is to bring these students together to interact with some of the thought leaders in our field.
Matt Casto, chief technology officer at the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium:
MMEC, Ohio State and really all of our members within the MMEC ecosystem that are delivering and developing capability for electro-optics and infrared technology — a technology that's extremely critical for our war fighters, for our nation, but also has some really you know critical impacts for our economic development for the state, the region and the nation — so many applications, so many technologies utilize the capabilities, but a very important set of expertise, infrastructure and tools need to be leveraged to actually deliver things on the scale and at the time frames that that are going to be impactful.
Jeremy Goodenough, undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida:
I was not very familiar with how in-depth the world of semiconductor and infrared sensing was. I know a lot of the baseline applications, whether that be for defense imaging or astronomy. I didn't realize how involved all of the systems were that go into creating new and like iterating on those systems, and how widespread it is through academia, national labs and industry.
Elizabeth Steenbergen, senior principal systems engineer at Raytheon:
This is a very unique opportunity, a workshop that wasn't available for us when we were undergrads and, personally, I didn't even know what research was when I was in undergrad. So I went to industry, worked for a few years until I figured out what my passion was, went back to grad school and have had an awesome career thus far. So I think it's really invaluable to undergrads to be exposed to professionals right now who've been through graduate research and graduate students and professors from universities across the nation.
Dhiya Srikanth, undergraduate research assistant at Penn State University:
The conference is a lot different than I expected but, like, better. I love the topics, like some of the things you would need to start your own company. The graduates panel was so informative — and the fellowships — the fellowships was especially great because I'm a senior applying for my grad programs.
Jacob Tenorio, graduate fellow at The Ohio State University:
I think it did a really good job at opening up my eyes to which path I do want to take, and I believe I got my answer just by talking to a lot of the representatives that were here from the either private sector or government as well.
Sanjay Krishna, professor at The Ohio State University:
Ohio State is very strong in compound semiconductors. In particular, we have a very unique capability for atoms to arrays which is the theme of the MIST workshop.
Steven Ringel, professor and IMR executive director at The Ohio State University:
At Ohio State, we're extremely fortunate to have amazing infrastructure where we can create state-of-the-art materials and semiconductors all the way through devices and circuits and systems in one university. It's extremely rare to be able to have such vertical integration capabilities. We have this all across campus in our core departments, like Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, our Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research, where we actually have quite a bit of interaction with corporate partners, government partners — all working with our faculty, our research scientists, our graduate students, our undergraduate students — the entire gamut.
Sanjay Krishna, professor at The Ohio State University:
These have applications ranging from military but all the way to dual application, dual usage technology. For example, everything from medical to greenhouse gas detection to aerospace and engineering. The goal is to have our students trained in these advanced R&D and Ohio State be the seed for providing this capability here.
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Jason G. Zeibel
Senior Research Scientist for Electro-Optics at the U.S. Army C5ISR Center
Dr. Jason G. Zeibel is the Army’s Senior Research Scientist for Electro-Optics and works at the US Army C5ISR Center in Ft. Belvoir, VA. He holds a Bachelors in Mathematics from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Atomic Physics from the University of Virginia. Dr. Zeibel's expertise extends across a wide range of EOIR technologies including thermal imaging, Si:CMOS, III-V, and II-VI photodetectors, spectral sensing, readout integrated circuits, photonics, & neuromorphic sensors. He serves as a trusted advisor to senior Department of Defense officials and represents the U.S. Army in vital national and international collaborations. He chairs the OSW Sensors & Processing Community of Interest, is the US voting member on the NATO Sensing Technology (SET) Panel, and is the Army’s EOIR Core Competency lead. Dr. Zeibel has a prolific publication record with over 80 publications and two patents and is a fellow of the Military Sensing Symposium.
Dr. Ronald G. Driggers
Shannon Endowed Professor at the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences
Introduction to Infrared Systems: Long Range Targeting, Pilotage, and Threat Warning
Bio: Ronald G. Driggers is the Shannon Endowed Professor at the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences and works in the areas of electro-optical and infrared imaging systems. Previously, he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as the Superintendent of the Optical Sciences Division at the Naval Research Laboratory in 2008. There, he managed the efforts of more than 200 scientists and engineers and over $100M in research and development programs. Before 2008, he was the Director of the Modeling and Simulation Division at the U.S. Army’s Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) and a brief period as the Chief of the Electro-Optics and Photonics Division at the Army Research Laboratory. Dr. Driggers is the author of seven books on Infrared and Electro-Optics Systems and has published over 200 research papers. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering (Taylor and Francis). He was selected as the 2002 Army Materiel Command’s Engineer of the Year, 2001 CERDEC Technical Employee of the Year, and 2001 NVESD Technical Employee of the Year. He was a U.S. Naval Reserve Officer and was selected as the 2001 Naval Engineering Duty Officer of the Year (William Kastner Award). He is also a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering, the Optical Society of America, and the Military Sensing Symposium. He was the Editor-in-Chief of SPIE’s flagship journal, Optical Engineering from 2010-2015 and the Editor-in-Chief of the Optical Society of America’s journal Applied Optics from 2015-2021. He was also winner of the Joseph Goodman Bookwriting Medal in 2024.
Dr. Tony Ragucci
Senior Director of Strategy and Teledyne Fellow, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging
Beyond Vision: From Semiconductor Physics to Artificial Perception
Bio: Dr. Tony Ragucci is a Teledyne Fellow and Senior Director of Strategy at Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, where he drives enterprise-wide sensing and perception growth. He previously founded and led the Leonardo DRS Research, Advanced Prototyping, and Innovative Design (RAPID) Laboratory, and served as Raytheon Vision Systems’ Chief Engineer for the F-35 EO-DAS sensor. He earlier founded Pericept, which delivered the quantitative photogrammetric solutions later acquired by Topcon, and served as CTO of Lynntech, where his infrared georeferenced search technology earned an SBA Tibbetts Award. Over 22 years, Dr. Ragucci has advanced EO/IR sensing from materials physics through system integration, pairing technical leadership with business execution to deliver results in infrared imaging, sensor fusion, and embedded perception systems. He holds a B.S. in Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Physics from Penn State, and a Ph.D. in Physics from The Ohio State University.
John Devitt
RTX Principal Fellow and Tech Director at Raytheon Technologies
I Love the Smell of Infrared in the Morning
Lessons from a Career in EO/IR Sensors and Systems
Bio: RTX Principal Fellow and Tech Director - Currently supporting RVS Tactical Products including major POR efforts and pursuits. Responsible for technical strategy and roadmaps for the Tactical portfolio. Relevant projects spanning the full electromagnetic spectrum and major DoD agencies, including significant IR detector programs like EODAS, 3GEN FLIR, which are critical to U.S. national security. Former Director of RVS Engineering, leading a team of several hundred in executing technical, financial, and organizational goals. Member of several industry technology groups including MSS Passive Sensors, and IRCM, SPIE Infrared Technology and Systems Design Committees, as well as an appointment to the National Academy of Science. Background includes a broad variety of infrared detector and systems technology including extensive experience with related analysis tools. Winner of 2024 SPIE Book Award for “Introduction to Infrared and EO Systems”.
Timothy (TJ) Klausutis
Program Manager in the Strategic Technology Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Timothy Morgan
Chief Scientist for EO/IR Science & Technology, NSWC Crane
Vince Cowan
Principal Electronics Engineer, Air Force Research Laboratory
MIST Committee Chairs
Organizing Committee
Sanjay Krishna (Chair)
Matt Casto (Co-Chair)
Tony Vengel (Vice Chair)
Program Committee
Amy Liu (Chair)
Elizabeth Steenbergen (Vice Chair)
Mike Eismann (Vice Chair)
Student Recruitment Committee
Leland Nordin (Chair)
Lisa Fiorentini (Vice Chair)
Nicole Pfiester-Latham (Vice Chair)
Sponsorship Committee
Ramy Tantawy (Chair)
Ed Smith (Vice Chair)
Nansheng Tang (Vice Chair)
Government S&T Committee
Emily Heckman (Chair)
Greg Forcherio (Vice Chair)
Affiliation
Ohio State University
Midwest Microelectronics Consortium
Midwest Microelectronics Consortium
Affiliation
IQE
Raytheon
Air Force Research Laboratory
Affiliation
University of Central Florida/CREOL
Ohio State University
Rose-Hulman University
Affiliation
SenseICs
Anduril
L3Harris
Affiliation
Air Force Research Laboratory/RY
Naval Surface Warfare Center - Crane Division
Workshop Goals
- Address a Critical Workforce Challenge: Tackle the aging EO/IR workforce by inspiring and recruiting top-tier undergraduates to pursue graduate research careers aligned with national security priorities.
- Showcase the EO/IR Technology Stack: Offer immersive experiences: from detectors and ROICs to cryo-cooling systems and software processing, through talks, demos, and lab tours.
- Facilitate Connections: Create opportunities for students, faculty, and industry/government stakeholders to connect around internships, jobs, and collaborative research.
What to Expect
- Keynotes and Technical Talks from leaders in DoD, AFRL, and academia
- Hands-on Experiences including IR scavenger hunts, live demos, and facility tours
- Industry and Government Panels exploring the future of EO/IR innovation
- Career Networking Opportunities including a job/internship fair and reverse poster session
- Experiential Learning tailored to show the “full stack” of EO/IR systems development—from materials growth to system deployment
Who Should Attend
- Undergraduate students (junior/senior) interested in MS/PhD pathways in EO/IR
- MS/PhD researchers in electro-optics, photonics, sensing, and semiconductor devices
- Industry partners and government labs looking to recruit or collaborate
- Faculty, postdocs, and research mentors across EO/IR domains
- U.S. persons (citizens and permanent residents)