2014-2015 spie annual report · 2015-09-01 · 1 sep 2015 annual report . 2 . the university of...
TRANSCRIPT
2014-2015
SPIE Annual Report
1 Sep 2015 Annual Report
2
The University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society
Contents 1. INTRODUCTION – VISION AND GOALS ...................................................................................3
2. STUDENT CHAPTER MEMBERS ...............................................................................................4
3. ACTIVITIES ..............................................................................................................................5
3.1 Social, Networking, and Charity Activities .............................................................................. 5
3.1.1 Social Highlights .............................................................................................................. 5
3.2 Academic Activities ................................................................................................................. 9
3.2.1 Optical Society Seminar Series (Throughout 2014 – 2015) ............................................ 9
3.2.2 Professional Networking and Presentations ................................................................. 10
3.2.3 Department Facilitation ................................................................................................ 14
3.3 Outreach Activities ................................................................................................................ 16
3.3.1 School visits and classes ................................................................................................ 16
3.3.2 Open Days and Fairs ...................................................................................................... 18
3.3.3 Special Note: Overseas Exhibitions ............................................................................... 19
3.3.4 Public Engagement ........................................................................................................ 22
4. FINANCES ............................................................................................................................. 23
5. OUTLOOK ............................................................................................................................. 24
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1. INTRODUCTION – VISION AND GOALS The University of Southampton SPIE student chapter was established on the 28th January 2011. The student chapter also has affiliations with an Optical Society (OSA) student. Collectively, we are known as the University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society (OPSoc). Our members are mostly PhD students from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), and the schools of Physics & Astronomy (P&A), and Electronics & Computer Science (ECS), at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, but also have members from other departments as well as Masters and undergraduates.
Our objective is to unite and engage the student community who are performing (or are interested in) optics and photonics research at the University of Southampton. Our activities can be categorised into three main groups:
• Social and networking activities • Educational activities • Outreach
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2. STUDENT CHAPTER MEMBERS Committee members are elected at the beginning of the academic year. The current committee members (October 2013–September 2014) are:
Position Name Email SPIE ID
President Nicholas Wong [email protected] 3541309
Vice President Martin Nunez Velazquez
[email protected] 3590087
Treasurer Amy Tong [email protected] 3682527
Secretary Naresh Kumar Thipparapu
[email protected] 3682525
Lightwave Director (Outreach)
Matthew Posner
[email protected] 3629641
Social Officer Vinita Mittal [email protected] 3552948
Education Officer Pablo Cencillo [email protected] 3590491 1st Year Representative Rex Bannerman [email protected] 3673357
Our current non-officer student chapter members are:
Nouf Abuhadi Harish Achar Vasant Joanna Carthy Francesco De Lucia Paul Gow David Gray Maryam Hajji Di Lin
Eleni Mavrona Alexander May Medya Namiq Michal Odstrcil Tina Parsonage Aabid Patel Tim Raybould Christoph Riedel
Yujia Sun Andrew Turnbull Lieke van Putten Robin Waters Sung Jin Yoon
Alumni:
Amol Choudhary Jae Daniel Deepak Jain
Pearl John Yudong Wang Kaveh Delfanazari
Alberto Sposito
Total number of members: 29. Our faculty advisor is Prof. Johan Nilsson (email: [email protected])
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3. ACTIVITIES The student chapter has organized numerous events over the last year, which involve both the students and staff. We have maintained our reputation as a socially active student chapter through student focused activities (e.g. Welcome tea, Winchester Fireworks) as well as activities which encourage networking with members of staff and academia (Pub quiz, Arctic BBQ, Seminar series). Our chapter has significantly increased its Outreach Education activity this year. The recruiting events are regular activities (Annual General Meeting (AGM), Welcome Party).
3.1 Social, Networking, and Charity Activities
List of social and networking activities: • Alphabetically themed Coffee and Cake Club (Fortnightly through the year) • Welcome tea for new students (September 2014) • Start of academic year pub quiz (October 2014) • Annual General Meeting (October 2014) • Winchester fireworks trip (Bonfire Night, November 2014) • International Food Festival (November 2014) • Arctic BBQ (November 2014) • Movember competition (November 2014) • Christmas coffee and cafe session (December 2014) • Nepal Earthquake Aid Fundraising Cake Sale Event (May 2015) • Movie Night (June 2015) • Pub Outing (August 2015)
3.1.1 Social Highlights
3.1.1.1 Coffee and Cake Club (Fortnightly) Every other week, our student members showcase their baking artistry by providing cakes and pastries for anyone interested to join in a casual mid-morning chat. The cake names are themed alphabetically and the alphabets increment at each session, e.g. someone would bake a Rum and Lime Drizzle Cake for the week of “R”. Each session is well attended by about 10 – 15 staff/students, who enjoy the cake and the casual networking environment.
Strawberry and White Chocolate cake for the ‘S’ theme.
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3.1.1.2 Welcome Tea for New Students (September 2014) The annual ‘Welcome Tea’ involves the chapter members providing cakes, tea, and coffee for the new intake of PhD and MSc students (about 20 annually). Aside from promotion of the student chapter and its role within the department, this event also allows the new students to meet the continuing students and obtain useful information about the academic programs and student experiences in a friendly environment.
3.1.1.3 Pub Quiz (October 2014) The Pub Quiz is a regular event which is usually run once or twice a year. It is another social event where staff and students from the entire faculty (ORC, ECS, and P&A departments) are invited to attend. Food and beverages are provided by the student chapter, and the quiz is hosted by our former student chapter president. This provides a key networking opportunity as chapter members can interact with other departments in a fun and (slightly) competitive environment. This interaction can encourage potential future collaborations and is also a chance to advertise the student chapter cross-departmentally. Last year’s pub quiz was attended by approximately 35 people.
3.1.1.4 Winchester Fireworks Trip (November 2014) Bonfire night is a widely celebrated event in the UK and a massive fireworks and bonfire event is held annually in Winchester. It has become a tradition for the student chapter to organize a trip for staff and students to attend the festive event. It is particularly interesting for new students and staff to experience this facet of British culture after their first few weeks. Last year’s visit included about 10 staff and students.
Winchester Bonfire and Fireworks Night with ORC staff and students.
3.1.1.5 International Food Festival (November 2014) Recognizing the vast internationality of researchers in our faculty, we decided to organize an International Food Festival night by inviting students and staff of various nationalities to prepare a diverse range of food and snacks from their home countries and share them with everyone. The event was a great success, showcasing cuisine from 13 different countries and being attended by about 40 people. A key takeaway that everyone appreciated is that ‘research’ is one of the truly universal, international domains, and inclusive domains.
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International Food Festival attendees and country contributors.
3.1.1.6 Arctic BBQ (November 2014) The arctic BBQ is an annual student chapter event held near the beginning of the academic year and is traditionally used to encourage the new students to become members of the SPIE. This is held at a local pub, with the student chapter providing (and cooking) the food. The new students get a chance to socialize with other members of the community providing a valuable networking opportunity at the beginning of their PhD degrees. Last year’s event saw a surge in attendance with increased participation from students from the P&A department, in addition to the traditional ORC attendance; it was attended by approximately 80 people. This provides a conspicuous example of how we can strengthen cross-departmental relations through a social event.
(Left) The BBQ masters. (Right) Students enjoying the food and company.
3.1.1.7 Movember Competition (November 2015) The student chapter participated in last year’s ‘Movember’. This is a month-long event where we ask our male chapter members to grow a moustache or beard, i.e. a ‘mo’, over the month of November. The longest and best looking mo was judged at the end of the month during the Arctic BBQ event.
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(Left) Movember participants at the start of November. (Right) Movember winners.
3.1.1.8 Charity Event: Nepal Earthquake Aid Fundraising Cake Sale Event (May 2015) In the wake of the recent devastating earthquake in Nepal, we organized a cake sale to raise funds to support the relief efforts. Many students and staff came forward to offer their baking skills and the large number of cakes and pastries produced was quite evenly matched by the large number of patrons and donations received on the event day. More than 50 people from various departments made purchases. We raised a total of £433.65 that went to the British Red Cross for the Nepal Earthquake Appeal.
Fundraising cake sale for the Nepal earthquake victims.
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3.2 Academic Activities
3.2.1 Optical Society Seminar Series (Throughout 2014 – 2015)
In an effort to promote knowledge diversity and awareness of research and industrial developments in photonics, we created the Optical Society Seminar Series back in 2013. We would invite academic and industry speakers to give talks of interest to photonics professionals. The talks range from being technical to industry and market focused. The series has continued to run and remains popular to date. So far, 4 talks have been successfully organized in 2015: List of invited talks in OPSoc Seminar Series to date (2015): Date Title Speaker Attendance IYL 2015 Calendar Link 15 Jan 2015
Photonics: an industry with a future
Stephen G. Anderson, Industry & Market Strategist, SPIE
45 http://www.light2015.org/Home/Event-Programme/2015/Meeting/UK---Photonics--an-industry-with-a-future.html
11 Feb 2015
Sensing the World around Us with Optical Nerves of Glass (incorporating static and transient fiber gratings)
Dr. Balaji Srinivasan, Associate Professor, IIT Madras
30 http://www.light2015.org/Home/Event-Programme/2015/Lectures/UK-Sensing-the-World-around-Us.html
14 Apr 2015
PhotonTransfer.com and The XPhoton Open Innovation Challenge for the IYL2015
Ernesto Barrera, CEO, Photontransfer
17 http://www.light2015.org/Home/Event-Programme/2015/Lectures/UK-PhotonTransfer.com.html
28 Jul 2015
Activities on Specialty Optical Fibers: Fabrication to Device Development
Dr. Mrinmay Pal, Visiting Fellow, ORC
34 http://www.light2015.org/Home/Event-Programme/2015/Lectures/UK-Activities-on-Specialty-Optical-Fibers--Fabrication-to-Device-Development.html
All these seminars have been listed on the IYL2015 event calendar. See http://osa.orc.soton.ac.uk/academic.html for a full list of all seminars. Of note is the seminar delivered by Stephen G. Anderson from SPIE, who spoke about the photonics industry and gave an overview in numbers of the size of the various photonics markets. It was an engaging talk that was attended by many including senior academic and departmental staff. The talk provided an opportunity for students and researchers to see the big picture of photonics in the world, outside the theoretical, technical, and laboratory contexts. The post-seminar refreshment session allowed students and staff to meet and network with Mr. Anderson. To add to the seminar series, we intend to make use of the financial support from SPIE to host an SPIE Visiting Lecturer. We are currently in communication with Dr. Maria Dinescu from the National Institute for Lasers, Romania, to arrange a talk some time this October.
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(Clockwise from top left) Mr. Stephen Anderson of SPIE speaking about the photonics market and career pool; Mr. Anderson at lunch with President Nicholas Wong and ORC staff Dr. Senthil Ganapathy; Dr. Balaji Srinivasan giving a lecture to students; Dr. Mrinmay Pal with a number of students during his term as a visiting fellow at the ORC.
3.2.2 Professional Networking and Presentations
Being the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015) this year, we sought to increase our presence of our chapter and department in the global academic community. Throughout the year, our chapter officers have given a number of presentations at various international conferences and events to raise the profile of our chapter and also particularly, the outreach program that we run. The following paragraphs detail these activities:
3.2.2.1 Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (June/July 2015) In 2005, ORC PhD students published an article about OPSoc’s Lightwave Roadshow in the biennial conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP). Now, ten years later, students have again featured Lightwave at the conference. Held this year at Institut d’Optique d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux University in France from 29 June to 2 July, the conference brings together academics and educators in optics and photonics, and covers a range of topics from curriculum development and pedagogy to outreach. ORC student and SPIE chapter president Nicholas Wong presented on the current state of the Lightwave Roadshow and how it has evolved from its beginnings in 1998, with specific note on recent endeavours to measure the impact of its outreach and public engagement mission. The paper was supported by co-authors fellow ORC PhD student and Lightwave director Matthew Posner, and public engagement leader Pearl John from Physics and Astronomy. It will be published in SPIE Proceedings. Paper title: “The Lightwave Programme and Roadshow: An Overview and Update”
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SPIE student chapter president Nicholas Wong with Dr. Eugene Arthurs, CEO of SPIE.
3.2.2.2 Photonics Global Student Conference (July 2015) Through collaborations with our academic partners at The Photonics Institute in the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, we were invited to send a representative to attend and present at this year’s Photonics Global Student Conference, which follows immediately from the Photonics Global Conference (PCG2015). Our student chapter representative, chapter president Nicholas Wong, was in fact chosen to represent the entire United Kingdom during the conference’s student seminar series and forum, by presenting about his research work as well as providing an overview of our student society. It provided an excellent opportunity for professional networking, and, given that the conference is primarily organized by the Singapore chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society, we were able to network and share experiences across SPIE and IEEE. Presentation title: “Airborne Light: Addressing the 21st Century Internet Bottleneck with Hollow-core Photonic Bandgap Fibres”
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(Clockwise from top left) Chapter president Nicholas Wong giving his presentation on the work on Hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers (HC-PBGFs) in his group at the ORC; the 7 student country representatives with keynote speaker Prof. Anna Peacock; Nicholas receiving his certificate of participation from Prof. Perry Shum of NTU; Nicholas with his counterpart, Zhang Nan, president of the IEEE Photonics Society Singapore Chapter Student Branch.
3.2.2.3 The Straits Times Recruit Top Universities and Scholarships Fair (July 2015) Every year, a scholarship fair is organised in Singapore to recruit prospective students at top universities around the world. For many years running, the University of Southampton has had a steady annual presence, through a team of staff and Singaporean students. Held at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre on 19 July and published by The Straits Times Recruit, the Top Universities and Scholarships Fair 2015 saw thousands of prospective undergraduate and graduate students and their families seeking to explore educational possibilities. This year, the ORC and our student society got to be specially showcased as 3rd Year PhD student and SPIE chapter president Nicholas Wong, joined the team of ambassadors from the university and took the opportunity to advertise the centre, its graduate programs, and the student chapter experience. During the bustle of visits to the booth, Nicholas enticed curious onlookers with an experimental demonstration of chromatically-dependent interference using a diffraction grating and laser pointers of different colours.
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(Left) Nicholas with the team of exhibitors from the university. (Right) Using the diffraction grating experiment as a conversation starter with prospective students.
3.2.2.4 Academic Visit to the National University of Singapore (July 2015) During his summer vacation back home in Singapore, President Nicholas Wong was invited to give a series of talks at the National University of Singapore (NUS) by Dr. Changyuan Yu, head of the Photonic System Research Group (PSRG) at NUS. These talks comprised of a double seminar presented to the PSRG students, where Nicholas spoke about his work on the characterization of HC-PBGFs and also introduced the student chapter our Lightwave outreach program; as well as a public talk where Nicholas addressed staff and students of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) with an overview of the IYL 2015 celebration and its mission, goals, and activities. The public talk was notably rewarding as it introduced non-photonics professionals to the chapter and the IYL 2015 observance. Talk titles: • PSRG talks:
o “Airborne Light: Addressing the 21st Century Internet Bottleneck with Hollow-core Photonic Bandgap Fibres”
o “The Lightwave Programme and Roadshow” • ECE public talk:
o “A Luminous Celebration: An Overview of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies”
(Left) Nicholas telling staff and students from NUS about IYL 2015. (Right) Nicholas with Dr. Changyuan Yu conducting a simple outreach experimental demonstration with various-colored laser pointers and a diffraction grating.
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3.2.2.5 SPIE Student Chapter Leadership Workshop (August 2015) Our chapter was represented at SPIE Optics + Photonics (OP15) this August. Social officer Vinita Mittal was awarded the Student Chapter Officer Travel Grant to attend the Student Chapter Leadership Workshop at OP15 in San Diego, CA. She interacted with contemporaries from other student chapters and what she learned about leadership and chapter management will benefit our chapter greatly.
(Left) Vinita working with other student leaders on a group task. (Right) Attendees of the OP15 Student Chapter Leadership Workshop.
3.2.2.6 IYL Seminar Series at the Nanyang Technological University (August 2015) President Nicholas Wong was invited to give a talk at the IYL Seminar Series, organized by the Centre for Optical Fibre Technology (COFT) and the Centre for OptoElectronics and Biophotonics (OPTIMUS), units of The Photonics Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. As with his previous public talk at NUS, audience members from the general electrical and electronic engineering community (not every one of whom are photonics experts) were introduced to IYL 2015 as well as our student chapter and outreach activities. Presentation title: “A Luminous Celebration: An Overview of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies”
(Left) Nicholas with fellow invited speaker Prof. Kyunghwan Oh from Yonsei University, Korea. (Right) With host Prof. Perry Shum and Tse Chun Ho from NTU.
3.2.3 Department Facilitation
The SPIE student chapter also assists the ORC in the organisation of department academic events. One such example is the providing of chapter members as laboratory and cleanroom facility tour guides for a number of events, including induction week for new PhD and MSc students, and visits by industry representatives from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). We also provide set-up and
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facilitation support for events such as the department’s Study Photonics Open Days, which include a poster exhibition and laboratory tours to give prospective students a taste of the research activities undertaken by the ORC. In addition, the chapter also provides organizational and manpower support to the ORC for events such as the annual 2nd Year talks and the inductions for new students.
President Nicholas Wong addressing new students by sharing experiences of PhD research and student life, and introducing the activities of the student chapter.
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3.3 Outreach Activities
Lightwave
‘Lightwave’ is our Outreach program designed to provide an exciting, interactive, and educational experience of optics for students in primary and secondary school (5 to 18 years old). The exhibition aspect of the program, also known as the Lightwave Roadshow, has been highly popular. School visits and exhibitions have traditionally occurred in Southampton and the South East UK region. The program is run by PhD students from our student chapter, known as Lightwave Ambassadors. They conduct workshops, demonstrate experiments, give seminars, and facilitate in Lightwave’s smooth operation. Our team of ambassadors has been fortunate to be comprised of students from various backgrounds, with students representing different races, nationalities, genders, and physical abilities. We use this diversity to aid in our engagement of as many young students as possible.
3.3.1 School visits and classes
The Lightwave ambassadors try to develop the children’s awareness, knowledge, and general interest in optics by demonstrating and supervising the use of equipment that is designed to allow the children to gain a hands-on experience of science. Some of the topics covered include: communications using light (both optical fibres and free-space), optical illusions, lenses, electromagnetic radiation, and the human eye. The Lightwave director contacts schools showing an interest in Lightwave. This includes making initial contact and providing information about the activities and equipment. The director then schedules the shows for suitable dates, finds transport for equipment and ambassadors, recruits sufficient volunteers, and manages the event. The director and ambassadors also talk to all student chapter members about Lightwave to promote awareness and encourage participation. In addition, the director can also organise classes through the University’s central Outreach office and run sessions for a range of ages at the University of Southampton. This year, in the spirit of IYL 2015, a Lightwave event was run at a primary school in Singapore, marking the first time Lightwave has travelled abroad for a school visit. In July, Lightwave Ambassador and SPIE chapter president Nicholas Wong went back to his alma mater, St. Michael’s School (now known as St. Joseph’s Institution Junior (SJI Junior)), to conduct an event titled “Because Light Matters”. This included a lecture given to about 240 Primary 4 students about IYL 2015 and the importance of light in everyday life, as well as a hands-on experimental workshop for a class of 25 Primary 5 students, who explored various optical phenomena and applications including mirrors and lenses, the EM spectrum, and optical fibers and communications.
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(Clockwise from top left) Lightwave Ambassador Fariza Suhailin showing Year 6 students the secrets of light and how it interacts with mirrors; Maria Papaioannou giving Year 12 students a tour of the ORC’s cleanroom facilities; Our Lightwave Director Matthew Posner giving an overview of the field of photonics in a class called “Communicating with Light” during the Year 12 Inspire class aimed for inspiring young women into science and engineering; Lieke van Putten sharing her experiences of being a researcher with secondary school students; Nathan Soper demonstrating free-space video communications to primary school pupils; Primary 5 students of SJI Junior solving a mirror maze in Lightwave’s first overseas workshop “Because Light Matters”.
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List of schools visited including estimated number of students reached: Date School/Event Location Attendance Related Information &
News/Publicity 9 Jan 2015 Year 9 Lightwave class Southampton, UK 65 9 Mar 2015 UK Year 12 International
Women’s Day Southampton, UK 20 http://www.southampton.ac.uk/diver
sity/news/events/womens_day.page 27 Mar 2015 17 Apr 2015
Year 12 Lightwave classes
Southampton, UK 35
28 Apr 2015 Bringing Research to Life, Thomas Hardye School
Dorchester, UK 300 http://www.southampton.ac.uk/per/university/roadshow.page
24 Jun 2015 UK year 8 Lightwave Class
Southampton, UK 24
Jun-Jul 2015 Year 6 “Secrets of Light” Class, various Hampshire schools
Southampton, UK 169
08 Jul 2015 Year 12 Inspire Class for inspiring young women into science
Southampton, UK 30
15 Jul 2015 Primary 4 & 5 “Because Light Matters” lecture and workshop
Singapore 265 https://www.facebook.com/sjijunior/posts/1144579055555930
3.3.2 Open Days and Fairs
Apart from visiting schools, the Lightwave program also supports university open day events and other fairs by participating as an exhibitor. Of particular note is the University of Southampton’s annual Science and Engineering Day, which is open to the public. During the last exhibition, not only were we able to fascinate the children with the optics displays and experiments, but we also managed to intrigue many of the parents and older visitors who were all as eager to learn something new about photonics, especially inconspicuous but pervasive everyday technologies such as the internet. The fairs are open to the general public and we are able to engage with a very large number of people during these events.
(Left) Lightwave ambassadors at the Science and Engineering Day fair. (Right) Nicholas Wong demonstrates the famous Tyndall-Colladon experiment to curious young visitors.
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List of exhibitions: Date Event Location Attendance Related Publicity/News Coverage
22 Oct 2014 Solent Skills Festival
Southampton, UK
300
19 – 20 Jan 2015
Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Light
Paris, France 150 • http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/11733717.International_Year_of_Light_delegation/
• http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/features/iyl2015.shtml
• http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/iylopens.html • https://spectroverse.wordpress.com/2015/0
1/31/light-is-now-the-international-year-of-light-opening-ceremony/
14 Mar 2015 University of Southampton Science and Engineering day
Southampton, UK
400 http://www.southampton.ac.uk/per/university/festival/index.page
26 Mar 2015 OFC 2015 IYL Community Outreach
Los Angeles, USA
98 http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/25/ca-ofc-idUSnBw256254a+100+BSW20150325
11 Jul 2015 Highfield Junior School Summer Fayre
Southampton, UK
150
09 Aug 2015 SPIE Optics + Photonics Outreach Optics Games
San Diego, USA
250 http://spie.org/x115077.xml
3.3.3 Special Note: Overseas Exhibitions
The chapter has also been involved in a number of exhibitions overseas. These provide excellent platforms to spread the reach of Lightwave beyond the UK.
3.3.3.1 Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Light (January 2015) Through sponsorship from the ORC and our university, we were able to send a delegation of Lightwave ambassadors to attend and exhibit at the IYL2015 opening ceremony in Paris, France, in January 2015. This delegation consisted of 4 photonics PhD students (SPIE student members), 1 outreach staff from the university, and notably, 1 teacher and 2 6th Form students from the Thomas Hardye School, a school that we routinely visit to conduct Lightwave workshops. Apart from being able to attend the plenaries from the various eminent speakers, the trip provided us with the opportunity to exhibit and showcase our Lightwave Roadshow on an international stage. Many people, academics, teachers, industry experts, and even light artists, came to visit our booth and were impressed by our program and repertoire of experiments. The experience was particularly eye-opening for the 6th Form students, who were probably the youngest attendees at the event. They would later go back to their school and share their experiences with their peers and juniors, thus inspiring the next generation of photonics researchers and professionals. The delegation comprised the following personnel. It is notable that each PhD student Lightwave ambassador hails from a different country (noted in parenthesis):
• The Thomas Hardye School: o Geoffrey Reader, physics teacher o Katharine Bennett, 6th form student o Raphael Treccani-Chinelli, 6th form student
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• ORC PhD students and university staff: o Pearl John, Public Engagement Leader of the School of Physics and Astronomy, and leader of
Lightwave’s sister programme, Light Express o Matthew Posner (UK), 2nd year student and Lightwave Director of OPSoc o Vinita Mittal (India), 2nd year student and Social Officer of OPSoc o Martin “Miguel” Nunez Velazquez (Mexico), 3rd year student and Vice President of OPSoc o Nicholas Wong (Singapore), 3rd year student and President of OPSoc
Photographs from our Lightwave exhibition at the IYL 2015 opening ceremony in Paris, showing interactions with various scientists, educators, industry professionals, and even light artists.
3.3.3.2 The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (March 2015) Our Lightwave program was showcased at this year’s Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) in Los Angeles, CA in March. ORC research fellow Dr. Gregory Jasion and student chapter member David Gray exhibited in “Light the Future: A Community Outreach Event” and demonstrated a host of interactive optics including optical illusions, holograms, and telecommunications.
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Lightwave Ambassadors Dr. Gregory Jasion and David Gray exhibiting at OFC 2015.
3.3.3.3 Optics Outreach Games (August 2015) During her trip to the Student Chapter Leadership Workshop at SPIE Optics + Photonics in San Diego, CA, our social officer Vinita Mittal participated in the Optics Outreach Games 2015 (see Section 3.2.2.5). Vinita represented our chapter and showcased our Lightwave outreach activities by demonstrating simple experiments on reflection, refraction, diffraction grating, total internal reflection, how light behaves when it passes through concave and convex lens, how light is guides by optical fibers, and so on. Most of the experiments were a part of SPIE kit provided to each chapter. These activities aimed to help in breaking the stereotypes among children that science is boring and difficult. Many people, including SPIE members and staff, appreciated our chapter’s simple and basic approach towards explaining science. A number of the chapter representatives from the UK showed an interest in organizing a collaborative activity in future.
(Left) Vinita demonstrating light guidance in a waveguide. (Right) Vinita with a visitor experimenting with diffraction gratings.
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3.3.4 Public Engagement
The chapter teamed up with the ORC and Physics & Astronomy to help with a show garden inspired by the International Year of Light and fiber optics, at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show Tatton Park in July. The designer, gardener Helen Elks-Smith, visited our university and had a tour of the clean rooms/fiber tower, which inspired the garden design. A team of our students (led by Matt Posner and joined by Tina Parsonage, Nathan Soper, and Lieke van Putten) and staff and researchers attended the RHS Members day and the first day for the public. We talked to approximately 2,000 members of the public handing out information on the garden and fiber optics research at the University of Southampton. The garden won a Gold medal – and the ‘People’s Choice’ award – which one of the designers said was very much as a result of the outreach work we did with people in the garden. The show was reviewed on BBC 2, and we were featured in Cheshire times and got international coverage via Twitter (including Photonics4All, IYL2015 – with over 12.5k Tweet impressions). An internal news article on the event can be found here: http://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/938.html
The Tatton Park team sitting in the “Reflecting Photonics” garden at the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, 22-23 July 2015. Left to right: Tina Parsonage, Matthew Posner, Pearl John, Nathan Soper, Lieke Van Putten.
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4. FINANCES Opening Balance £4830.68
Event Description Incoming funds Expenditures Coffee and Cake Cakes, sugar and coffee £94.48 Lightwave Outreach Travel costs £107.62
Equipment renewal £1465.19 Ambassador t-shirts £392.76
Winchester Bonfire Night Travel cost £7.00
Tickets £45.00 Annual General Meeting
Drinks, food £100.00
Artic BBQ Drinks, food £308.76 Pub Quiz
Drinks, food £312.65 International Food Day Drinks, food £42.85 Nepal Earthquake Fundraising Cake Sale Ingredients £61.79 Pint of Science Tickets £60.00 Seminar Drinks, food £59.55 Pub Crawl Drinks £31.90 Movie Night Food £85.00 Grants and Funds IEEE £2069.88
SPIE £554.60 OFC Outreach £67.78
TOTAL £2692.26 £3174.55
Closing Balance £4348.39 We note that our society has also recently been awarded an SPIE Education Outreach grant (Cycle 2) of US$3024 as well as a number of OSA activity grants totalling US$1750. These are pending administrative processing and are not reflected in the current balance.
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5. OUTLOOK The University of Southampton SPIE Student Chapter, within the Optics and Photonics Society, will continue to remain an active student body. We will continue with our traditional events over the next year including the popular social and networking events such as the Arctic BBQ, Pub Quiz, International Food Festival and the Winchester Fireworks Trip. These events are adding to the traditions of the photonics student and staff community and are successful at bringing researchers together. We have enhanced our outreach education program considerably and engaged a strong team of Lightwave ambassadors. During this International Year of Light, we expect to widen our portfolio of activities to adequately celebrate this extraordinary year and continue to deliver educational activities on the subjects of photonics and telecommunications. We are deeply grateful to SPIE for its strong support for our chapter, both financially and administratively. We are looking forward to the next year and are confident it will be another successful one for the University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society.