SPIE Annual Report2 Overview This is the annual report for the Optics Society at the University of...
Transcript of SPIE Annual Report2 Overview This is the annual report for the Optics Society at the University of...
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Overview This is the annual report for the Optics Society at the University of Michigan (OSUM), a joint student
chapter of SPIE and OSA. OSUM has OSA, SPIE, and non-affiliated student members. As of 1 August
2014, we have 22 OSA student members, 11 SPIE student members, and over 100 people on our email
list. We reach our members via email lists, Facebook, and twitter.
This report details the activities from this year in the categories of:
Outreach
Academic Activities
Industrial Activities
Social
Plans for the new year
These activities are in line with our mission to “promote the discipline of Optical Science and
Engineering through the organized effort of students and faculty, disseminate knowledge of the field of
Optics and Photonics, and to further the professional development of the students.”
Connect with OSUM on multiple platforms!
Check out our MaizePage: https://maizepages.umich.edu/organization/optics
or our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OpticsUMICH/
or our Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpticsUMICH
or our Website: osum.osahost.org
or our Google Calendar: [email protected]
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Table of Contents Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
SPIE Chapter Officers: ................................................................................................................................... 4
Executive Board: ........................................................................................................................................... 4
All SPIE Student Members: ........................................................................................................................... 4
SPIE Alumni: .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Outreach ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Dueling Bright Demo Stars – Outreach Competition ................................................................................ 7
Demonstration Day at Slauson Middle School with Society of Women in Physics (SWIP)....................... 8
NanoDays at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility ....................................................................................... 8
Academic Activities ....................................................................................................................................... 9
General Meetings ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Student-Faculty Welcome Mixer .............................................................................................................. 9
Conferences and Symposia ..................................................................................................................... 10
Faculty Seminar ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Industrial Activities ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Collaboration with Ann Arbor OSA ......................................................................................................... 11
SPIE Short Courses .................................................................................................................................. 11
Socials.......................................................................................................................................................... 12
Khet – The laser game ............................................................................................................................. 12
Summer Picnic......................................................................................................................................... 12
OSUM/LNF Mixer .................................................................................................................................... 12
Upcoming Plans .......................................................................................................................................... 13
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SPIE Chapter Officers: Position Name Email
President Cheng Zhang [email protected]
Vice-President Kyu Hyun Kim [email protected]
Treasurer Michael Haines [email protected]
Secretary Elizabeth Dreyer [email protected]
Advisor John Nees [email protected]
Executive Board: Position Name Email
Faculty liaison Zhaorong Wang [email protected]
Industry co-chair Miao-Bin Lien [email protected]
Industry co-chair Tong Zhou [email protected]
Outreach co-chair Heather Ferguson [email protected]
Outreach co-chair Nooshin Mohammadi Estakhri [email protected]
Publicity chair Brandon Demory [email protected] Social co-chair Arnab Hazari [email protected] Social co-chair Mahdi Aghadjani [email protected]
All SPIE Student Members: Name Email Expires
Amir Ali [email protected] 12 January 2015
Brian Berger [email protected] 12 November 2014
Andrew Chang [email protected] 10 December 2014
Brandon Demory [email protected] 15 January 2015
Elizabeth Dreyer [email protected] 25 January 2015 Heather Ferguson [email protected] 9 December 2014
Richard Frazin [email protected] n/a Vikrant Gokhale [email protected] n/a Michael Haines [email protected] 9 April 2015
I-Ning Hu [email protected] 11 December 2014
Kyu Hyun Kim [email protected] 30 July 2015 Charles Munson [email protected] 12 June 2015 Cheng Zhang [email protected] 12 October 2014
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Budget The primary source of funding for the Optics Society at the University of Michigan is our parent
organizations, SPIE and OSA. Additional funding sources are available through the university. This year
we did not seek university funding because our events did not fit their criteria for support.
Balance as of August 1, 2013: $2149.60
Amount Reason funds received or used Date
Funds raised $0
Funds expended $320.00 optics and photonics meeting September 11, 2013
$204.82 optics seminars (several throughout the year)
$224.00 faculty - student mixer September 11, 2013
$92.51 recruitment meeting September 11, 2013
$871.72 Dueling Bright Demo Stars ($71.72 food, $800 awards)
November 18, 2013
$217.30 faculty lecture March 24, 2014
$38.50 Poster advertising OSUM November 21, 2013
$21.50 supplies for outreach with physics students April 2, 2014
$299.00 educational DVD June 19, 2014
$54.54 picnic July 7, 2014
$27.08 first seminar with educational DVD July 28, 2014
$74.12 mixer with nanofabrication technicians July 28, 2014
SPIE funding received
$200.00 outreach February 10, 2014
$300.00 professional development February 10, 2014
Other funding received
$100.00 reimbursement for joint talk October 1, 2013
$160.00 UM graduate student government December 5, 2013
$400.00 OSA grant, professional development February 26, 2014
$500.00 OSA grant, outreach February 26, 2014
$100.00 OSA grant, social events February 26, 2014
$250.00 OSA grant, joint activities February 26, 2014
$250.00 OSA grant, professional development July 15, 2014
$500.00 OSA grant, outreach July 15, 2014
$400.00 OSA grant, youth education July 15, 2014
Balance as of July 31, 2014: $2864.51
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Outreach Outreach is one of the core missions of our student chapter. We believe that it is our duty to inspire the
next generation to study light, plus it is a ton of fun! This year we had three major optics outreach
activities as described below.
Dueling Bright Demo Stars – Outreach Competition We believe that the best way of inspiring young generations about optics is not just telling them, but
actually showing them. Good demonstration of optics requires creative demo ideas. In October of 2013,
we started to call for creative, educational, entertaining and practical demo ideas across the university.
At the end of October, five bright ideas outstood to enter the next round. The contestants were fully
funded for the cost of material and labor to realize their ideas. Two weeks later on November 14,
“Dueling Bright Demo Stars” competition kicked off in a classroom of EECS building, attracting round 40
people. The five teams were making their best shots by a tight 3-min demo followed by 2-min Q&A by
the audience who act like curious middle/high school kids. The five brilliant demos were:
“Magnifier made by Water Droplets”, by
Zhaorong Wang
“Solar Power Tower”, by Wyatt Felt
“Laser Baseball Game”, by Eric Lin
“Material Absorption Spectra”, by
Gautham Sholingar
“Polarization of Light”, by Michael Haines
Finally, the three winners of the
competition, judged by two UM
professors and one outreach director,
were awarded with cash prizes and UM
certificates. OSUM then kept all the
demos for future outreach activities.
The event was a success. The attendees, including the finalists, the judges, and the audience, showed
that they had much fun during this event. Laughter and ah-ha’s were constantly heard throughout the
competition. More importantly, OSUM successfully collected creative and educational optics demos for
future outreach events. One bonus point is that this event gave a chance to graduate students to see
that optics learned in textbooks could be demonstrated in so many vivid and interesting ways. It also
helps to promote the image of OSUM as an optical society, and bring in more members to the society.
Figure 1. Contestant Wyatt Felt is explaining how the sun is powering up everything on the earth, standing behind the solar power tower he built
with cheap solar panels. He later invited audience to use mirrors to reflect light from the light bulb to generate electricity.
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Demonstration Day at Slauson Middle School with Society of Women in
Physics (SWIP) In collaboration with the Society of Women in Physics (SWIP), we brought short demonstrations to a
local middle school. Throughout the day, three eighth grade classes rotated through a variety of physics
demonstrations in small groups. As the optics society, we brought two demonstrations focusing on
Diffraction and Total Internal Reflection (TIR). Each of these demonstrations were linked to real world
scenarios and applications, such as, why do we see a rainbow on the back of a DVD, or how TIR allows us
to have fast internet through fiber optics. In total, we reached over 80 students and their teachers.
NanoDays at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility NanoDays in a national initiative to have an educational day focused on Nanotechnology. The
Fabrication Lab at University of Michigan is state of the art and invites students in 6th-12th grade to
apply to visit for a day of hands-on learning about Nanotechnology. OSUM developed one of the hour-
long rotations where students learned about basic Optics and how Optics relates to Nanoscience.
Demonstrations included:
1. Index of Refraction
– We introduced the concept of
refractive index using water and
baby oil.
2. Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
– We showed how light can
become trapped in a material
and talked about how TIR enables
the internet. In Figure 2, OSUM
members are about to use milky
water to show TIR.
3. Diffraction
– Kids learned about single slit diffraction, hair
diffraction and diffraction from a DVD.
4. Polarization
– We used polarization to look at stresses in plastic.
5. UV Bracelets
– We made bracelets with beads that change from
white to colored when exposed to UV light / sunlight.
This showed how something on the nano-scale (a dye
molecule) could have macro-level effects.
Figure 2. OSUM members Heather Ferguson and Zhaorong Wang talk about TIR.
Figure 3. OSUM member Brandon Demory demonstrates a diffraction grating.
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6. Interference Filters
– We demonstrated interference patterns
The students were in small groups and allowed to interact with many of the materials directly. Overall,
we worked with about 50 students and their chaperones.
Figure 4. Students are enthralled with the science that OSUM members Cheng Zhang and Brandon Demory demonstrate.
Academic Activities
General Meetings We continued our biweekly general meetings this year. Each meeting is roughly one hour and is divided
up into three parts. In the beginning, a person presents on his or her research. The format is similar to a
conference oral talk but less formal. People use it as an opportunity to rehearse for upcoming
conferences, practice public speaking skills, and learn about each other’s research. Following the
academic presentation, we go over chapter business. The third part is an open topic discussion. Some
weeks we talk about current industry news. Most recently, we have been brainstorming for the
International Year of Light in 2015.
Student-Faculty Welcome Mixer In the beginning of the fall semester, we hosted a welcome mixer between optics faculty and students.
New students (Master’s and PhD) were introduced to current optics students and faculty. This was
especially beneficial for students who were interested in starting research. They were able to ask about
the different research being done in each lab. This event also served to improve relations between
current optics students and provide for a relaxing afternoon.
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Conferences and Symposia In order to “disseminate knowledge of the field of Optics and Photonics”, we have engaged in numerous
intellectual activities this year.
Each year the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering hosts the Engineering Graduate
Symposium, a college-wide event focusing on doctoral and master's programs and graduate student
research. While many of our members are involved in presenting their research or planning the
symposium, our chapter participated with a poster about our activities. We presented the below poster
during the Optics & Photonics track to engage graduate students and teach them about what we do.
In June, our chapter members volunteered at the Mourou@70 symposium at the University of Michigan.
This special symposium celebrated the 70th birthday of Gerard Mourou and ultrafast optics. We
facilitated check-in of over 100 attendees, guided guests around campus, and assisted in maintaining the
flow of the symposium. It was a very good event for everyone involved.
Besides on campus events, we also sent members to the SPIE Optics and Photonics conference in San
Diego, CA and the OSA Frontiers in Optics conference in Orlando, FL. These experiences were invaluable
for our chapter leadership and improved the quality of the events hosted this past year.
Figure 5. Poster at Engineering Graduate Symposium
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Faculty Seminar One mission of OSUM is to promote the connection between students and faculties, especially those
new faculties who are not yet well known to graduate students. Professor Qiong Yang, who joined
biophysics department in Jan. 2014, is such an example. Her field, biophysics, is really an
interdisciplinary field that bring methods from physics to the field of system biology. More interestingly,
her group uses advanced imaging tools to unravel the secrets of biological clocks in embryo live cells. On
Mar. 20, upon invitation from OSUM, Prof. Yang gave a talk to OSUM members about her recent
research “From molecules to development: revealing simple rules of biological clocks”. During the talk,
many questions were asked to this confident young scientist, which indicates that this event did suit
with many audience’s interests. After the talk, two graduate students from a microfluidic group in
engineering school even discussed with the speaker about opportunities for future collaborations.
Figure 6. Dr. Yang presenting on her research.
Industrial Activities
Collaboration with Ann Arbor OSA This year, OSUM members continued to attend the Ann Arbor OSA (AAOSA) meetings. AAOSA is the
local professional chapter of the Optics Society. AAOSA members have served as excellent informal
mentors and contacts for the local optics community. In March, we co-hosted a guest lecturer. As one
of the inventors, the lecturer covered the topic of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in detail, from
the historical origin to the future application and from the technical perspective to the marketing
consideration. Attendance was a mix of students, faculty, and community members.
SPIE Short Courses As an approach to promote the knowledge sharing on optics and to encourage the involvement from
different fields, OSUM is holding the event of SPIE short courses with the studying material from the
SPIE teaching media in the form of a seminar. We are expecting an active learning process and positive
feedback from this coming event.
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Socials
Khet – The laser game In the early 2014, we organized an end of the semester social hour during our bi-weekly general
meeting. Refreshments and snacks were provided to members while they talked about their semester.
As a group, we played Khet, the laser chess game our officers brought from SPIE Optics and Photonics
2013. During the social hour, more of our members got to know each other while enjoying the great
game of Khet.
Summer Picnic In June, we got the chapter together for a summer picnic. We purchased pizza and planned an afternoon
of yard games. However, it began to rain and we had to move the picnic inside. Although we did not get
to play any yard games, we had a pleasant afternoon getting to know one another and relaxing.
Figure 7. OSUM members enjoy the summer picnic.
OSUM/LNF Mixer In July, OSUM hosted a mixer with the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility. Over 30 LNF users and OSUM
members got together over donuts and coffee in the afternoon. We discussed joint research interests
and enjoyed a break from working in the lab. It was a great opportunity to network with potential and
current collaborators.
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Upcoming Plans The upcoming 2014-2015 year is going to be a wonderful 3rd year for OSUM. Activities we already have
planned include:
Optics Student-Faculty Welcome Mixer
SPIE Visiting Lecturer
Outreach competition
General Meetings
International Year of Light (IYL 2015) activities
We thank SPIE for their continued support of our student chapter and are excited for the upcoming
year.