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Postgraduate
seminar: session (1) 25th January
2007
We kicked off the year's
activities with a postgraduate student seminar jointly organized with
the local IEEE chapter. Our invited speaker was Thomas O'Reilly who
works at the Nanostructures Laboratory in MIT. His presented an
overview of his research work in interference lithography (IL)
including the design & operation of IL systems, the use of IL
to pattern surfaces and as a tool to measure the distortion of x-ray
masks.
This talk was open to the
general public and the majority of the audience were postgraduate
students who are non-OSA members. We took this as an opportunity to
introduce the local chapter as well as the OSA association to them.
Several of them expressed an interest to find out more or to join
us.
In all, the talk served its purpose of 1) providing exposure to our
members to research conducted internationally , 2) a interaction
platform amongst the postgraduate fraternity, 3) promoting awareness of
our local student chapter & OSA.
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Junior college educational
outreach event: January 2007
“Research is what I'm
doing when I don't know what I'm doing,” as stated by Wernher Von Braun, was used as
the punch-line to magnetize and then to clutch the attention of many young
energetic minds, which are roving to unearth their respective educational path. The very aim
of Singapore OSA and SPIE Student Chapters, to spread the Knowledge and Science of Light
was the driving force for the Educational Outreach Event. The seminar was widely
attended by around 60 Junior College Students (A-Level Students) from all over Singapore. The
Student Audience was divided into 4 smaller groups for better focus. The seminar was
followed by the lap tour to further engross the students and to provide them with a glimpse of
challenges and the fun associated with career in research.
Balpreet
Ahluwalia the common student member of both the Chapters along with
Associate Professor Xiaocong Yuan, (Advisor to Singapore OSA Student
Member and SPIE Fellow) presented a motivating seminar on
“Careers in Optics and Introduction to Optical
Tweezers”.
The seminar was aimed to showcase the wide range of career
opportunities, which Optics and Photonics provide and to bring across
the importance of Applied Optics/Photonics which it has influenced, to
name a few, from Semiconductor Industries and Defense Applications to
Entertainment and Media, from Optical Communications and Bio-Medical
Industries to Consumer Products.
Observant
student audience were amazed to acknowledge the importance of
optics/photonics and the number of challenging careers opportunities it
provides. The Seminar was Equipped with the
Screening of “Careers in Optics” Video CD, prepared
by
SPIE. The screened video possesses lot of interesting clips, which
further enhanced the
appeal to the students. After the Seminar many students approached SPIE
and OSAStudent Members for the possibilities of studying Optics and
Photonics in the University.The interesting holograms provided by SPIE
were further distributed to the selective audience during Q/A Sessions,
to keep them motivating. The Educational Outreach Event is an Annual
Event organized by Joint Venture of Singapore OSA and SPIE Student
Chapters.
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Visiting
OSA Fellow Prof. M Fiddy visits Singapore & lunches with our
Chapter! (17 May 2007)
We invited him (over an informal lunch
session) to give some advice to our young researchers thinking of
pursuing an academic career as well as share some of his
personal experiences in the research.
We were
certainly curious about how postgraduate programs are being conducted
on the other side of the world and whether our US counterparts
slacked-off as much as we did when the bosses are away. (*grin*) Of
course we learned that postgraduates worldwide share common
habbits. Prof Fiddy was also kind enough to answer our questions
on current trends in research, the Postdocteral life, securing a
tenured position, salary comparisons and career options after
graduation.
Our heartfelt thanks to Prof Fiddy for a wonderful & motivating time.
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Chapter Road trip to Victoria Junior College to conduct optics outreach program (19 July 2007)
Our
student chapter was invited to conduct an introductory course in
photonics to high school students. 30 students were selected from
various schools belonging to a special national education program
(Singapore IP integrated program) and gathered weekly to learn about
specific topics in science and engineering. We were fortunate to be
able to take part in this national level pogram through the contact of
Prof Phua and our chaptor advisor Prof Yuan (both profressional members
of OSA).
Our
chapter packed our optics kits and traveled to Victoria Junior College.
We divided the students into smaller groups for a hands-on experience
using the Discovery Educational kit and several other simple
experiments.
One
demonstration involved sending 'Morse-code' through a large core
optical fiber/pipe. This allowed the students to visualize the
phenomenon of total internal reflection being used in optical
communciations. In another experiment, we had the students experiment
with liquid crystal and thus learn about the polarization of light.
There where also experiments to demonstrate the effects of scattering
and diffraction.
We
must have impressed them with our knowledge becuase this bunch stayed
behind after the session to ask how do their homework!
Optical
Society
of
America
NTU STUDENT CHAPTER
