Eric C. Blow to Deliver Photonic AI Keynote at COOL Chips 29 in Tokyo on April 17th

April 15, 2026||inEvents|tagsai hardware, cool chips, edge ai, eric c blow, high performance computing, inference acceleration, low power computing, machine learning, neuromorphic computing, optical computing, optical networking, photonic computing, photonics

NEC Laboratories America is proud to share that Eric C. Blow, a researcher in our Optical Networking & Sensing (ONS) group, will present a keynote at the IEEE Symposium on Low-Power and High-Speed Chips and Systems (COOL Chips 29) in Tokyo, Japan. His talk, titled “Multi-Modal Photonic Computing for Real-Time Ultra-Efficient Inference,” will explore emerging approaches at the intersection of photonics and artificial intelligence.

Eric Cool Chips 2026

IEEE COOL Chips is an international symposium established in 1998 that presents advances in low-power and high-speed chips and systems. The symposium covers leading-edge technologies in all areas of microprocessors and their applications.

As demand for faster and more energy-efficient AI systems continues to grow, photonic computing offers a compelling path forward. By leveraging light-based processing, these systems have the potential to accelerate inference while significantly reducing power consumption, addressing critical challenges in scaling modern machine learning workloads. This keynote highlights NEC Laboratories America’s ongoing research into next-generation computing architectures that integrate optical technologies with advanced AI methods. This work reflects our commitment to developing practical, high-impact solutions that connect foundational research with real-world deployment.

Event Details
Conference: IEEE Symposium on Low-Power and High-Speed Chips and Systems (COOL Chips 29)
Location: The University of Tokyo, Japan
Date: Friday, April 17, 2026
Time: 09:00–09:50 JST
Session: IX: Keynote Presentation 5
Chairs: Y. Kobayashi (NEC), Y. Sasagawa (Socionext)

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