University of North Carolina at Charlotte SPIE Graduate Student Chapter Bi-Annual Report: May 2007 2007-2008 Officers President: Amit Suratkar arsuratk@uncc.edu Vice-President: Yi-Chen Chuang ychuang1@uncc.edu Secretary: Kavan Acharya kacharya@uncc.edu Treasurer: Kristin Walker knwalker@uncc.edu Advisor: Dr. Tsing-Hua Her ther@uncc.edu Webpage: http://www.sco.uncc.edu/spie/ Current Members 1. Kavan Acharya 2. Shashanka Ashili 3. Brent Bergner 4. Kaia Buhl 5. Aaron Cannistra 6. Harsh Chaturvedi 7. Yi-Chen Chuang 8. Serenity Dunn 9. Choon How Gan 10. Yalong Gu 11. Javaid Ikram 12. Ja-Yeon Jeong 13. Jason Jerald 14. Guoliang Jiang 15. Je Hong Kim 16. Ying Li 17. Mona Mayeh 18. Wesley Parker 19. Kinnari Patel 20. Amit Suratkar 21. Mingzhen Tang 22. Keisha Thomas 23. Kristin Walker
Chapter Activities since last report July-August: Redesigning the Chapter Website Kavan (secretary) and I redesigned the Chapter website with a general focus to attract public from all domains with little or no knowledge of optics to the expert. For the curious mind, we also planned to incorporate educational institutions and clusters involved in optics around the globe by using two already designed engines from SPIE and OSA. A third element was to project the existing facilities at our University (Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications, Center for Precision Metrology and Carolinas MicroOptics Triangle) to the outside world. A lot of resources concerning optics and physics have been carefully categorized and include career development tools, professional and technical organization in optics, technical libraries, industry alliances etc. RSS feeds (in the tab ) provide latest optics news in the industry and universities and is the pick of our website along with the resources web page. August 26-30, 2007: SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference Four students including myself, Kristin Walker, Brent Bergner and Harsh Chaturvedi attended the conference and three of us attended the Student Leadership workshop on August 25 th and 26 th. Harsh Chaturvedi used the officers travel grant to attend the conference along with Kristin Walker, while Brent and I used another source of funding. Being elected President of the Chapter, the conference was very useful in terms of knowing other chapter leaders and their activities, active networking with experts during lunch, participating in leadership related issues through group discussions, career development tools apart from attending talks in our research related areas and trade shows. At the awards functions our chapter received an honorary prize for our website (Student Resources webpage) Harsh Chaturvedi also received a research scholarship for his work on carbon nanotubes.
September 6: Meeting with the Society of Physics Students (SPS) at UNC Charlotte Kristin (past president) and I attended a meeting of SPS students with the main objective of getting to know the SPS Chapter better and for them to know SPIE better. We discussed SPIE activities as well as SPIE Student Chapter activities and provided handouts for scholarships and grants available through SPIE. A survey was conducted in which the students were asked to answer simple questions about using light in their experiment to knowing more about scholarships and having an event co-hosted with SPIE. Twelve graduate physics students were present and six of them were interested in getting to know SPIE better in terms of scholarships and grants. We are in the process of getting such students interested to be SPIE members. September 19: General Meeting with all students (16) In our first general meeting with all the optics students (SPIE members and non-members), the main objective was to encourage student involvement in all SPIE activities. In keeping with policies of the Student Government Association at our University, changes to the By-laws and the Constitution were proposed. Voting was to be done by email with a Yes or No to the proposed amendments. A two third majority was obtained and the updated Constitution and Bylaws were submitted to SPIE for their records. The presentation was divided into two sections, one to talk about SPIE and the Student Chapter (myself) and the other was to highlight the experiences we had from the recently concluded SPIE leadership workshop in San Deigo (Kristin- treasurer and past president). September October: Optics Seminar Speaker Series Attending non technical talks to aid career and professional development has been part of the Optics Seminar series at UNC Charlotte. Three such talks were selected to increase the awareness of students to topics such as intellectual property, ethics and project management. All SPIE student members and non-members were invited for all of the three talks below Date Talk Student Count 1 Sep 19 Intellectual Property: Director of Office of 10 Technological Transfer 2 Oct 10 Ethics Discussion: Dr Corwin (hosted by Dr Angela 12 Davies) 3 Oct 31 Project Management: Dr Gary Teng (Director Engineering Management Program) 11
October 19: Lunch with Speaker: Dr Grover Swartzlander (University of Arizona s Optical Sciences Center) During each semester, the optics center invites a speaker for a Friday seminar. It has been our tradition to invite one such speaker to a luncheon organized by SPIE. This semester we invited Dr. Grover Swartzlander from the University of Arizona s Optical Sciences Center for lunch with SPIE student members and non members. Topics of discussion included problems encountered in writing journal papers, attending conferences, presentations and the general research culture with his students at Arizona. Twenty SPIE students attended the luncheon. His research talk following the luncheon on Optical Vortices and the Hunt for Habitable Planets, was well received. October 31: SPIE funded snacks with Ron Scotti Dr. Ron Scotti (SPIE s technical programs, Science and Technology Strategist) who attended the annual Optics Symposium at our University held (from Oct 31 st until Nov 1 st ) had an informal discussion with students about the nature of the optics industry, student careers, his background and SPIE. Twenty students attended this snack session sponsored by SPIE.
November 2: Nobel Laureate visits UNC Charlotte: Outreach Activity for high school kids The SPIE student chapter along with the regional OSA Chapter and the Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications planned a small outreach activity for high school kids attending the public talk by Nobel Laureate Dr Bill Phillips on "Time, Einstein and the coolest stuff in the universe" (sponsored by the Charlotte Research Institute : part of UNC Charlotte). The basic objective was to get high school kids interested in optics and its applications. The outreach activity and the public talk were hosted in the Student Activity Center salons at UNC Charlotte. Some of the projects included demonstrating optical effects by experiments, optical illusions, information from SPIE posters and two videos. A brief list is as follows: 1) Diffraction using Tessera Incorporation s diffractive micro-optic 2) Hologram display: Bausch and Lomb Hologram 3) Moiré Patterns of Center Director Mike Fiddy and Albert Einstein 4) Martian Landscape obtained from SPIE bookstore 5) The Crookes Radiometer 6) Voice over Fiber: Fiber optics Voice and Data kit obtained from physlink store 7) Sound into light conversion using LightCast: Kit obtained from physlink store 8) Light at Work CD from SPIE 9) Jason Lattimer s Laser Magic show obtained from the website 10) Optical Illusions 11) SPIE posters Voice over Fiber demonstration A fiber optics voice over data kit was bought and assembled in house by us to demonstrate voice over fiber over one meter.
Sound into Light conversion using Lightcast in the background The unit was connected to a computer and the speaker and songs were played to display the different frequencies (pitches) in the form of various lights (somewhat similar to disco lighting). Songs from the 70s showed a better distribution of lights then the recent ones. Diffractive Optics from Tessera Incorporation s diffractive micro optic card Diffraction was explained to students and they were allowed to use lasers to shine light on the diffractive micro-optic card and see different patterns.
Fun with Moiré Patterns: Center Director: Dr Mike Fiddy Albert Einstein Our setup:
Nobel laureate Bill Phillips speaks on "Time, Einstein and the coolest stuff in the universe"
Nobel Laureate Bill Phillips with the SPIE Student Chapter Group at UNC Charlotte A total of 334 people (about 250 high school kids) attended the event which was the largest in terms of the registration and thank you notes for any event sponsored by the Charlotte Research Institute (CRI) according to Karen Ford who works with the institute. Most of the high school kids were found to be actively engaged with the SPIE students about the nature of experiments and optics in general. Jason Lattimer s laser magic show was a hit with the kids, followed by the Moiré and diffraction patterns and the hologram. There was interest in buying the Martian poster from a lecturer. Most of the teachers have requested to have such events in the near future.
Nov 9, 2007: OSA and SPIE on Campus : "Thank You" Lunch - Speaker "Meet & Greet" OSA Charlotte Local Chapter President, Choon-How Gan, and SPIE UNC Charlotte Student Chapter President, Amit Suratkar, held a Thank You lunch on November 9th in appreciation of the time and support given by those involved with the open-house and outreach events during the Optics Center s Symposium Week on campus. The lunch was held at noon in the Optics Library and participants were many and included Friday's Seminar speaker, Dr. Shrenik Deliwala and his associate from Analog Devices, Inc. Left Image (l to r): Dr. Shrenik Deliwala and his associate from Analog Devices, Inc along with Chapter advisor Tsing-Hua Her and students End of the Year : Planning for Upcoming Activities: Spring 08 Conference: January, 2008 Photonics West We currently have three students planning to attend this conference. Lunch with the Speaker Based on previous success, we plan to continue this event ever semester. This time we are planning to use the SPIE funds to invite a guest speaker. Industry visit We are in the process of planning a visit to a local optics industry. The objective is to get to know the local optics industries in the vicinity and the nature of their business. Career Panel Discussion Based on a good feedback received from a previous career panel discussion, we have decided to try another optics related career panel discussion where we plan to invite university career development staff along with industry leaders for a small get together with students.
Financial Statement May 07 Dec 07 SPIE Funds 5/1/2007 Current Balance 857.39 6/15/2007 Kavan Acharya Travel -500.00 9/19/2007 SPIE Meeting Pizza -35.00 11/26/2007 2007 Activity Grant 900.00 ---------- Total Funds Remaining 1222.39 UNCC GPSG Funds (Graduate and Professional Student Government)* 9/1/2007 Beginning Balance 2961.00 10/19/2007 Lunch with Speaker -140.64 ----------- Current Balance 2820.36 1/2008 Photonics West Aaron -500.00 1/2008 Photonics West Mingzhen -500.00 1/2008 Photonics West Kristin -500.00 ---------- Anticipated Balance 1320.36 * funds allocated by the UNC Charlotte Graduate and Professional Student Government and provided by the Student Activity Fees Report from Jan 08 May 08 continued in the next file
Jan 30, 2008 : A joint SPIE / OSA meeting was held to discuss student activities for the spring semester. The meeting was attended by 10 students along with the SPIE Student advisor Dr Her and the Center Director Dr Mike Fiddy. Some of the topics discussed were 1) Outreach activities: An outreach event is being planned by the University s outreach department on Feb 19 wherein by high school kids will be visiting to our Campus and tour some of the labs in different departments. We plan to show them the SPIE Light at Work Video along with some outreach material from Photonics West. 2) Another outreach event featuring Science and Math education for K-12 students at Raleigh was discussed. Some of the officers have shown interest in attending the event and we will be planning the binaries soon. 3) A number of speakers were discussed for our Lunch with Speaker series and one of them will be finalized soon. 4) A local industry visit was discussed and three company names came up. Lab Manager Scott Williams who overseas industries outreach will assist us in getting to tour one company. 5) Dr Fiddy will be assisting us in planning a career development panel for the students. 6) Some outreach material to be displayed in the building was discussed. Ideas included having moiré patterns (blinking eye), lighted fiber optics cables, floating globe etc. Most of the officers were inclined to have optics related items. Feb 8, 2008: General SPIE Meeting We had our first SPIE meeting with fellow colleagues and SPIE members on Feb 8. Fourteen members attended the talk. We invited post docs from chemistry and optics to increase our awareness. The meeting started with an introduction of SPIE and its officers, tentative activities for the semester, funding scenarios and talks from SPIE members Mingzhen (travel grant winner), Kristin and Aaron who presented at Photonics West. OSA student and Regional Chapter President Choon-How spoke about OSA and outlined a few activities for students. Since the two chapters have the same student members, it has been decided to have SPIE/OSA joint meetings although the activities may differ.
Feb 19, 2008: Outreach with AREVA / EPRI students and parents (Contact: Karina Franco: Faculty Associate for Recruiting & Advising, Director of Leadership Academy, Lee College of Engineering ) The recruitment and advising management at UNC Charlotte had planned tours for high school students and parents to showcase the engineering and science disciplines on campus. Our agenda for the evening of Feb 19 included: 1) Careers in Optics CD from SPIE : Light at Work (~13 minutes) followed by Jason Lattimer s Laser Magic show (~3 minutes). Fourteen colleagues (12 from the SPIE Student Chapter) volunteered in setting up our demos: 2) Optics demonstrations in the Grigg hallway included - Bausch and Lomb Hologram - Diffraction patterns from Tessera Gratings, Polarizer demontration - Voice over Fiber Kit - Mirascope 3D image of Frog - Radiometer - Light Cast : Sound to Light conversion using 80 s songs - Acrylic Fiber (WaveGuide demonstration ) and Fiber Tree Lamp - Calcite (double refraction demonstration), Prism (dispersion) - Optical Illusions on the LCD screen - Moiré Patterns of Dr Fiddy and Albert Einstein The outreach tour was a huge success with students and parents showing a keen interest in our demonstrations. Two groups of around fifteen students and parents visited the Grigg Hall over 70 minutes starting at 6: 15 pm. Attached are some moments from the event:
Fun with Moiré: Post Doc Young-Sik Ghim, from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) with a Moiré pattern of Center Director Dr Mike Fiddy Bausch and Lomb Hologram SPIE Student member & OSA Outreach Officer Javaid Ikram along with SPIE Student Chapter Treasurer from Brussels, Virginia Gomez with the Bausch and Lomb Hologram setup
Optical Fiber Applications: (Fiber Tree Lamp, Acrylic Fiber Guide, Voice over Fiber) SPIE Student member & OSA Student Chapter and OSA Regional Chapter President Choon-How Gan demonstrating applications of optical fiber
The Hidden World of Light: SPIE Student Chapter Treasurer and past President Kristin Walker demonstrating the use of polarizers
Two of a Kind SPIE Student Chapter Vice-President Yi-Chen Chuang (left) and SPIE student member Mona Mayeh (right) with Tessera diffraction gratings, Mirascope (3D image of Frog) and real samples from the clean room
Fun with Optical Illusions http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/illusion/illusions.htm Preparations for the Event: SPIE Student Chapter Secretary and Webmaster Kavan Acharya (right) with the Radiometer and LightCast (Sound to Light conversion kit). We played old 1970 s songs on an IPOD to show the effects of different pitches of the sounds as different light patterns on a whiteboard display.
Optics Light at Work CD from SPIE Around fifteen students and parents in two groups attended our outreach event hosted in Grigg Hall on Feb 19, 2008 around 6 pm at UNC Charlotte
Ongoing activities: POSTER BOARD for Students and Faculty In view of reaching out to new students, people visiting the building and a snapshot of the research carried out in Grigg Hall; Vice President and graduate student Senator Yi-Chen Chuang has started building up a student and faculty board. Each student photo displays the name of the student, his research and his lab/room. Graduate Student Board in Grigg Hallway
March 14: Career Development Panel and Lunch with Speaker This year we decided to join our Lunch with Speaker series along with the Career Panel discussion with experts. We invited six panelists from diverse backgrounds including our seminar speaker Dr Fainman who spoke later during the day on "Nanophotonics for Information Systems Integration." Below is the invite sent to students: Dear colleagues The SPIE team would like to invite you all for a discussion on careers on Friday, March 14, at 11:30 am. We have six eminent people including Physics and Engineering career advisor Ben Cudia and Friday Speaker Y. Fainman. Lunch will be served from the Catering Services. Whether you are a first year student or about to graduate or working as a post doc, advice from the panelists will greatly help not only in your job search but also in answering and getting ready for challenging interview questions. We need a full house for this event so that
the panelists can come again to help our Center and students, so please join us in making this event successful. It would also be a great idea to jot down a few questions for the panelists. We look forward to seeing each one of you there :) Best regards SPIE TEAM The Menu along with cookies and soda The Panelists (PTO)
All the panelists urged the students to have passion in their work for success in their careers. Diversity in careers was also discussed as most of the panelists viewed that enjoying what you do and developing an expertise in your field was an important trait which they liked to see in their employees. Albert Einstein s birthday was celebrated with a cake. The discussion lasted for around ninety minutes with panelists sharing their personal and professional experiences with the students. Below are some of the moments March 14 celebrated as Albert Einstein s birthday and also as PI day ( = 3.14 with 03/14 MM/DD)
Career Panel discussion on March 14, 2008 in Grigg Hall
April 8-10: 2008 Invitational Conference on K-12 Outreach from University Science Departments in the Research Triangle Park, NC, April 8-10, 2008. Kristin Walker and Choon-How Gan attended the 2008 Invitational Conference on K-12 Outreach from University Science Departments organized by The Science House out of North Carolina State University. They presented a poster about the optics outreach demonstrations created this year to share ideas with other STEM professionals seeking outreach ideas. Several SPIE posters, "Careers in Optics" and "Light at Work" DVD's were distributed. The conference covered topics such as creating effective University-K-12 partnerships, evaluating outreach/education programs, Alabama's "Science in Motion" initiative, and creating the Nano exhibit now featured at Epcot. Several contacts were made with those hoping to expand or begin outreach programs incorporating optics and/or physics. These contacts will be beneficial as our chapter continues to develop our outreach program. Optics Poster created by Kristin Walker detailing our outreach activities
In picture SPIE member Choon-How Gan. April 16: SPIE Officer Elections for the Term Aug 2008 July 2009 and Ice-Cream Social We concluded our SPIE gathering for the semester with officer elections along with our Icecream Social. The elections were held in the traditional way of casting your vote by secret ballot. We had one student for each of the SPIE officer positions which eased the voting process. A total of sixteen students voted and the officers were elected with a 100 percent approval. Attached are snapshots from the social and the new officers for the May 08- April 09 term. A personal meeting with each officer will follow providing them with their duties and sharing our past experiences.
SPIE Student Officers (May 08- April 09) Shahab Chitchian Javaid Ikram Ying Li Kaia Buhl President Vice President Treasurer Secretary
April 28: Student Organization Awards ceremony Out SPIE student Chapter won two awards at the annual Student organization awards ceremony held at the Student Activity Center at our university. A total of 11 awards were presented. We were presented with the Outstanding Web Page and Outstanding Contribution to the Greater Community awards.
Financial Statement from Jan 08 May 08 SPIE Funds 11/1/08 Previous Balance (as of Dec 07) 1222.39 2/5/08 Outreach Equipment -70.00 2/11/08 SPIE Meeting Lunch -97.73 5/15/08 Showcase Group Photo Picture Frames -151.90 ----------- Remaining Balance 902.76 UNCC GPSG Funds (Graduate and Professional Student Government) 1/1/08 Beginning Balance 2820.00 1/30/08 Aaron Cannistra Photonics West -500.00 1/30/08 Mingzhen Tang Photonics West -500.00 1/30/08 Kristin Walker Photonics West -470.00 2/10/08 Outreach Equipment -50.00 3/14/08 Lunch with Speaker -190.00 3/15/08 Harsh Chaturvedi MRS Meeting -500.00 4/16/08 Ice Cream Social -95.00 5/6/08 Study Break Breakfast -75.00 5/10/08 Choon How Gan O+P Registration -220.00 5/10/08 Kaia Buhl O+P Registration -220.00 ----------- Remaining Balance 0.00 *Funds allocated by the UNC Charlotte Graduate and Professional Student Government, provided by the Student Activity Fees
Our final goodbye: l to r: Amit Suratkar, Yi-Chen Chuang, Kavan Acharya, Kristin Walker and Advisor Dr Tsing-Hua Her with the awards It has been a heartfelt and healthy experience as we pass on our duties to the newly elected officers and continue our efforts to make optics more reachable to the general public and maintain our long lasting relationship with SPIE. It was an honor to serve on the SPIE Student Chapter Executive Board and along with my colleagues and the Chapter advisor; I would like to thank the services of Dirk Fabian, Jason Hamman, June Thompson and all others for their ever co-operating and prompt assistance. -Best wishes - Amit Suratkar