During the last days of 2023, it is again an interesting moment to look back over the last 12 months. Many things have changed in the world, unfortunately not only for the better. It is really sad to report that the military imaging business is booming due to the many deadly conflicts humanity is facing. It would be great to know that the businesses are booming because of other reasons. Despite the fact that not everyone is living in a peaceful world, it is time to overlook the work of Harvest Imaging in 2023.
Harvest Imaging has 4 major pilars on which the business is relying :
- the training and teaching in the field of solid-state image capturing. This part of the Harvest Imaging services is still going strong. Many existing customers are asking for more and more training, several new customers are added. It is really remarkable how many different application fields are requiring training. Because I have seen in the past a lot of airports, a lot of hotels, because I have enjoyed a lot of airplane food, I decided to run most trainings on-line. Overseas travelling, jet lag and teaching for 6 to 8 hours per day in front of professionals is not the optimum combination. I am thankful towards my customers that they do understand this. The training agenda for 2024 is almost completely booked, even a couple of courses are already scheduled for 2025,
- consulting. I decided to slow down in consulting activities, and this is done by no longer accepting new customers. Sometimes it is very difficult to say “no”, but at a particular time in life, working loads have to be reduced,
- technical projects : these are projects I define myself, with no deadlines and even less pressure. In 2023 a very interesting project on noise in an existing device was started : how to explain a specific noise pattern in the dark output image of a CIS. As mentioned already many times : doing measurements and experiments yourself is the best learning school for an image sensor engineer !
- Harvest Imaging Forum : this hybrid event was again successful in 2023 when the topic focused on “Imaging outside the Visible Spectrum”. Most probably the 2024 version of the forum will be limited to an in-person event.
Besides the activities of Harvest Imaging, in 2023 I still had my part-time assignment at the Delft University of Technology, but this came to an end in May 2023. I still have to make sure that also my last two PhD students will defend their thesis, but all practical work in Delft is finished (at least for me). My successor, Padmakumar Rao, took over the academic activities.
What about 2024 ? For sure the training and teaching part of Harvest Imaging will continue. Also the preparations for an extra Harvest Imaging forum have started. Both activities allow me to stay in touch with the imaging community that brought me a lot of joy since 1976 when I stepped into imaging.
Finally, it is a pleasure for me to wish all my customers and readers a great Christmas period and a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful 2024.
Albert.