Leuven, Flemish Region, Belgium
As the Director of Systems Architecture at SWAVE, I create Holographic 3D Displays - the technology straight out of Sci-Fi novels. While growing up, I dismantled household appliances to learn how they work. This curiosity eventually led to a bachelor’s in Physics with Computer Science in London, followed by MRes + PhD in Engineering at Cambridge. My PhD, dedicated to Computer-Generated Holography, laid the groundwork for a deep tech start-up - VividQ. As co-founder/CTO, I established a lab, led and grew the hardware part of the company over 6 years. Our work redefined Holography: we raised $20M+, built two Holographic Augmented Reality headsets, and proven that the 3D image can be passed through a waveguide (previously deemed “impossible”). I left the company in 2023 to recover from burnout while touring Europe in a self-renovated caravan. In September, I joined SWAVE Photonics and I’m enjoying each and every moment of it! I have been fortunate to have excellent teachers. These days I’m trying to pay it forward. I’ve taught, supervised and mentored students at all levels (including PhD), authored over 15 publications and patents. I’m always happy to talk about tech. I presented at numerous events, including SPIE, SID and OPTICA. To learn more, visit: www.drAndrzejKa.com Specialties: Optics, Photonics, 3D Display Technology, Computer Graphics, Real-time Computer-Generated Holography, Programming (C, C++, MATLAB, Python), High-Performance Computing (CUDA C), Augmented Reality.
Swave Photonics is a fabless semiconductor company that develops holographic chips based on proprietary diffractive photonics technology. Swave’s technology was developed over 10 years at imec, the world-leading nano-electronic research and innovation center. Swave is dedicated to advancing the field of spatial computing, with a focus on developing state-of-the-art true holographic displays. We envision a future where holographic displays become an integral tool, bridging the gap between imagination and reality, fostering global collaboration and innovation.
• Invented and patented a real-time hologram generation algorithm, allowing to stream 3D content from the Unity game engine • Established and equipped a £50k internal optics lab, built numerous holographic projectors • Designed and implemented prototypes of two software modules offered by VividQ (Core and View) • Oversaw the design and construction of a holographic headset
Co-supervising exciting projects as a part of the R42 Institute
Penteract28 is a technology start-up providing a coherent data compression framework.
Presentation "3D Holography" delivered at TEDxWarsaw