2016 Annual report, EPFL Photonics Chapter (EPC)
The 29th of February 2016, the EPFL Photonics Chapter held its 2016 General Assembly. The occasion to celebrate the successes of the past year and to plan the year to come. A new committee has been elected.
Our new 2016 team : Rostykus, Manon : Présidente [email protected] Ozdemir, Cenk : Vice-Président [email protected] Smolik, Grégoire : Trésorier [email protected] Infante, Daniel : Secrétaire [email protected] Javerzac-Galy, Clément : Membre de l’association [email protected] Mohamed, Sabry : Membre de l’association [email protected] Anderson, Mitchell : Membre de l'association [email protected] Walger, Thomas : Membre de l'association [email protected] Delrot, Paul : Membre de l’association [email protected] Nardin, Gaël : Membre de l’association [email protected] More details on our team can be found on our website (team page): http://photonics.epfl.ch/page-101682-en.html
As a short reminder of our chapter history, you can have a look on the dedicated page of our website http://photonics.epfl.ch/page-101686-en.html. We are a joint chapter with the EPFL OSA Student Chapter. The OSA and the SPIE chapters are grouped under the EPFL Photonics Chapter (EPC) which is an officially recognized association from the EPFL administration. The creation of the EPC was needed to be able to organize events on the campus and in the same time was mandatory in a legal point of view according to the Swiss law. The events we are organizing are held under the SPIE or the OSA banner depending on the funding we receive from both societies. By regrouping the chapters under the same entity we can assure the durability of the activities we do on campus. We are the EPFL student organization gathering all the photonics enthusiasts on campus and promoting optical science and technology. Our mission is to provide exciting networking, educational and outreach activities for the EPFL community. If you are interested or already passionate about photonics, come attend our events! EPC is a joint OSA and SPIE Student Chapter.
A list of our current members can be found in attachment to this document.
Chapter activities
We had the pleasure to organize several times (every first Wednesday of the month) our monthly EPFL Photonics Chapter (EPC) 'Pizza-optics-beer' (POB) seminar. This is our regularly held event and it gathers a large portion of the EPFL photonics community. In these events, one member of the optics community at EPFL presents his latest results and a discussion
follows in an unformal atmosphere. We provide pizza and drinks for everyone, about 25 people on average. Topics this year included “Kerr frequency combs from on-chip, integrated microresonators”, “Time resolved cathodoluminescence: High-Res. Ultrafast Spectroscopy”, “From cold atoms to quantum simulators” or “Paving the way for laser-based system – materials”.
On the 22nd of September 2015 we had the pleasure of welcoming Phil Stahl as our SPIE visiting lecturer. He gave us a great lecture on “James Webb Space Telescope: The First Light Machine”. The lecture was a big success with more than 200 participants. At the occasion of the ForumEPFL - Biggest recruitment platform of graduate students in Switzerland - the EPFL Photonics Chapter (EPC) and Swissphotonics teamed-up to organize a student-industry workshop on "Photonic opportunities and companies in Switzerland". It was held on October 8th 2015 @SwissTech Convention Center, Lausanne. See more details and the agenda on Swissphotonics website. This event was held again in October 2016.
We held our first Fondue party on November 20th 2015. We welcomed fellow students from CEA in Grenoble (France) for this occasion. The fondue was followed by our first winter hike. More details on this weekend are available here.
Our biggest 2015 event was the closing ceremony of the year of light. On the 5th of December, we hosted a public celebration with outstanding speakers from Google X, Bell Labs, Intel, Philips, Heptagon, Solar Impulse, IBM Research and other. More details on this event here.
After the company visits of 2013 (Optotune), 2014 (Süss micro-optics), we organized this year a visit of Schott in Yverdon-les-bains, which specializes in high-precision optical components for various applications.
We had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Francesco S. Pavone from the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy at the University of Florence (Italy) as visiting lecturer. He introduced us to his work with a lecture titled: “Optical Imaging of the Brain: From the Nano to the Macro World”.
We held the third edition of our Summer BBQ, open to all members of the photonics community at EPFL. Around 60 people joined us for this unformal event that helps networking within the University.
We organized our first summer hike, enjoying the stunning landscape along the vineyards of “Lavaux”, a Unesco world heritage site since 2007.
We helped the EPFL Doctoral School of Photonics in the organization of the EPFL Photonics day, in particular in organizing a poster prize and community building events. This is the opportunity to connect with the EPFL photonics community and to discover the most recent developments in this field of research, from fundamental research to applications.
Congratulations to Nicolino Stasio from the Optics Laboratory (LO) for winning the Best Poster Award at the Photonics Day 2016, for his poster on "Imaging through scattering media". The EPFL Photonics Chapter is glad to sponsor his prize. As part of outreach, we took part in several big events on campus
On the 21st of October 2015, some of our members took part in the “Science… it’s also for girls! Part II” event in collaboration with the EPFL outreach department. This event invites schoolgirls (11-13 years old) to discover the work of women in science and in our labs. More details on the program here.
On the 7th of November 2015, we held an outreach event called “Shedding light on light”, organized jointly with the University outreach department at the occasion of the International year of light. The kids built solar clocks and discovered fun games with shadows. About 100 kids attended our workshop. More photos are available here.
On the 4th of November 2016, more than 90 classes were invited to EPFL for the “Journée des classes”, where teachers and their students are given lectures about different science topics. We had a lecture called “What is a LASER and what is it good for?” during which we demonstrated different properties of a LASER and some everyday applications. About 200 kids and their teachers attended our lectures throughout the day. Check out the program for more details.
On the 5th and 6th of November 2016, the campus opened its doors to the general public. On this occasion, we held a stand for kids and another one for adults explaining basic concepts of optics as well as a little workshop where the kids could fabricate a newton wheel, a periscope, a kaleidoscope as well as a zoetrope. The open doors welcomed around 35’000 people over the weekend on the entire campus and about 500 kids
participated in our workshop.
Planned activities:
We are planning a Pizza Optics Beer event in Neuchâtel, together with a visit of Prof. Thomas Südmeyer’s laboratory from the Université de Neuchâtel.
We are planning a joint event in January with the ETHZ chapter from Zürich (Switzerland). They are invited to join us for a fondue party and hiking trip around Lausanne.
More outreach, a summer BBQ, two visiting lecturers and other activities will be held in 2017.
Find all the info and news on our website: http://photonics.epfl.ch/epc_en
Financial information
Conclusion Our young chapter (founded in 2011) is growing and has become a key organization for the PhD students of our Photonics Doctoral School, as well as other members of the photonics community of EPFL. We now have regular events, such as our student-industry workshop, summer BBQ, visiting lecturer series and university outreach program participation. Thanks to your support, we are able to continue this work and attract more people towards optics, as well as grow a network between our members and the photonics community of Switzerland. Best regards, Grégoire For the EPC team
2015-16 Income 2015-16 Expenses
Amount Source Amount Event
CHF 678.15 Grant from SPIE (2015) CHF 1'000.00 POB events
CHF 2'400.00 Grant from EPFL Doctoral School CHF 589.80 Photonics BBQ
CHF 791.44 OSA grants (2016) CHF 448.40 Outreach events
CHF 422.05 Fondue with CEA LETI
CHF 1'068.85 Visiting lecturers
CHF 200.00 Best Poster award
CHF 60.00 Banking fees
Total CHF 3'869.59 CHF 3'789.10
Balance CHF 80.49
EPC Member list
Adiyatullin Albert
Alem Mehdi
Athanasiou Christos Edouardos
Blum Roman
Bouvard Olivia Valérie Charlotte
Brasch Victor
Butet Jérémy
Chen Yixing
Conkey Donald Benjaman
Coquoz Séverine
Cotte Yann Jérôme Michel Pascal
Davide Cuda
Delgoffe Antoine Maxime
Denisov Andrey
Descharmes Nicolas Maxime André
Didier Marie Eve Pascale
Douglass Kyle Michael
Edinger Pierre Tilman
Flauraud Valentin
Galland Christophe
Ghadimi Amir Hossein
Grassani Davide
Hannebelle Mélanie Thérèse Marie
Huguet Benoit Rémi Dominique
Jacopin Gwénolé Jean
Jost John David
Kharitonov Svyatoslav
Kim Myun-Sik
Kirner Raoul
Kostro André Gabriel
Kumar Anshuman
Laforest Timothé
Lecaplain Caroline Marie Anne
Liu Junqiu
Lu Xin
Lütgebaucks Cornelis
Majérus Bruno
Marchand Paul James
Mikulik Dmitry
Monemhaghdoust Zahra
Moreddu Rosalia
Negri Marco
Nguyen David
Osowiecki Gaël David
Pfeiffer Martin Hubert Peter
Piro Mastracchio Nicolas
Puthankovilakam Krishnaparvathy
Quack Niels
Quaranta Giorgio
Rostova Ekaterina
Rousseau Ian
Rölli Philippe Andreas
Santi Sara
Schilling Ryan Daniel
Schütz Hendrik
Smolentsev Nikolay
Staley Jacob
Strasser Alina Veronika Irene
Symeonidis Michail
Talebi Amiri Masoud
Talebi Amiri Omid
Tchervenkov Christopher
Toth Laszlo Daniel
Zagolla Volker
Zulliger Ludovic