For Release: July 9, 1996

Steve Roy
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov

Note To Editors: 96-55N

NASA/INDUSTRY/UNIVERSITIES MEET TO DISCUSS FUTURE COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. will host a conference Thursday on concepts for a new generation of computer technology. The concept uses light waves to send and store information instead of electrical components.

The conference, being organized by Marshall Center’s Space Science Laboratory, will explore ideas for technologies needed for the commercial development of what is called non-linear optical devices.

The Fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Alliance for Non-linear Opitcs will be held at the Tom Bevill Center on the campus of the University of Alabama. The Alliance, formed in 1994 with the NASA Institutional Research Award for Minority Universities, brings together the non-linear optics research programs at Spelman College in Atlanta, New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and Alabama A&M University and the University of Alabama, both in Huntsville.

The three-day conference will run through Saturday noon.

Media interviews with research scientists and engineers are available during the conference. News media interested in interviews or covering the conference may contact Steve Roy at the Marshall Center Public Affairs Office at (205) 544-6535 or 544-0034.