University of Rochester SPIE Student Chapter Annual Report June 2010 to June 2011
1 Introduction The University of Rochester SPIE student chapter maintained its momentum through its second year in existence. We continued our existing programs including our student summer colloquium series and company tours, this time going to Bausch + Lomb. We also created a new program this year, Women in Engineering, kicking things off with a panel discussion and continuing with monthly brown-bag lunch discussions with distinguished women from academia and industry. Our chapter currently has 50 members, a 25% increase over this time last year. Elected Officers for 2010-2011 President: Brooke Beier Vice-President: Prashant Baveja Interim Vice-President: Dustin Shipp Secretary: Joshua Schoenly Treasurer: Dan Christensen Web-administrator: Cristina Canavesi **Prashant Baveja had to leave for an international research opportunity in August. Faculty Advisor: Prof. Jannick P. Rolland 1
2 Activities 2.1 General Meetings Election meeting for officers for 2010-2011, May 3, 2010. Recruitment meeting, September 9, 2010. General interest and update meeting, February 2, 2011. Election meeting for 2011-2012 officers, April 26, 2011. Elected Officers for 2011-2012 (with membership numbers) President: Dan Christensen (03279642) Vice-President: Jinxin Huang (03375245) Secretary: Dustin Shipp (03297465) Treasurer: Ryan Beams (03374079) Web-administrator: Kyle Fuerschbach (03279852) 2.2 Student Summer Colloquium Series 2010 This weekly summer series served as an excellent opportunity for students to practice delivering presentations on optics, photonics and image-based themes. Colloquia were informal and meant to encourage scientific discussion and promote collaboration between research groups and academic departments. Our chapter disseminated call-for-papers fliers and emails to several campus departments and laboratories to get a wide cross-section of relevant research presentations not just based at The Institute of Optics. Participation was encouraged by offering restaurant.com vouchers to the selected presenters. Seven graduate students and three undergraduate students gave research presentations (see list on following page) of approximately 30 to 60 minutes in length. There were on average 30 attendees for each presentation. The colloquium was advertised as a brown baglunch seminar where our chapter, with partial support from The Institute of Optics, provided the dessert. Presentations were promoted by posting fliers and sending emails to all relevant departments on campus. 2
Florian Fournier CREOL, University of Central Florida. Freeform reflector design techniques for illumination. Tim Baran The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. Methylene blue mediated photodynamic therapy: pre-clinical results and spectroscopic studies. Prashant Baveja The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. Pulse amplification in SOAs with ultrafast gain-recovery times. Amber Beckley The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. Polarization apodization applications through stress-engineering: vortices, aberrations and you. Kathleen Adelsberger The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. Designing The Green Lens: 2010 IODC Lens Design Problem. Xiao Wang Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester. Brewster Angle Straddle Interferometry (BASI) for High Throughput Binding Assays. Kristina Wilson Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester. One Pulse, Two pulse, Red Pulse, Blue Pulse, and Sometimes A Big Green One. Krista Lombardo, Eric Cohen and Steve Head The Institute of Optics and the Department of Physics, University of Rochester. Undergraduate summer research highlights. 2.3 Outreach The outreach committee was involved with conducting several events over the past year. To help the group to more effectively present Optics material to area youths, we purchased several educational materials, including polarizer sheets, a pound of mica (to show birefringence), and color filters to show color addition/subtraction. We plan to purchase some additional materials once they are in stock with our supplier. Big Brothers/Big Sisters On November 20, we had ten students, from late elementary up through high school, come to our campus with their Bigs. This group was composed of students with an aptitude for math and science who had been partnered with professionals in these fields. We did a variety of demonstrations including dispersion of white light, polarization, pigments, and optical illusions, among others. Having the extra help from the Bigs made it an exciting event. 3
Optics Family Night Members of the UR SPIE outreach group participated in The Institute of Optics/Rochester OSA Family Night in December, showing various optical demonstrations for area optics professionals and their families. It was a fun event that gave our participants the chance to adapt their presentations for all age levels, from small children to curious adults. Greece Arcadia High School On April 4, we hosted 16 girls from the STEM interest group at Greece Arcadia High School (grades 9-11) for an Optics Day. We held a demonstration workshop where students rotated through stations for colors of light (including IR), polarization, imaging, and lasers and information transmission. The girls were taken on tours of research labs and of the campus. UR SPIE members had lunch with them, with discussions about college life and how to balance their multitude of interests as they consider career paths. The group then headed over to the Laboratory for Laser Energetics for a tour. 4
Laser Maze The UR SPIE chapter applied for (and received) a grant from Laser Fest during the previous cycle. This fall, we presented our maze at the Frontiers in Optics annual meeting for the OSA. Although this was an SPIE chapter activity, the OSA conference was selected due to its location in Rochester, NY, which meant we did not need to ship maze components. Eight SPIE members displayed our maze during coffee/lunch breaks for two days in the exhibit hall. We distributed candy to any conference attendees who were brave enough to attempt the maze. Media coverage of our laser maze: http://www.osa-opn.org/blog/post/2010/10/27/ Navigating-the-Laser-Maze-at-FiOLS.aspx http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxxi/news.newsmain? action=article&article_id=1718440 2.4 Women In Engineering The UR SPIE chapter has supported the founding of a new graduate student group at the University of Rochester: Women in Engineering (http://blogs.rochester. edu/wie). Two of the three founding members were 2010-2011 officers of the SPIE chapter: the UR SPIE President, Brooke Beier, and the UR SPIE Webmaster, Cristina Canavesi, who also serves as President of WiE. The 5
kickoff event was a lunch panel discussion, co-sponsored by SPIE and the UR Graduate Organizing Group, held on Dec. 3, 2010. The four panelists were female UR faculty members who answered several questions from the audience concerning challenges faced by women in engineering fields. The panel discussion was well attended (approx. 50 attendees) by both male and female graduate students as well as several faculty and staff from the University. The Women in Engineering group holds monthly brown bag lunch discussions where female speakers in industry and academia are invited to stimulate discussion among attendees, and provide networking and mentoring opportunities. 2.5 Company Tour: Bausch + Lomb On April 1, 2011, 20 members of the student chapter of SPIE were treated to an in-depth tour of the Bausch + Lomb manufacturing facility in downtown Rochester, NY. The group was first presented a historical and technical background of the company. Then, due to the group s large size, two production managers took half of the group on a guided tour through the fabrication facility. Those in attendance were shown and had explained the process of contact lens manufacturing from concept through automated production and packaging and shipping. Bausch + Lomb gave the SPIE members open access to the plant employees at all stages of production. The tour lasted approximately two hours. The chapter is very appreciative for Bausch + Lomb s generosity. 6
2.6 SPIE Conferences Optics+Photonics and Student Chapter Leadership Meeting In August 2010 two officers of the chapter, Cristina Canavesi and Dan Christensen, attended the SPIE student leadership workshop and the O+P conference in San Diego, taking advantage of the Officer Travel Grant. They presented the activities of our chapter at the student chapter poster session and took advantage of the networking opportunities offered to SPIE student members. SPIE Photonics West Brooke Beier, Dan Christensen, and Dustin Shipp attended Photonics West in January, 2011. The three attended the student chapter meeting. 2.7 Social Events Bowling Social Members of the UR SPIE chapter met at a local bowling alley on April 25. In addition to our macro-scale simulations of photon scattering, nine members enjoyed refreshments, discussions to create project acronyms, and great socialization. The event was held a few days before the SPIE elections to encourage more students to run for offices. At the bowling alley, multiple students agreed to run for offices, including next year s Vice President. Optics Movie Night On June 23, the UR SPIE chapter worked with the UR Graduate Organizing Group to have a viewing of Real Genius. This movie was chosen because of one of its main characters: a giant laser. The 25 attendees were provided with pizza, soda, and snacks. Of course, the snacks had to include popcorn, although we did not pop it using a laser as is done in the movie. Discussion of the portrayal of lasers and optics in cinema was encouraged. The UR SPIE chapter was introduced and promoted to students who may not have known about our presence. 7
2.8 Visiting Lecturers On March 29, the President Elect of SPIE, Prof. Eustace Dereniak from the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, inaugurated our Visiting Lecturer program. His talk on Imaging Spectrometer and Polarimeter Instruments was followed by a giveaway of SPIE items including USB keys and flashlights. 3 Financial Information Starting Balance $ 1,004.73 Income The Institute of Optics - Donation $500.00 SPIE Activity Funds $1,700.00 Total $3,204.73 Expenses Food, snacks, and refreshments $771.63 Outreach materials $43.11 Conference and promo materials $44.90 Bowling Event $28.00 Movie Night $23.23 WiE support $67.51 Total $978.38 Ending Balance $2,226.35 4 Future Directions and Activities The University of Rochester student SPIE group has set two missions for the upcoming year: to branch out further and expand our reach as a multidisciplinary organization and to plan activities that encourage members to take a more active role and have a desire to be involved. Towards these missions, the chapter has appointed specific committees to recommend activities accordingly. Below are specific goals and activities for the next 12 months as recommended to date. We will again host a summer colloquium series for students. The Summer Colloquium Committee has recommended we increase our efforts to recruit non-optics-department members to give talks at the chapter-sponsored event, including giving incentives and 8
increasing the food budget. The chapter will also be delivering targeted appeals to all optics and photonics related labs to get involved. We will continue our tours of local companies of interest. The membership and activities committees have recommended we focus less on companies in optical engineering and branch out into companies appealing to more of the general optics and photonics communities. As such, we are in communication with Corning and Kodak. The membership committee is committed to significant growth of the organization membership both within The Institute of Optics and without. The membership committee has recommended the continuation of members-only activities as well as subsidized activities for members. Additionally, the chapter will be providing prizes of value both to mainstream optics members as well as members primarily involved in other fields. Specific activities include a members-only picnic and a town-hall style meeting for feedback. The membership committee is working closely with the activities committee planning other activities. The Outreach Committee will make a push this year to increase the number of members involved in such activities. The chapter has been a strong supporter of outreach activities in the past, and is committed to increase support going forward. The committee plans to host activities with local school groups as well as other NGOs (i.e. Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts). The chapter will continue to collaborate with and fund the Women in Engineering (WiE) group at the University of Rochester. The relationship between the two organizations will be reevaluated at the end of one year and possibly changed as the WiE group expands in size and connections. The chapter plans to use the visiting lecturer grant to bring in Robert Saunders, the 2008-2009 Guenther Fellow. The chapter also plans to have Dr. Heather Rayle from SCHOTT deliver a talk in the fall regarding the history of glass. 9