Are you in this industry? Where could I learn more about #2? Sounds like something up my alley...
http://www.aogr.com/magazine/cover-story/fiber-optic-sensors...
I feel like it'd be really hard to break into this field without some data to play with. Catch-22...
If you have access/desire to share some data like this I'd love to chat more (email in bio). Sounds like an interesting problem.