SPIE Charles University in Prague Chapterhttp://www.spie.cz

Annual report 2015-2016

Officers

Advisor Prof. Jan Franc franc@karlov.mff.cuni.czPresident Frantisek Pasztor frenky.pasztor@gmail.comVice President Martin Zukerstein MartinZukerstein@seznam.czSecretary Peter Darebnık peter.darebnik@gmail.comTreasurer Zdenek Kaspar zde.kaspar@gmail.comPublic relations Vojtech Vozda vojtech.vozda@gmail.com

Members

Lukas Beran, Dagmar Butkovicova, Petr Darebnık, Eva Jesenska, Eduard Jesko, Zdenek Kaspar,Lukas Nadvornik, Frantisek Pasztor, Jakub Pekarek, Tomas Popelar, Martin Rejhon, KatarinaRidzonova, Jan Salava, Lukas Sedivy, Miloslav Surynek, Vojtech Vozda, David Wagenknecht,Martin Zahradnık, Jakub Zazvorka, Martin Zukerstein

Introduction

SPIE Charles University in Prague Chapter (the Chapter) was founded in 2011 publicize opticsamong many students of Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague(FoMP CUiP) as well as among high school students. Most of the members are master andPhD. students of Quantum Optics and Optoelectronics at FoMP CUiP; in recent years we havealso members from the Department of Condensed Matter Physics (the same institute) and fromAcademy of Science (PhD. students of the FoMP CUiP who work there). In total, the Chapterhas twenty members.Many activities are organized by the members of the Chapter for different focus groups.Demonstration of Physics experiments on schools, our largest project, impact more thanthousand elementary and high school students every year. Several times per year we takepart in events focused on public audience or university students, some of them are organized byour members. Usually five to ten social activities for members of the Chapter take place everyyear, e.g., trips to interesting places, barbecue or cultural programs.

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Chapter activities

Demonstration of Physics experiments on schools

The largest project of the Chapter is called Demonstration of Physics experiments on schools.The members of the Chapter visit at least ten elementary or high schools every academic yearand they present popular experiments to five or six classes every time, each of them havingusually twenty five to thirty students. Therefore, we address from 1000 to 1500 students everyyear! Teachers on the schools also get to know that many physical topics may be taught in anenjoyable way.We offer several kinds of programs depending on the age of audience. We are able to presentexperiments and topics interesting for wide range of students, e.g., for the third grade not havingphysics as a subject yet, as well as specialized scientific program for classes at the end of thehigh school studies. Discussion about university studies is also offered to the schools.

With financial support of SPIE, we can afford to buy tools fordemonstrations and experimental materials and we visit the schoolsfor free. (Professional commercial groups offer similar program forseveral thousand Czech Crowns – hundreds of US Dollars). We haveabout ten schools on a waiting list all the time and we give priority topoorer regions of the Czech Republics where the schools do not haveso many opportunities for excursions or similar extension of teaching.In order to make our shows more professional, we had t-shirts withoriginal design printed (see the left figure). The picture which isprinted on the back of the t-shirts shows some of the most stunningexperiments we do with students, more or less, of course.

17 April 2015: Lecture of visiting Professor Gregory Quarles

Prof. Gregory Quarles was invited to Prague by members ofthe Chapter. He gave a talk about Transparent PolycrystallineMaterials, not only the members attended but also a wide rangeof academic staff was interested in the lecture. Afterwards, wehad a lunch and informal discussion with Prof. Quarles.

May 2015: Outdoor seminar of Institute of Physics

Members of the Chapter participated on the annual five-day outdoor seminar. Several lecturesabout current research and hot optical topic were given by the members there. We also organizeda social evening there in order to introduce activities of the Chapter to younger optical studentsand the membership was offered to them.

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24 June 2015: Barbecue

When the summer started we arranged a traditional BBQ. Newmembers were successfully integrated to our social group andfrom this event they do participate on our activities and someof them take part in Demonstration of Physics experiments onschools project, so we can address more school and students.

8 – 13 August 2015: San Diego

The statutory treasurer of the Chapter in the academic year 2014–15, Lukas Nadvornık, hasparticipated in the SPIE-organized Student Chapter Leadership Workshop on the 8th of Augustand the related SPIE Conference OPTICS+PHOTONICS 2015 (9th – 13th of August) as arepresentative of our Chapter via the Officer travel grant in 2015.Both events were a great boost for his professional and social development. Since LukasNadvornık has participated the Workshop as a relatively experienced Chapter leader, he hadthe opportunity to share his experience gained during his 5-year membership in the Executivecommittee – in particular, Chapter’s crucial experience with the handover of the leadership ofthe Chapter to a younger generation of students and the related challenges, and the exceptionalsuccess with their long-term project concerning the exhibitions and practical demonstration onthe Physics in high and grammar schools within all the Czech Republic. Lukas Nadvornık sharednot only the key points and the most appreciated experimental content of these shows but hepointed out also the necessary steps in terms of the marketing and promotion of this event whichturned out to be one of the relevant skills to found and maintain a project of this size.Besides the sharing and discussion concerning the general leadership of a chapter, a focus wasalso made to establish new contacts and links between chapters.In addition to the Workshop, Lukas Nadvornık has presented his recently completed work inform of a contributed talk, entitled “Efficient conversion of light to charge and spin in Hall-barmicrodevices”, at the SPIE Conference OPTICS+PHOTONICS on the 13th of August.

21 October 2015: Chapter Officers election

Annual election of the Chapter Officers was held at the beginning of the academic year. Themembers got together in order not only to elect a new board, but also to summarize the lastyear and discuss activities for the next one. The main priority remained the Demonstrationof Physics experiments on schools project with huge impact on many young students. Theattendees of the meeting also agreed to organize more social events for the members and tobroaden the knowledge about the Chapter among non-members.

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24 October 2015: Outdoor trip to Kokorınsko

Kokorınsko is a natural area about sixty kilometres from Prague, full of sandstone rocks anddeciduous trees, that are amazing especially in autumns when the leaves have many differentcolours. Several active sports members of the Chapter went to an outdoor trip about 30 kmlong to take part in an activity, that was different from indoor events that are usually organizedin this period of the year.

5 November 2015: Session for bachelor students

In order to increase interest of other students in optics, we haveorganized an informal meeting which consisted of several shorttalks and small refreshment. The attendees were students inthe second year of bachelor’s study program General Physics.We have offered them participation in student projects and wehave informed them also about our SPIE student chapter and itsactivities.

26 November 2015: Faculty Open Day

This event is being organized by the whole Faculty ofMathematics and Physics and about 700 high school studentscame to find out important informations about their possiblefuture study on our faculty. Members of the Chapter tookpart and they were presenting interesting physical experimentsand introducing optical topic that are currently in the focusof scientific community to show, that our research groups havestate-of-art devices and that they do publish in highly-impactedjournals. Maybe, some of the addressed students will become part of the Chapter in a few years.

14 December 2015: Chapter Christmas party

Christmas party of the Chapter was held again in December. Discussion about physics andactivities of the Chapter was secondary, the main aim was to bring a peaceful Christmasatmosphere after several previous demanding activities.

13 January 2016: Best Master Student Paper Award

To increase interest and motivation of students of optics andoptics-related fields, the Chapter announced a contest of the bestmaster student scientific paper. There were two categories: thebest paper and the best poster. Whereas the best paper hadto be published is some impacted scientific journal, the bestposter had to be presented at a conference. In summary, we

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received almost twenty applications from which the nine-membercommittee consisting of students and professors selected two winners: Lukas Beran (best paper)and Lukas Ohnoutek (best poster). The price giving ceremony took place in the dean’s officewhere the winners were rewarded with diplomas and financial rewards, 10000 CZK and 5000CZK, respectively. The financial support came from OSA funding.

15 March 2016: Lecture Physics in Experiments

Members of the Chapter were asked to make a lecture in Charles University in Prague.Audience numbered about 50 bachelor students could see very impressive experiments suchas chemiluminescence, geometrical optics phenomena or changes of colour of LED diodes bycooling them in liquid nitrogen.

19 March 2016: Outdoor trip in Posazavı

Trip to Posazavı, a beautiful landscape near Prague, with participation of several members ofthe Chapter was organized. We walked about 25 km, visited several places having breathtakingview on river Sazava. The trip served also as an team-building activity and similar activitiesshould be organized more often.

Future plans

• Continuing in Demonstration of Physics experiments on schools

• April 2016: Barbecue

• May 2016: Outdoor seminar of Institute of Physics

• July 2016: Participation on Fantasy Festival to present our faculty to a wide audience

• August 2016: An Officer of the Chapter will take part in SPIE conference in San Diego

• Autumn: Regular events like election of a new board, Christmas party or activities foryounger university students

• December 2016: Best Master Poster Student Award – similar to this year

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Financial report for period 05/2015 – 04/2016 Incomes: Funds from previous period 7 527 CZK SPIE Activity Grant – 900 USD (01/2016) 21 657 CZK SUM 29 184 CZK Expenses: Web domain hosting 151 CZK Chapter trips transport tickets 957 CZK BBQ Summer Party (06/2015) 3 320 CZK Chapter Officers Election meeting (10/2015) 4 350 CZK Session for bachelor students (11/2015) 2 427 CZK Chapter Christmas Party (12/2015) 3 300 CZK Experimental equipment for Demonstration of Physics experiments on schools 1 465 CZK SUM 15 970 CZK Total balance by end of April 2016: 13 214 CZK Further expected expense by 12/2016:

BBQ summer party (06/2016) 3 000 CZK Election Meeting (10/2016) 4 500 CZK Student’s projects meeting (10/2016) 2 500 CZK

Christmas Party (12/2016) 3 000 CZK On Chapter members’ behalf 01/01/2017 Zdeněk Kašpar Treasurer