Ignazio Piacentini, B.Sc., M.Sc., initially spent many years working for the European Commission at Euratom on large-scale thermonuclear fusion experimental projects, including a long spell at the JET Joint Undertaking (Culham Labs, UK). Following that he directed ImagingLab Srl, in Lodi, Italy, a company specialising in machine vision and advanced robotics. In parallel he held a position as Business Development Manager Europe for Imaging & Motion of NI (1999 to 2003), and served two 3-year mandates on the Board of Directors of EMVA (European Machine Vision Association). He then led the Photonics Devices Assembly Business Unit at PI miCos GmbH (PI Group) until since 2015 he is Director of Business Development at ficonTEC Service GmbH.
ficonTEC is probably best known for supplying assembly systems for a good proportion of the world’s transceivers. But markets have been diversifying, and photonics-based sensors have been catching our attention for some time. LiDAR, automotive and MedTech are themes that feature strongly amongst the projects we are currently tackling and that cover the breadth of our 'Photonics from Lab to Fab' maxim well.