{"id":8213,"date":"2025-09-18T11:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=8213"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:50:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:50:41","slug":"wang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2025\/09\/18\/wang\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Machine Learning to Automate Aligning Optical Components in Experiments"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Mentors<\/h3>\n<p><span>\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-8227 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-ece affiliation-faculty program-year-186 profile-field-mentor profile-field-pi\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/tianyu-wang\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/09\/wang_HS-600x600-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Tianyu Wang<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Assistant Professor (ECE)<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced post-8229 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-ece affiliation-graduate-student program-year-186 profile-field-mentor\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/weiru-fan\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Weiru Fan<\/h6>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Project Description<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">The goal of this project is to develop a machine learning-based approach for automated laser beam alignment using mirrors. By leveraging optical simulations, we aim to train algorithms that can optimize mirror adjustments to achieve precise beam positioning. This project will explore various ML techniques, such as reinforcement learning and gradient-based optimization techniques, to determine effective alignment strategies. The ultimate objective is to compare machine-learned approaches with traditional human methods and assess their scalability for more complex optical alignment tasks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container  bu_collapsible_open\" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Research Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" >\n<ul>\n<li>Develop a machine learning-based approach for automated laser beam alignment.<\/li>\n<li>Explore different ML techniques (e.g., reinforcement learning, Bayesian optimization, Gradient-based methods) for optimizing optical path alignments.<\/li>\n<li>Compare ML-derived alignment strategies with traditional human methods.<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate the scalability of ML-based alignment for more complex optical setups.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container  bu_collapsible_open\" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Learning Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" >\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Apply machine learning to automate laser beam alignment and compare results with human strategies.<\/li>\n<li>Frame optics problems as ML optimization tasks, defining state, action, and reward functions.<\/li>\n<li>Explore ML techniques like reinforcement learning, genetic algorithms, and Bayesian optimization.<\/li>\n<li>Understand laser beam alignment principles and mirror adjustments for beam propagation.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Gain hands-on experience with optical simulation tools like pyOpTools and Phydemo Ray Optics Simulator.<\/li>\n<li>Generate and analyze synthetic data for ML model training and performance evaluation.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Develop problem-solving skills to determine effective alignment strategies.<\/li>\n<li>Compare simulated alignment approaches with traditional human-designed methods.<\/li>\n<li>Learn to scale ML-based solutions from simulations to real-world optical setups.<\/li>\n<li>Interpret alignment results, quantify accuracy, and refine models based on data analysis.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Timeline<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Week 1: <\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Get familiar with the lab environment; safety training. Week 5-9: Try to propose improvements over prior results and implement the new schemes in the lab.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Week 2:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Read literature and summarize prior methods; set the goal for learning relevant ML methods.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 3-4:<\/strong><\/span> Try to reproduce results from prior publications.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 5-9:<\/strong><\/span> Try to propose improvements over prior results and implement the new schemes in the lab.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 10:<\/strong><\/span> Summarize the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentors Project Description The goal of this project is to develop a machine learning-based approach for automated laser beam alignment using mirrors. By leveraging optical simulations, we aim to train algorithms that can optimize mirror adjustments to achieve precise beam positioning. This project will explore various ML techniques, such as reinforcement learning and gradient-based optimization [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10418,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions\/10418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}