Learning with complex optics: from optical nonlinear data encoder to optics-augmented neural networks

In this talk, we will report two of our recent progresses on intersection between complex optics and machine learning. We will first talk about the work on how a multiple-scattering cavity can be harnessed as a nonlinear optical data encoder for ultra-fast and parallel information processing. Then we will discuss how complex optics can be exploitted to build reconfigurable and trainable optical neural networks. We demonstrate our work on performing machine learning tasks on both industry and scientific datasets.