CSIR Student Chapter Annual Report 2012 The chapter leaders for 2012 were: President: Alpha Ibrahim (3340275 aibrahim@csir.co.za) Vice President: Darryl Naidoo (3278136 dnaidoo3@csir.co.za) Treasurer: Melanie McLaren (3178524 mmclaren@csir.co.za) Events Coordinator: Angela Dudley (3225784 adudley@csir.co.za) The last year has been a rather eventful year for the student chapter and all its events attended throughout the year, in particular the first IONS in Africa. We tried our utmost to utilise the funds as efficiently and effectively as possible that were given to us in the form of grants from OSA and SPIE. We feel that we are growing in stature and making good progress in having a successful chapter. 1. Conferences All our chapter members attended the South African Institute of Physics Conference in Pretoria in July 2012. Chapter members, Thandeka Mhlanga, Wayne Koen, Darryl Naidoo (below) and Melanie McLaren all won awards. Chapter members Alpha Ibrahim, Melanie McLaren, Attie Hendriks, Angela Dudley, Ramathabathe Madigoe and Monnamme Tlotleng (all pictured below) attended Quantum Information Processing, Communication and Control (QIPC 2 ).
Chapter member Angela Dudley (pictured below with Giovanni Milone) attended Photonics West earlier this year and Darryl Naidoo attended Optics and Photonics in August.
2. Outreach Our chapter has been particularly active this year and have attended many Outreach events. For the second year in a row, Chapter members, Alpha Ibrahim (pictured below), Angela Dudley and Darryl Naidoo were involved in adjudicating a junior and high school science expo at Eduplex School in preparation for the Eskom science expo. Some of the events that we have attended this year include: Kurumani Science-Tube (±600 Atendees), Windpompfees Christian independent school (±200 Atendees), Soshanguve FABLAB (±800 Atendees), Eding Science festival (±1200 Atendees), National Science Week (±800 Atendees), Science Unlimited (±300 Atendees), Sci- Bono (±200 Atendees), CSIR Science Day (±100 Atendees), Sasol Techno X (±700 Atendees), SciFest Africa (±550 Atendees) and TUT Open Day (±300 Atendees). Our participation for all the events, visitors and exhibitions had an overall impact of approximately 31000 people throughout the year. We have made a presentation that is fitting for school students with fun images and many videos. We also perform the famous balloon popping experiment with a laser pointer on unsuspecting students. In addition to the laser scope, we have also included in our talks the career guidance in science in an attempt to get lots of students attending University to study physics. The students are all very responsive and enthusiastic about science and in particular laser science. The CSIR Student Chapter (Darryl Naidoo and Lerato Shikwambana) contribution to SciFest Africa won them the Best Outreach Workshop titled The Wonders of Light and Lasers. Pictured below are Monnamme Tlotleng, Lerato Shikwambana and Ramathabathe Madigoe
3. IONS Africa-1 OVERVIEW: The first IONS conference in Africa took place at Cathedral Peak Hotel in the Drakensberg in South Africa, hosted by the CSIR National Laser Centre Student Chapter. The IONS Conference took place from Friday 31 August till Sunday 2 September 2012, the weekend before an international conference: Quantum Africa 2, which also took place in the Drakensberg. This meant delegates had the option to attend both conferences for the cost of a single travel expense. The theme for the IONS1-Africa Conference was quantum and fibre optics, however all aspects of optics and photonics were welcomed. The venue: Cathedral Peak Hotel, Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa DELEGATES: Thirty-three delegates attend the conference: two invited speakers and thirty-one student attendees. A list of the delegates is given below: Name: Nationality: Email Address: 1 Prof Tim Birks UK t.a.birks@bath.ac.uk 2 Prof Miles Padgett UK Miles.Padgett@glasgow.ac.uk 3 Abraham Chaibi USA abrahamchaibi@gmail.com 4 Alpha Hamadou Ibrahim Cameroon aibrahim@csir.co.za 5 Angela Dudley South Africa angelajvr@gmail.com 6 Attie Hendriks South Africa ahendriks@csir.co.za 7 Bathusile Masina South Africa BMasina@csir.co.za 8 Brian Yalisi Zimbabwe byalisi@csir.co.za 9 Darryl Naidoo South Africa DNaidoo3@csir.co.za 10 Edzani Ratsibi South Africa eratsibi@csir.co.za 11 Lerato Shikwambana South Africa LShikwambana@csir.co.za 12 Loyiso Maweza South Africa LMaweza@csir.co.za 13 Melanie McLaren South Africa mmclaren@csir.co.za
14 Monnamme Tlotleng South Africa MTlotleng@csir.co.za 15 Nicolene Botha South Africa NBotha@csir.co.za 16 Oliver Collett South Africa OCollett@csir.co.za 17 Ramathabathe Madigoe South Africa RMadigoe@csir.co.za 18 Riaan Coetzee South Africa riaanscoetzee@gmail.com 19 Sandile Ngcobo South Africa sngcobo@csir.co.za 20 Shaun Burd South Africa SBurd@csir.co.za 21 Steven Nkosi South Africa SNkosi@csir.co.za 22 Thuli Khanyile South Africa TKhanyile@csir.co.za 23 Dirk Spangenberg South Africa dspan@sun.ac.za 24 Thandeka Mhlanga South Africa 17280044@sun.co.za 25 Wilfrid Ndebeka Congo ndebeka@sun.ac.za 26 Sharmini Pillay South Africa sharminipillay251@gmail.com 27 Yaseera Ismail South Africa yaseera.ismail064@gmail.com 28 Emmanuel Rasiel Ollotu Tanzania manyoolo@yahoo.co.uk 29 Sarah Shafaay Egypt sara.shafaay@aucegypt.edu 30 Elizabeth Atang Cameroon 201007403@ufh.ac.za 31 Kelachukwu Iheanetu Nigeria kelahard@yahoo.com 32 Lungisa Rwai-Rwai South Africa lrwairwai@yahoo.com 33 May David Makhozanele South Africa 200703957@ufh.ac.za Delegates in front of Cathedral Peak TALKS AND POSTERS: The conference programme involved two invited talks by Prof Tim Birks, whose talk was entitled: Photonic Crystal Fibres and Prof Miles Padgett, whose talk was entitled: Computational Ghost Imaging. We made use of our OSA travelling lecturer grant to cover the costs of Prof Tim Birks travel expenses and our SPIE travelling lecturer grant for Prof Miles Padgett. There were 16 student talks and 8 student posters. Talks by Prof Tim Birks (left) and Prof Miles Padgett (right)
Delegates listen to talks The poster session EXTRA_MURAL ACTIVITIES: Apart from scientific talks and posters, the conference programme also included a social afternoon which involved a guided hike in the Drakensberg to bushman paintings. Delegates spent time hiking in the Drakensberg and playing a friendly game of soccer STUDENT CHAPTERS The CSIR Student chapter is one of only two student chapters in South Africa that is affiliated with both OSA and SPIE. As a conclusion to the conference, an overview of the OSA and SPIE student chapter programme was presented to all the students. This was used as the basis for motivating students to start chapters at their Universities and Institutions. It had also been discussed that the African Laser Centre would like to start a student chapter of their own for all African students in Optics and Photonics. As a prerequisite it was requested that all students belong to an OSA and SPIE student chapter.
TRAVEL GRANT RECIPIENTS: The Photonics Initiative of South Africa (PISA) sponsored the travel expenses for four students from the University of Fort Hare (in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa) to attend IONS1-Africa. Since we positioned the IONS1-Africa conference prior to Quantum Africa 2, the organisers of Quantum Africa 2 (the African Laser Centre, ALC) sponsored the flights for three African students to attend IONS-1 Africa. Travel grant recipients from the University of Fort Hare (LTR: Lungisa Rwai-Rwai, May David Makhozanele, Elizabeth Atang, Loyiso Maweza (CSIR), Kelachukwu Iheanetu and Darryl Naidoo (CSIR)). Travel grant recipient, Sarah Shafaay and travel grant recipient, Emmanuel Rasiel Ollotu talking to Wilfred Ndebeka (left) at the poster session. BUDGET: SPONSORS: We would like to thank our sponsors for their funding. The Photonics Initiative of South Africa (PISA) provided travel grants and funding for accommodation. The African Laser Centre (ALC) provided travel grants and funding for hired cars for South African students to attend the conference. OSA and SPIE provided travel grants for the invited speakers.
OSA also provided funding towards overall expenses of the conference. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) provided promotional t-shirts and lanyards for the delegates, as well as the printing of the programmes and name badges. 4. Funding and Expenses Student Chapter Account Opening Balance 8318.74 Funding OSA Grant (5 January) 3892.65 SPIE Grant (21 June) 4046.70 OSA Grant IONS (27 June) 33025.20 OSA Grant IONS (7 September) 8084.50 SPIE Travelling Lecturer Program (25 September) 11943.30 OSA Travelling Lecturer Program (22 October) 16950.00 Total 77942.35 Expenses Student end of year Lunch (28 February) 900.00 Outreach Equipment (24 April) 1050.25 IONS Deposit (23 May) 8852.79 IONS Venue (6 August) 35000.00 IONS Expenses Angela (17 September) 5802.00 IONS Expenses Darryl (18 September) 2540.00 Bank Charges for the Year 796.90 Total 54941.94 Closing Balance 31319.15 Monies Due to Chapter Advisor (Travelling Lecturers) 28893.30 Actual Balance 2425.85
Some of the events that we plan on attending throughout the year is as follows: February: Science Unlimited Gauteng March: Science Unlimited Free State, SciFest Eastern Cape April: Science-Tube, Kimberly July: Science-Tube, Limpopo, SAIP 2013 August: National Science Week, Mpumalanga, Sasol Techo-X, Sasolburg, Science unlimited, KwaZulu-Natal We plan on hosting the first SPIE FOCUS event and through the experience gained from IONS Africa-1, we are fairly confident to have a successful event in 2014. 5. Members The CSIR student chapter has been running for five years and currently has 24 student members. We have yet to renew memberships, as discussed in a recent chapter meeting, all memberships will be dealt with in November 2012 and thereafter every month to achieve a member list of greater than the minimum requirement. New Chapter officers will be elected at our first annual meeting of the year in February 2013 as all students will be back from vacation. Chapter members Alpha Hamadou Ibrahim Angela Dudley (Chapter Alumni) Attie Hendriks Bathusile Masina Brian Yalisi Daniel Esser Darryl Naidoo Edzani Ratsibi Ivy Ndhundhuma Lerato Phume Lerato Shikwambana Liesl Burger Loyiso Maweza Melanie McLaren Monnamme Tlotleng Nicolene Botha Nkele Baloyi Nomsa Mokgalaka Oliver Collett Ramathabathe Madigoe Sandile Ngcobo Shaun Burd Thuli Khanyile Wayne Koen