Eric Udd

In 1976 the first single mode optical fiber supported the first demonstration of a fiber optic gyro by Vali and Shorthill at the University of Utah. Parallel efforts by the Naval Research Laboratory involved an investigation of the first single mode fiber optic acoustic sensors. I joined McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company in September 1977 and in an effort supported by the Guidance and Control Group invented the closed loop fiber gyroscope. That led to US Air Force contracts for fiber gyro work, awards by the Navy for fiber optic acoustic sensor development, and commercial contracts to develop sensors for the oil and gas industry. In August 1993 I founded Blue Road Research, Inc. in Troutdale, Oregon, continuing to work with all branches of DOD, oil and gas and composite manufacturing as well as new efforts supported by NASA, DOE, NSF, and new commercial customers. This diversification continued with the second company I started, Columbia Gorge Research, LLC expanding into ventures in medical applications and electric power while continuing to support DOD and DOE from 2006 to the present. This webinar will explore linkages between revolutionary sensors to measure rotation, temperature, strain, acoustics, pressure, moisture and other environmental factors that are intertwined in a development path that includes parallel efforts in fiber optic communications and optoelectronic components. Selected application examples of fiber sensor technology will be described.

Biography:

Eric Udd is President of Columbia Gorge Research, a company he founded with the objective of helping move fiber optic sensor technology into field applications. He started his work on fiber optic sensor technology at McDonnell Douglas in 1977 with the invention of the closed-loop fiber optic gyro and quickly became a manager of a fiber optic sensor group and was later promoted to McDonnell Douglas Fellow-Senior Staff Manager. In 1993, he left McDonnell Douglas to move his family to Oregon and founded Blue Road Research to continue his fiber optic sensor work. In 2000, Standard MEMS acquired Blue Road Research. In January 2006, he left to found Columbia Gorge Research. Mr. Udd has been the principal investigator on over 100 projects for DOD, NASA, DOE, and many commercial customers. These efforts include the development of rotation, acceleration, acoustic, vibration, pressure, temperature, strain, corrosion, and moisture sensors. The fields of application he supported on these programs involve aerospace, naval applications, ground vehicles, civil structures, medical applications, machining, composite manufacturing, oil and gas exploration and extraction, electric power, and environmental monitoring. Mr. Udd has 54 issued US patents that have often been filed internationally. He wrote and presented over 200 papers, chaired over 39 international conferences, and edited and contributed chapters to many books on fiber optic sensors. Mr. Udd is a Fellow and served as a Director of SPIE—the International Society of Optical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA, now Optica) and a lifetime member of the IEEE and the IEEE Photonics Society. Mr. Udd was the 2009 recipient of the David Richardson Medal from OSA for his work on “Fiber optic sensors and the field of fiber optic smart structures.” His other edited books on fiber sensors are Fiber Optic Smart Structures, Wiley, 1995, Design and Development of Fiber Optic Gyroscopes, SPIE Press, 2019 and Fiber Optic Sensors: An Introduction for Engineers and Scientists, 3rd Edition, Wiley, 2024. He coauthored Field Guide to Fiber Optic Sensors, SPIE Press, 2014, with Bill Spillman.

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