Urban mobility, CO2 capture and storage, integrated photonics and smart systems for personalized health-care were the four themes of interdisciplinary symposium EU-US Frontiers of Engineering that was hold from 17 to 19 October 2016 at Aalto University near Helsinki, Finland. About 60 outstanding engineers from Europe and the USA around the age of 30-45 years were selected to attend the symposium. The photonics session was co-chaired by Pavel Peterka from the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.