The 2026 Summer School on Optical Communications Systems and Networks will take place from 2 to 4 September 2026 at Trinity College Dublin. The programme is organised by the ICON Project and supported by the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre, together with several EU funded research projects and academic partners, including FLEX-SCALE, PROTEUS-6G, and the OCSN Group at the ECE Department of the University of Patras.
Now in its third edition, following the events at ETH Zürich in 2024 and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin in 2025, the Summer School has become a key European venue for education, training and community building in optical communications. The 2026 edition continues this path, bringing together internationally recognised experts from academia and industry.
Over three days, participants will follow expert lectures and technical discussions and take part in a hands on hackathon. The programme covers:
- Optical transmission systems
- Optical access networks, including fibre based and optical wireless
- AI driven optical networking
- Sensing technologies
- Quantum communication and networking
- Future optical network architectures
The Summer School is aimed at Master’s students, PhD researchers, early career engineers and young researchers who want to deepen their knowledge and connect with the wider optical communications community. Participants will also gain exposure to real world applications and research environments through invited speakers and potential lab visits.
The Summer School is held alongside the FRONT Workshop 2026, which takes place in Dublin on 1 September 2026.
For the full programme, further details and registration, please visit the event page: https://connectcentre.ie/news/summer-school-on-optical-communication-2026/
