Applying laser technology to solve humanity's challenges

Directed energy is "the ability to create a high amount of energy in a controlled volume at a given distance in order to trigger physical reactions to study the interaction between the energy and the matter," says Dr. Chaouki Kasmi, who is the Chief Researcher at DERC, which is part of the Abu Dhabi government's Advanced Technology Research Council. The research at DERC reflects the multitude of applications that are possible using directed energy, but the research projects have at least one thing in common: the goal of solving real-world scientific or technical challenges. For example, one of DERC's recent developments is a landmine detection system – the ground-penetrating radar - designed to help developing or previously war-torn countries detect and neutralize unexploded landmines. They have their sights set much higher and further with projects focused on using lasers for communications on land, to the moon, and even underwater--truly making the entire world a better place with directed energy technology. "The disruptive innovation that we are bringing today is how we can make it affordable for developing countries. The idea is to create a technology that could really help solve a worldwide problem at low cost. And this is very important for us as we would like to have the system deployed at scale," says Dr. Kasmi.