Welcome to the Shastri Lab
Shastri Lab is part of the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy at Queen's University, and affiliated with the Centre for Nanophotonics, and NUCLEUS, a pan-Canadian photonic computing program (funded by NSERC CREATE) bridging artificial intelligence and quantum information.
Many of today’s grand challenges — from discovering new medicines to finding planets beyond our solar system — still push the limits of even the world’s fastest supercomputers and quantum systems. For many important problems, brute-force computation would take longer than the age of the universe.
In the Shastri Lab, we explore the physics of computation. We are building computers that use light as a primary medium for information processing, enabling significant gains in speed, bandwidth, and energy efficiency. Our approach is deeply interdisciplinary: we combine nanophotonics — the control of light at the smallest scales — with emerging material platforms, including compound semiconductors on silicon, ferroelectric materials, and polymers, as well as advanced computing models and quantum phenomena. Through this work, we are developing neuromorphic computers, unconventional computing systems, and quantum neuromorphic processors. These photonic processors aim to enable breakthroughs in mathematical optimization, computational science, real-time signal processing, machine learning, and quantum technologies.
Lab members have access to world-class shared facilities, including the Centre for Nanophotonics (CFI-Innovation Fund), Nanofabrication Kingston, the Centre for Advanced Computing, and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.
If you’re one of the crazy ones—driven to imagine, discover, and inspire—come join our team. Together, we’ll shape the future of physical computing.
Prof. Shastri on his research on neuromorphic photonic computing and his excitement about working with his students at Queen's