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2015-2016
SPIE Annual Report
30 Sep 2016 Annual Report
2
The University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION – VISION AND GOALS ...................................................................................3
2. STUDENT CHAPTER MEMBERS ...............................................................................................5
3. ACTIVITIES ..............................................................................................................................7
3.1 Academic Activities ................................................................................................................. 7
3.1.1 Student exchanges and networking ................................................................................ 7
3.1.2 Professional skills development activities ...................................................................... 9
3.1.3 Professional Networking and Presentations ................................................................. 11
3.1.4 2016 Student Industry Day (September 2016) ............................................................. 12
3.1.5 Department Facilitation ................................................................................................ 13
3.2 Outreach Activities ................................................................................................................ 13
3.2.1 Organisation and formats of delivery ........................................................................... 13
3.2.2 School visits ................................................................................................................... 14
3.2.3 Open Days and Fairs ...................................................................................................... 16
3.2.4 Conference Outreach .................................................................................................... 16
3.3 Social, Networking, and Charity Activities ............................................................................ 17
3.3.1 Social Highlights ............................................................................................................ 17
3.4 Diversity in the workplace: Women in Optics and Photonics ............................................... 21
4. FINANCES ............................................................................................................................. 23
5. AWARDS .............................................................................................................................. 24
6. OUTLOOK ............................................................................................................................. 24
30 Sep 2016 Annual Report
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1. INTRODUCTION – VISION AND GOALS
The University of Southampton SPIE student chapter was established on the 28th January 2011. The student chapter also has affiliations with an Optical Society (OSA) student chapter, an IEEE Photonics Society (IPS) student branch chapter, and Union Southampton (US), our university’s student union. Collectively, we are known as the University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society (OPSoc). Our members are mostly PhD students from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), and the schools of Physics & Astronomy (P&A), and Electronics & Computer Science (ECS), in the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering (FPSE) at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, but also have members from other departments as well as Masters and undergraduates.
Our objective is to unite and engage the community of students interested in optics and photonics research at the University of Southampton. Our activities can be categorised into three main groups:
Educational and professional development activities
Youth education and community outreach
Social and networking activities
In 2015-2016, we developed an initiative to incorporate into our society’s portfolio the theme of “Diversity in the Workplace” to work towards creating better conditions and fair opportunities for our members. Our mission extends to improving the interaction between students in the University, and the optics and photonics global community to enhance prospects for insertion into a professional life. Events in all 3 of the above categories were run as part of this initiative, and led by OPSoc’s Diversity Officer.
The University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society: affiliations and activities
2. STUDENT CHAPTER MEMBERS
Committee members are elected at the beginning of the academic year. The current committee members, elected in November 2015, are:
Position Name Email SPIE ID
President Matthew T. Posner [email protected] 3629641
Vice-President Nicholas H. L. Wong [email protected] 3541309
Secretary Pablo Cencillo [email protected] 3590491
Treasurer Amy Tong [email protected] 3682527
Diversity Officer1 Angeles L. Camacho Rosales
[email protected] 3728474
Social & Social Officer1
Andrea Ravagli [email protected] 3749363
Social Officer1 Adam H. Lewis [email protected] 3749330
Education Officer1 Neda Baktash [email protected] 3592082
Publicity Officer Naresh K. Thipparapu [email protected] 3682525
1 Indicates 1st year postgraduate research student representative.
2015-2016 OPSoc Committee
Our current non-officer student chapter members are:
Parsonage, Tina L. Ou, Jun-Yu Mirzaei, Sahar Namiq, Medya Fouad Delfanazari, Kaveh Achar Vasant, Harish De Lucia, Francesco Gow, Paul C.
van Putten, Lieke D. Mavrona, Elena Wei, Cao Zhibo, Qu He, Peijun J. W. Jantzen, Alexander Turvey, Miranda T Wang, Junjia
Black, Leo-Jay Domínguez Bucio, Thalía Mittal, Vinita Wang, Yudong Chen Sverre, Theo Parsonage, Tina L. Waters, Robin
Total number of student members: 31.
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Alumni:
Due to current updates in the SPIE student chapter database, we do not have access to a full list of our alumni members. We have been informed by Meagan Harris by email on 10th Sep 2016 that our total number of alumni members is 11. Total number of members: 42. Our faculty advisor is Prof. Johan Nilsson (email: [email protected])
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3. ACTIVITIES
The student chapter has organized numerous events over the last year, which involve both the students and staff. Our chapter has maintained a significant Outreach Education activity this year, gaining recognition through awards and conference publications. We have diversified our professional development portfolio to include regional exchanges with other universities, organising our first Student Industry Day Conference and making use of the SPIE Visiting Lecturer programme. We have maintained our reputation as a socially active student chapter through student focused activities (e.g. Welcome tea, Winchester Fireworks) as well as activities which encourage networking with members of staff and academia (Pub quiz, Arctic BBQ, film nights). The recruiting events are regular activities (Annual General Meeting (AGM), Welcome Party, University of Southampton Bunfight).
New to this year has been the addition of specific activities on the theme Women in Optics and Photonics as part of our initiative Diversity in the Workplace. One dedicated officer led the organisation of 3 sets of different activities (social, academic and outreach) that were incorporated into our calendar of events.
This section will review our academic, outreach and social activities in the respective order, and conclude with a description of our Women in Optics and Photonics events.
3.1 Academic Activities
3.1.1 Student exchanges and networking
We have organised joint activities with chapters from the South of England and presented our activities to chapters in the USA and Canada during trips abroad. The following paragraphs detail our networking endeavours with student chapters.
3.1.1.1 University of Exeter SPIE student chapter visit (January 2016)
At the 2015 Student Leadership Conference at SPIE Optics + Photonics, our chapter representative Vinita Mittal met with officers from the University of Exeter student chapter. Following these introductions, we agreed that it would be desirable to organise joint activities back in our home country. In January 2016, we visited the University of Exeter’s SPIE Student Chapter. The day consisted of a visit of the university’s facilities, including the Alex Savchenko Centre for Nanoscience, Multi-Photon Imaging laboratory and the Terahertz Spectroscopy laboratory. The day featured technical talks from researchers from both institutions, a research poster session and an outreach workshop to exchange ideas on activities. Transport to Exeter was funded through the 2015 SPIE Activity Grant. The visit led to further interaction between our chapters, with a return visit of the University of Exeter chapter to the University of Southampton for our chapter’s Student Industry Day (section 3.1.2)
(Left) Students from the University of Southampton and the University of Exeter student chapters. (Right) Katrina Morgan presenting her doctoral research on Ionizing Radiation Effects of Emerging Non-Volatile
Memories.
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3.1.1.2 University of Oxford Optics and Photonics Society chapter visit (June 2016)
Following networking at the University of Oxford’s 2016 Photonics Day, in June we hosted a delegation of 9 students from the University of Oxford’s Optics and Photonics Society (OXOPS). The day included a series of tours and presentations from the students and academic staff of the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre and Zepler Institute, the largest photonics institute in the UK. The aim of the day was to provide our visitors with an overview of the research carried out in Southampton and to discuss further collaboration for research and student chapter activities between institutes.
(Top left) ORC Director Professor Sir David Payne welcomed the OXOPS delegation (Top right) The visitors doing a workshop on lithography in the University of Southampton’s Integrated Photonics Cleanroom, with experimental officer Neil Sessions. (Bottom left) Lunch time research presentation session. (Bottom right)
SPIE Chapter Advisor Prof. Johan Nillson giving an overview on research in high power fibre lasers at the ORC.
The program of the day included
Welcome by ORC Director, Professor Sir David Payne, and Professor Peter Smith
Introduction to Oxford and Southampton chapter activities by chapter presidents Joelle
Boutari and Matthew Posner
Research flash talks from 8 postgraduate research students from the University of
Southampton
Lab tours of research labs, including FAST lab, Fibre Bragg Gratings and Fibre Optical
Communications Lab
Student research poster session and lunch networking, with 12 research posters featured.
Hands-on workshops in the Mountbatten Nanofabrication Centre and the Integrated
Photonics Cleanroom. The workshops included an introduction to photolithography, fibre
fabrication and photolithography.
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Research activities presentation to visitors from professorial staff, including SPIE chapter
advisor Prof. Johan Nilsson, Prof. Rob Eason, Dr. Frédéric Gardes and Prof. Periklis
Petropoulos.
Following this day there are plans to return the visit to visit the University of Oxford in December 2016.
3.1.1.3 Academic Visits and outreach workshops to Student Chapters in North America (July-August 2016)
In the summer of 2016, chapter President Matthew Posner initiated a series of visits to student chapters in Canada and the United States of America whilst travelling between two conferences. He reached out to student chapters to present the University of Southampton student chapter, and offer presentations on his research in integrated optics and outreach workshops using a portable outreach kit suitable for international travel (section 3.2.4). Matthew visited 9 student chapters and presented his research and chapter’s outreach activity to 89 students and academics.
Matthew with, rotating clockwise from top left, SPIE chapter officers at the University of Calgary
(picture courtesy of Lynn Yu), University of Toronto, l’Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal and University of California Berkeley.
3.1.2 Professional skills development activities
Our chapter has supported and partaken in activities with the aim to permit our members to develop important employability skills such as communication, networking and entrepreneurship. Two of these activities are detailed in this section.
3.1.2.1 Second Year Talks (April-May 2016)
The chapter provided organizational and manpower support to the ORC for the annual 2nd Year talks, in which students are asked to present a scientific subject unrelated to their doctoral studies.
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We introduced a new online marking scheme that was used at each talk. In total, 14 2nd year PhD students took part, in 5 events held over a 3-week period from April-May 2016. The ORC sponsored a cash prize of £500 for the winner, Nathan Soper, and the chapter sponsored a prize for the runner-up of the competition, Lieke van Putten.
The use of online quizzing and marking system (https://getkahoot.com) allowed the audience mark
and give feedback to the presenters on their presentation directly, and made an automatic numerical record of the feedback
3.1.2.2 IEEE Young Entrepreneurs Day (June 2016)
On Saturday 11th June we attended the “IEEE Young Entrepreneurs Open Day”, a public event held at the University of Greenwich in London, UK and organised by the IEEE UK and Ireland Section Student Activities Committee and Young Professionals Affinity Group. The objectives were to give our members the opportunity to enhance their professional development. Through an IEEE Photonics Society Educational Seed Grant, we provided transport for a day trip from Southampton to Greenwhich University, London. 14 people made the 2.5 hour journey to London. This trip was featured in the IEEE Photonics Society August 2016 newsletter (available online).
Southampton delegation at the 2016 IEEE UK & Republic of Ireland Young Entrepreneurs Day
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3.1.3 Professional Networking and Presentations
Our chapter officers have given several presentations at international conferences and events to raise the profile of our chapter, and in particular the outreach program that we run. The following paragraphs detail these activities:
3.1.3.1 SPIE Student Chapter Leadership Workshop (August 2016)
Our chapter was represented at the 2016 SPIE Optics + Photonics Congress (OP16) this August. President Matthew Posner was awarded the Student Chapter Officer Travel Grant to attend the Student Chapter Leadership Workshop at OP16 in San Diego, CA. He interacted with contemporaries from other student chapters and what he learned about leadership and chapter management will benefit our chapter greatly. Matthew wrote a blog post on his experience at the workshop (available online), which was featured in the SPIE Student Member Newsletter, Vol. 14 Issue 3, September 2016.
(Left) Matthew working with other student leaders on a group task exploring what leadership isn’t. (Right) Attendees of the 15th Annual Student Chapter Leadership Workshop at OP16; picture courtesy
of SPIE Students.
3.1.3.2 Optics Education and Outreach IV (August 2016)
In 2015 our chapter developed and run outreach and public engagement activities to take part in the global celebrations of the International Year of Light. 3 of our activities were reported on at the 2016 Optics Education and Outreach IV conference held at the SPIE Optics + Photonics Congress. Our first report was on an award-winning garden on the themes of photonics, presented at the 2015 Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show Tatton Park. A team of researchers, students, marketing and public engagement leader from the University of Southampton worked in collaboration with garden and landscape designers to produce a garden on the theme of fibre optics research. The objectives were to unite science and art to reach new audiences – particularly family groups alongside other key influencers to the young – and showcased the world-leading research in optical fibres at the university in an accessible manner. Our second report was on the work carried out between our student-led outreach program, the Lightwave Roadshow, and a local school in the UK, the Thomas Hardye School, Dorcheter. We reported on models of activities that could be carried out as part of school-university partnerships, with a case study that involved sending a delegation comprised of 4 postgraduate students and 2 high school pupils to the International Year of Light Opening Ceremony at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. Our final report was on the development of a portable educational outreach kit suitable for overseas travel, and presented strategies to overcome logistical and practical challenges. The kit has been toured to major conferences (section 3.2.4), schools and universities in 5 different countries spanning 3 continents.
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Chapter Vice-President Nicholas Wong and President Matthew Posner presented these activities at the conference. The papers were supported by 10 co-authors and are published in SPIE Proceedings 9946. Papers
1. “Reflecting photonics: reaching new audiences through new partnerships – IYL 2015 and
the Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9946, 994603
(available online) (video online, courtesy of SPIE students)
2. “From school classes to UNESCO: IYL-enabled environments for tackling the STEM skills
shortage through student-led outreach”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9946, 994607 (available
online)
3. “Taking local optics outreach abroad for IYL 2015: administrative and logistical challenges
and strategies”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9946, 99460F (available online)
3.1.4 2016 Student Industry Day (September 2016)
Our chapter organised our first Student Industry Day. This meeting was to offer doctoral students perspective on career prospects through professional development events, including presentations, a careers panel and networking with researchers and representatives from industry. Students also had the opportunity to present their research during a poster session.
The event was run as a 1-day regional conference. We were delighted to host 9 students of the University of Exeter’s SPIE student chapter. The event was co-located with the Future Photonics Hub Industry Day, bringing together academics from the University of Southampton and University of Sheffield and over 40 representatives from industry.
(Left) Careers panel with, from left to right, moderator John Lincoln and panellists Brian Hayden, Bruno Johnson, David Giltner, Helen Swygart and Ian Farrer. (Right) Student poster competition winner, Vinita
Mittal.
The event program featured
Talk by SPIE Visiting Lecturer David Giltner, “Can a scientist find a rewarding career in industry?”
(video available online)
A workshop run by David Giltner for the first time ever: “Telling better stories with the same facts”. 4
students were asked to talk about their research, and explored with David ways to make their
stories resonate better with people from industry.
A careers panel with panellists from industry and academia, moderated by John Lincoln (Harlin Ltd).
The panellist were David Giltner (Zolo technologies), Helen Swygart (Qioptiq), Bruno Johnson
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(Cascoda), Ian Farrer (University of Sheffield) and Professor Brian Hayden (University of
Southampton).
Lab tours of research groups from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, Nanofabrication centre and
Quantum, Light and Matter research groups for visiting students.
A poster session and competition, with £300 cash prizes sponsored by the Future Photonics Hub,
judged by Professor Sir David Payne, Professor David Richardson and Professor Graham Reed.
Our chapter wishes to organise a larger multi-day international conference in 2017.
3.1.5 Department Facilitation
The chapter also assists the ORC in the organisation of department academic events. One such example is the providing of chapter members as laboratory and cleanroom facility tour guides for several events, including induction week for new PhD and MSc students, and visits by industry representatives from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). We also provide set-up and facilitation support for events such as the department’s Study Photonics Open Days, which included laboratory tours and a chapter presentation to give prospective students a taste of the research activity and student life at the ORC.
3.2 Outreach Activities
Lightwave
‘Lightwave’ is our outreach program designed to provide an exciting, interactive, and educational experience of optics for school pupils (6 to 18 years old), and members of the public. The program’s portfolio has expanded to include elements of our research in optoelectronics, including, but not limited to, telecommunications, lasers, novel glasses, fibre optics and photonic integrated circuits. The exhibition aspect of the program, also known as the Lightwave Roadshow, has been highly popular. The program is run by PhD students from our student chapter, known as Lightwave Ambassadors. They conduct workshops, demonstrate experiments, develop and promote the program and facilitate in Lightwave’s smooth operation. Our team of ambassadors has been fortunate to be comprised of students from various backgrounds, with students representing different races, nationalities, genders, and physical abilities. We use this diversity to aid in our engagement of as many young students as possible. 33 Lightwave ambassadors were active in 2015-2016.
3.2.1 Organisation and formats of delivery
The Lightwave ambassadors try to develop our audience’s awareness, knowledge, and general interest in optics by demonstrating and supervising the use of equipment that is designed to allow the audience to gain a hands-on experience of science. Some of the topics covered include: communications using light (both optical fibres and free-space), optical illusions, lenses, electromagnetic radiation, and the human eye. Due to the growing number of events and increase of demand, combined with a greater amount of experience amongst our Lightwave ambassadors, the program has re-organised its dynamics. From October to January, the President identified opportunities for events running from January-August. Once events have been selected, an organisation meeting is run with the Lightwave ambassadors, where lunch is provided. The ambassadors can sign up for events, and the more experienced ambassadors encouraged to take leadership by becoming the Lightwave Directors, thus taking greater responsibility in the organisation of these events.
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The formats of delivery include
Visits to schools
On-campus classes and tours
Open Days, fairs and festivals.
Outreach at conferences
These activities will be described in the following paragraphs.
3.2.2 School visits
The most traditional format of events involves an officer from the chapter to contacts schools showing an interest in Lightwave. This includes making initial contact and providing information about the activities and equipment. The director then schedules the shows for suitable dates, finds transport for equipment and ambassadors, recruits sufficient ambassadors, and manages the event. The director and ambassadors also talk to all student chapter members about Lightwave to promote awareness and encourage participation. We have collaborated with partners internal and external to the University to increase the reach of our program. For example, we have worked with the University’s central Outreach office and run classes for a wide range of ages at the University of Southampton. The visit of the schools and schedule is coordinated by the staff of the outreach office, leaving our ambassadors time to focus on the planning, delivery and evaluation of the activity. This is an efficient format to increase the reach and gain more experience of teaching. In addition, through a class-based approach, it is possible to obtain feedback from the students on what they enjoyed and what could be improved. Examples of positive feedback from students on the program is shown here
Student feedback collected throughout the year on the Lightwave classes
For older students (14-18) visiting the university, in addition to running classes we also organise visits of the ORC’s research laboratories, including the world-renowned Mountbatten Nanofabrication Centre. For small groups we have organised a class inside the cleanroom where the students had a hands-on demonstration of the process of photolithography.
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(Left) Practical cleanroom workshop with Year 12 pupils from the Godolphin School, picture credit Sam Berry
(Right) The final features of the photolithography workshop, picture courtesy of the OSA.
Of notable mention is an event with Mencap Southampton, a local charity that aids individuals with learning difficulties. We visited the “Own2Feet” group for young adults and presented a workshop-based class on light sciences. A blog post for this event was featured in the OSA Chapters and Sections newsletter (available online).
Lightwave ambassadors Lieke van Putten and Matthew Posner gave a workshop named “The Secrets of
Light” to the “Own2Feet” group for young adults with learning difficulties at Mencap Southampton. Table 1. List of schools visited including estimated number of students reached.
Date School/Event Location Attendance Age group 20/10/2015 Droxford Junior School Droxford 180 Years 3-6 (6-10 years old)
22/01/2016 Mayfield School and Redbridge Community School
Southampton 59 Year 8 (12 years old)
27/01/2016 Godolphin School (story online) Southampton 14 Year 12 (16-17 years old)
19/04/2016 Bringing Science to Life, Thomas Hardye School
Dorchester 245 Years 8-9 (12-13 years old)
17/05/2016 Mencap Southampton (story online) Southampton 8 Young adults with learning difficulties
24/05/2016 St Monica Primary School Southampton 89 Year 6 (10-11 years old)
15/06/2016 Calmore Junior School Southampton 89 Year 6(10-11 years old)
05/07/2016 Bitterne Park Primary School Southampton 122 Year 6 (10-11 years old)
06/07/2016 Inspire Course Southampton 30 Year 12 (16-17 years old)
11/07/2016 Photonics Day Southampton 120 Year 8 (12-13 years old)
14/07/2016 Brookfiled School Southampton 15 Year 10 (14-15 years old)
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3.2.3 Open Days and Fairs
Apart from visiting schools, the Lightwave program also supports university open day events and other fairs by participating as an exhibitor. Of particular note is the University of Southampton’s annual Science and Engineering Day, which is open to the public. During the last exhibition, not only were we able to fascinate the children with the optics displays and experiments, but we also managed to intrigue many of the parents and older visitors who were all as eager to learn something new about photonics, especially inconspicuous but pervasive everyday technologies such as the internet. The fairs are open to the general public and we are able to engage with a very large number of people during these events.
University of Southampton Science and Engineering Day 2016. (Left) The colourful LED cube and speaker
water fountain are efficient items to draw the attention of the public in fairs. (Middle) Lightwave ambassador Florian Leroi explaining to visitors how mirrors are used to make illusions. (Right) Chapter officers Amy Tong and Nicholas Wong demonstrating music transmission with a laser beam. Pictures
courtesy of Katarzyna Grabska. Table 2. List of exhibitions attended by the Lightwave Roadshow in 2015-2016.
Date Event Location Attendance Audience
10-12/09/16 Bestival Science Tent Isle of Wight 300 General public,
festival attendees
12/03/2016 University of
Southampton Science and Engineering Day
Southampton 900 Families, parents
and young children
17/05/2016 Doctoral College
Engagement Showcase Southampton 17
University staff and students
25/05/2016 Pint of Science Southampton 100 General public
3.2.4 Conference Outreach
The chapter has also been involved in several exhibitions overseas at international conferences. These provide excellent platforms to spread the reach of Lightwave beyond the UK and engage with students, researchers, members from industry and policy makers. Table 3. List of conferences attended by the Lightwave Roadshow in 2015-2016
Date Event Location Attendance
October 2015 Frontiers in Optics/Laser
Science “IYL-to-go” student chapter competition
San Jose, CA 70
July 2016 OSA Advanced Photonics Vancouver, BC 80
August 2016 SPIE Optics + Photonics
Outreach Games San Diego, CA 51
September 2016 International Year of Light
Report Ceremony Paris, France 20
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We have developed a portable and self-contained kit for ease of overseas travel. The “Compact Optics Suite” was presented during the OSA “IYL-To-Go” Student Chapter Competition at the October, 2015 Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science (FiO/LS) conference in San Jose, CA, USA, where it was selected as the Grand Prize Winner by a panel of judges. The kit was also presented at the 2015 OSA Science Educator’s Day. The kit was adapted to include elements of the research of the Lightwave ambassadors (micro-structured fibres, integrated photonics circuits) and methods of evaluation employed by the chapter. This kit was used as a workshop named “TS Squared: teaching students to teach students”, designed to train students in methods of developing kit for optics and photonics outreach. It was presented in this format at 3 conferences, including the 2016 SPIE Optics Outreach Games at Optics + Photonics (video online).
Left to right: (i) Nicholas Wong presenting the “Compact Optics Suite” at the 2015 OSA Science Educator’s Day. (ii) Miranda Turvey demonstrating the components of the kit at the 2015 OSA
Advanced Photonics Congress (iii) Frame of video presentation of the portable outreach kit at the 2016 SPIE Outreach Games at SPIE Optics + Photonics (available online) (iv) Matthew Posner with
2016 SPIE President Robert Lieberman at the International Year of Light Report Ceremony presenting his research in integrated optics that is featured as part of the kit
3.3 Social, Networking, and Charity Activities
List of social and networking activities:
“Countries of the World” themed Coffee and Cake Club (Fortnightly through the year)
Welcome tea and lunch for new students (October 2015)
Annual General Meeting (November 2015)
Winchester fireworks trip (Bonfire Night, November 2015)
International Food Festival (November 2015)
Arctic BBQ (November 2015)
Movember competition (November 2015)
Christmas coffee and cafe session (December 2015)
Movie Nights (March and April 2016)
Tourette Syndrome Fundraising Cake Sale Event (August 2016)
3.3.1 Social Highlights
3.3.1.1 Coffee and Cake Club (Fortnightly)
Every other week, our student members showcase their baking artistry by providing cakes and pastries for anyone interested to join in a casual mid-morning chat. The cake names are themed alphabetically and by country, and the alphabets increment at each session, e.g. someone would bake a French pastry for the week of “F”. Each session is well attended by about 10-15 staff/students, who enjoy the cake and the casual networking environment.
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Coffee and cake are essential fuel to good research.
3.3.1.2 Welcome Lunch for New Students (September 2015)
The annual ‘Welcome Tea’ involves the chapter members providing cakes, tea, and coffee for the new intake of PhD and MSc students (about 30 in 2015). Aside from promotion of the student chapter and its role within the department, this event also allows the new students to meet the continuing students and obtain useful information about the academic programs and student experiences in a friendly environment.
2015 Welcome Lunch for new ORC postgraduate students
3.3.1.3 Winchester Fireworks Trip (November 2015)
Bonfire night is a widely celebrated event in the UK and a massive fireworks and bonfire event is held annually in Winchester. It has become a tradition for the student chapter to organize a trip for staff and students to attend the festive event. It is particularly interesting for new students and staff to experience this facet of British culture after their first few weeks. The 2015 visit was hugely popular and included about 30 staff and students.
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Winchester Bonfire and Fireworks Night with staff and students.
3.3.1.4 International Food Festival (November 2015)
Recognizing the vast internationality of researchers in our faculty, we decided to organize an International Food Festival night by inviting students and staff of various nationalities to prepare a diverse range of food and snacks from their home countries and share them with everyone. The event showcased cuisine from 8 different countries and being attended by about 40 people. A key takeaway that everyone appreciated is that ‘research’ is one of the truly universal, international domains, and inclusive domains. The event was filmed and featured in promotional videos for the ORC (available online) and its Silicon Photonics Research Group (available online).
(Left) International Food Festival country contributors (left) and attendees (right)
3.3.1.5 Arctic BBQ (November 2015)
The arctic BBQ is an annual student chapter event held near the beginning of the academic year and is traditionally used to encourage the new students to become members of the SPIE. This is held at a local pub, with the student chapter providing (and cooking) the food. The new students get a chance to socialize with other members of the community providing a valuable networking opportunity at the beginning of their PhD degrees. The social happens shortly after the AGM and this year was used as an opportunity to introduce formally the new chapter officers. In addition, we awarded gifts of appreciation for outgoing chapter officers to further incentivise participation in running for officer roles in the chapter. Despite heavy rain, approximately 45 people attended the event this year from the ORC, P&A and ECS. This provides an example of how we can strengthen cross-departmental relations through a social event.
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(Left) The BBQ masters under heavy rainfall. (Right) Outgoing President, Nicholas Wong, offering a
gift of appreciation to Amy Tong, 2014-2015 treasurer, as part of a collection of certificates and gifts of appreciation for the committee officers’ services throughout their term in the executive team.
3.3.1.6 Movember Competition (November 2015)
The student chapter participated in last year’s ‘Movember’. This is a month-long event where we ask our male chapter members to grow a moustache or beard, i.e. a ‘mo’, over the month of November. The longest and best looking ‘mo’ was judged at the end of the month by a vote through secret ballot in the department. 50 people took part in the vote.
(Left) Movember participants at the start of November. (Right) Movember winner, David Rowe, and
runner-up, Alexander Jantzen
3.3.1.7 Movie nights and summer social (March-June 2016)
To mark the start of the summer we organised a social event on. We invited the Southampton branch of Bright Club, a team of researchers and professional staff that organises events for researchers to present their research as a stand-up comedy performance. We also presented experiments of our outreach program, the Lightwave Roadshow (section 3.2), to recruit more ambassadors to join our program. 15 people attended this social.
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(Left) Bright Club stand-up comedy club - https://brightclubsouthampton.wordpress.com/ (Right) Nikhil Mistry presents Bright Club at the 2016 Summer Social.
We have also organised two Movie Nights where we provided pizza, snacks and soft drinks to attendees. These evening events open to students, staff and their families give the opportunity to socialise, network and time to relax. These events were attended by 43 people.
3.3.1.8 Charity Event: Tourette Syndrome of America (August 2016)
We organised a charity cake sale for Tourette Syndrome on August 9th 2016. We invited staff and students from the departments to donate home-bakes to raise funds for a charitable cause. Our officers managed the sales and collection of donations and helped raise £178.40 and awareness of research and education in Tourette Syndrome and other tic disorders.
(Left) Charity Cake Sale for Tourette Syndrome of America (Right) Chapter officers collecting donations. From left to right: Amy Tong, Nicholas Wong, Pablo Cencillo and Angeles Camacho.
3.4 Diversity in the workplace: Women in Optics and Photonics
Our chapter has incorporated diversity in the work place into our portfolio of activities to work towards creating better conditions and fair opportunities for our members. We are committed to help our members to communicate their research to internal and external audiences and we must be sure that we do this in a fair way. Our mission extends to improving the interaction between students of the ORC, and more generally of the FPSE, and the optics and photonics global community to enhance prospects for insertion into a professional life.
We have led activities to work towards the following goals
Recognise women’s contributions to Optics and Photonics.
Motivate our members to be a part of a gender equality culture.
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Encourage young women to choose Optics and Photonics field as a career.
These activities were embedded into our activity through regular interaction of the appointed Diversity officer, Angeles Camacho Rosales, and the committee in our activities. Three activities were added to our academic, outreach and social portfolios were set up to this end
1. Classes, cleanroom tours and careers discussion with PhD students for young girls aged 16-17 years.
2. Organisation of a delegation of female undergraduate and masters students to attend the 2016
womENcourage conference, Linz, Austria.
3. Diversity-themed coffee and cake, coinciding with the UK national women in engineering day 2016.
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4. FINANCES
Opening Balance £4348.39
Event Description Incoming funds Expenditures
Coffee and Cake
Cakes, sugar and coffee £76.28
Lightwave Outreach
Travel costs £40.00
Equipment renewal £1636.65
Ambassador t-shirts £277.80
Winchester Bonfire Night
Travel cost and tickets £93.10
Annual General Meeting
Food £66.00
Artic BBQ
Drinks, food £543.52
New students’ induction lunch
Drinks, food £199.36
International Food Day
Drinks, food £35.20
Tourette Syndrome
Fundraising Cake Sale Ingredients £25.35
SPIE Exeter Chapter
Exchange Travel cost £500.00
Food £39.35
2nd Year Talks
Prize £29.45
1 Minute Silence for
Paris Attacks Food £7.02
Summer Social
Food, drinks £92.60
Place hire £69.60
Movie Night
Food and drinks £132.44
IEEE Young Entrepreneur
Day Travel cost £550.00
Student Industry Day
Food, drinks £176.88
Committee Dinner
and Plaques Dinner £118.80
Plaques £95.85
Grants and Funds
SPIE £2645.26
IEEE Photonics Society £733.41
OSA £3284.20
TOTAL £6662.87 £4805.25
Closing Balance £6206.01
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We note that our society has also recently been awarded an SPIE Activity Grant (2016) of US$1,300 as well as an OSA Centennial grant of US$500. These are pending administrative processing and are not reflected in the current balance.
5. AWARDS
This “Compact Optics Suite” (section 3.2.4) developed by our chapter kit was selected as the Grand Prize Winner at the OSA “IYL-To-Go” Student Chapter Competition at the October, 2015 Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science (FiO/LS) conference in San Jose, CA, USA. Participants had to “present their best ideas for youth education outreach” to appointed judges. Feedback from the judges indicated that organized themes, simplicity, and accessibility to young students with little optics background were favourable features of our kit.
Our officers have received awards in the past year for their ongoing contributions to chapter activities. Nicholas Wong was awarded the 2016 Doctoral College Director’s Award in the category “Citizenship and Community” for his exceptional contribution to postgraduate research student life and leadership of the Optics and Photonics Society. Nicholas Wong and Matthew Posner were also jointly awarded the 2016 Doctoral College Director’s Award in the category “Engagement & Outreach” for their exceptional contribution to engagement and outreach initiatives.
6. OUTLOOK
The University of Southampton SPIE Student Chapter, within the Optics and Photonics Society, will continue to remain an active student body. We wish to further expand our academic activity and network with the global community of students and researchers in optics and photonics. We will continue with our traditional events over the next year including the popular social and networking events such as the Arctic BBQ, Pub Quiz, International Food Festival and the Winchester Fireworks Trip. These events are adding to the traditions of the photonics student and staff community and are successful at bringing researchers together. We are deeply grateful to SPIE for its strong support for our chapter, both financially and administratively. We are looking forward to the next year and are confident it will be another successful one for the University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society.
