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SPIE Annual Report University of Michigan Chapter

2014

Est. August 2012

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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: opticsUMICH@gmail.com

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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 chengzh@umich.edu

Vice-President Kyu Hyun Kim kyhykim@umich.edu

Treasurer Michael Haines mkhaines@umich.edu

Secretary Elizabeth Dreyer efcloos@umich.edu

Advisor John Nees nees@umich.edu

Executive Board: Position Name Email

Faculty liaison Zhaorong Wang zrwang@umich.edu

Industry co-chair Miao-Bin Lien mblien@umich.edu

Industry co-chair Tong Zhou tongzhou@umich.edu

Outreach co-chair Heather Ferguson hthrfrg@umich.edu

Outreach co-chair Nooshin Mohammadi Estakhri estakhri@umich.edu

Publicity chair Brandon Demory bdemory@umich.edu Social co-chair Arnab Hazari harnab@umich.edu Social co-chair Mahdi Aghadjani mahdia@umich.edu

All SPIE Student Members: Name Email Expires

Amir Ali arahmed@smu.edu 12 January 2015

Brian Berger bergerbl@umich.edu 12 November 2014

Andrew Chang andchang@umich.edu 10 December 2014

Brandon Demory bdemory@umich.edu 15 January 2015

Elizabeth Dreyer efcloos@umich.edu 25 January 2015 Heather Ferguson hthrfrg@umich.edu 9 December 2014

Richard Frazin rfrazin@umich.edu n/a Vikrant Gokhale vikrantg@umich.edu n/a Michael Haines mkhaines@umich.edu 9 April 2015

I-Ning Hu andrehu@umich.edu 11 December 2014

Kyu Hyun Kim kyhykim@umich.edu 30 July 2015 Charles Munson cdmunson@umich.edu 12 June 2015 Cheng Zhang chengzh@umich.edu 12 October 2014

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SPIE Alumni: Name Email Expires

Aniruddha Ray rayani@umich.edu 12 January 2015

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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.