Report of 2013 ETH Zürich SPIE student chapter 1 Officers President Zachary Lapin zlapin@ethz.ch 3578728 Vice President Sabine Riedi riedis@phys.ethz.ch 3425340 Secretary Johannes Heinsoo jheinsoo@phys.ethz.ch 3494584 Treasurer Mario Mangold mangoldm@phys.ethz.ch 3419052 2 Members Romain Bonjour Shafagh Dastjani Farahani Kerstin Hans Johannes Heinsoo Borislav Hinkov Waiz Karim Zachary Lapin Curdin Maissen Mario Mangold Ersan Ozelci Tigran Petrosyan Katia Urata Gustavo Villares Max Weissenbacher Libo Yu 3 Chapter activities since last report This is the first report since the founding of our Chapter on the 26th of November 2012. Below is a list of the official events we have had. Events marked by an * were funded by SPIE activity grants that our Chapter was awarded. A complete list of funded events and money spent is provided in the budget overview attached to this report. 3.1 Founding meeting Kerstin Hans gave an introductory talk about SPIE and described the tasks of officers and committees. We elected our first officers, all of which remain except Kerstin who has graduated. 3.2 IONS-13 OSA student chapters from ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne organized a scientific student conference where SPIE members volunteered.
3.3 Pizza-events * We held one pizza & talks event on 17th of April 2013. We made and ate pizza and listened to talks given by current doctoral students. Most of the Chapter members, as well several guests, attended. Below is a list of the talks given: Sabine Riedi: Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL), Quantum Optoelectronics Group Mario Mangold: Ultrafast surface-emitting lasers: VECSELs and MIXSELs, Ultrafast Laser Physics Group Curdin Maissen: Ultrastrong coupling- Merging photons and electrons, Quantum Optoelectronics group Kerstin Hans: Sensing cocaine in saliva, Laser Spectroscopy and Sensing Lab 3.4 Optics breakfast * The best time for busy PhD students to meet is in the early mornings. Together with some coffee and Nutella we discussed future plans for the Chapter. Each time we also had guests to whom we advertised the Chapter and encouraged to join SPIE. We had three of these events on 12.12.12, 13.03.06 and 13.03.26. 3.5 Scientifica Scientifica is an exhibition organized by the ETH Zurich and University of Zurich to present the research of the two Universities to the Swiss public. It is held annually at the end of August. The SPIE Chapter organized a booth with several outreach demonstrations. The longer description of the event is attached to the report. Preparation for the event took us several unofficial meetings throughout the summer. 3.6 Vote meeting * As our former president Kerstin Hans graduated and was going to leave Zürich, we held a vote meeting on 4th of November to elect current officers. 4 Future events In addition to hold the second pizza-and-talks and table soccer event we planed to have last year, we have following plans for year 2014. 4.1 Invited Public Thesis Presentation At The ETH Zürich, physics department PhD defenses and presentations are closed door. At these events, recent PhD graduates are invited to present their thesis publicly to The ETH community, family, and friends. We will support the presenting person if he/she wishes with a small reception after the talk. Target audience: These events are open to all members of The ETH Zürich, and the family and friends of the presenter. Understanding the subject of the research, along with a perspective of the thesis process, will be of particular benefit to current bachelor and master s degree students. Also, the talks will be a wonderful opportunity for recent PhDs to present their work to family and friends. Expected outcome: The goals of these events are many. It is a great opportunity to inform undergraduate and master s students about current research opportunities. For doctoral students, hearing the talks is interesting for the continued development of a broad understand of cutting-edge physics. For the individuals giving the talks it is a great opportunity to share their four years of work with colleagues, friends, and family. Additionally, this is a social event for everyone.
4.2 Monthly Science Social At these events, members volunteer to present their research for the group (members and non-members alike). Additionally, a light dinner is prepared at the event (as well as consumed), allowing for and encouraging socialization. Target audience: These events are open to all members of The ETH Zürich. Generally, doctoral students give talks on their research, but everyone is encouraged to present their work. Expected outcome: The goals of these events are many. It is a great opportunity to inform undergraduate and master s students about current research opportunities. For doctoral students, hearing the talks is beneficial for the continued development of a broad background and understanding of cutting-edge research, as well as potentially helps to foster interdisciplinary research collaborations. The individuals giving the talks have a comfortable environment to practice presenting their research and explaining complex topics to an audience that can provide constructive feedback. Additionally, this is a social event for everyone. 5 Financial information Our budget overview of year 2013 is attached as a separate file. All of the funds used were from chapter activity grant. Year report assembled on 01.02.14 by Johannes Heinsoo secretary of ETHZ SPIE students chapter jheinsoo@phys.ethz.ch +41 788279657
SPIE student chapter ETH Zürich budget 2013 ( handed to M. Mangold 05.03.2013) CHF446,75 date name receipt-nr amount Pizza-event 1: 17.04.2013 17.04.2013 M. Mangold 3 CHF27,40 CHF27,40 Pizza-event 2 CHF0,00 soccer-event 1 CHF0,00 breakfast-event 1: 06.03.2013 05.03.2013 K. Hans 1 CHF35,45 CHF35,45 breakfast-event 2: 26.03.2013 26.03.2013 K. Hans 2 CHF13,60 CHF13,60 breakfast-event 3: 04.11.2013 04.11.2013 K. Hans 4 CHF19,85 CHF19,85 spent left CHF96,30 CHF350,45
Scientifica 2013: Final Report The Scientifica is an exhibition organized by the ETH Zurich and University of Zurich to present the research of the Universities to the Swiss public. Since our student chapter is part of the daily life at ETH Zurich we decided to use this opportunity to develop an outreach program and present it with our chapter at the Scientifica. The three main goals of our program were: Show the younger children how much fun optics is. We built and showed hands-on-optics experiments and a laser maze. Explain why even laser pointers are dangerous. We built a model of the eye where the retina is made of chocolate, which was melted by a laser pointer. Show the Swiss public who and what the Optics Chapter ETH Zurich is and how we connect with others by the student chapter. We used a short slide show (in movie form) and a poster to convey our enthusiasm for the chapter and give details about the activities of our chapter. Our chapter was represented at a booth, which was structured in 4 parts. On one site we build a hands on optics station were children and adults could learn how the eye is working. In addition we showed how far- or near-sighted vision can be corrected with glasses (cf. figure 1). In addition, the concept of fluorescence was explained with the excitement of olive oil (cf. figure 2). Last but not least visitors could measure the power of their own laser pointer at our booth with the help of a power meter (cf. figure 3). At the second site we presented the Optics chapter of the ETH Zurich, which is a joint student chapter supported by the SPIE, OSA and EPS. The poster presentation was supported by a slide show presenting pictures of our chapter and the activities that we conducted so far. Both of these sites were close to the entrance of our third site and main attraction: the laser maze. We built a laser maze, which challenged children to crawl through several laser beams without interrupting them, like a secret agent in a vault room (cf. figure 4). The lasers were placed in a dark, fog-filled tunnel. A program gave acoustic feedback whenever a visitor blocked one of the laser beams. Each courageous agent was rewarded with a fluorescent star or a
peace of Swiss chocolate. Surprisingly many adults took part in the adventure, too. At the fourth site we showed the potential and danger of lasers in two experiments. The first experiment demonstrated how dangerous laser pointers can be. We used a cheap (~10 US$) laser pointer that we ordered online in a set up that was showing the main principle of a human eye- a lens and a retina made out of chocolate (cf. figure 5). The laser pointer in the experiment caused the chocolate to melt and even to smoke slightly after a few seconds of irradiation. The second experiment showed the phenomena of absorption as well as the danger of lasers. We borrowed an experimental set up from the ETH Zurich Wanderzirkus (cf. figure 6). For this experiment a red balloon was expanded inside a transparent balloon. A green laser was used to destroy the red balloon inside the transparent balloon without harming the latter one. The additional sound effect was quite attention stirring and the set up showed very nicely how absorption works. As a, the exhibition and lectures counted 20 000 visitors at 44 booths in 2.5 days. We engaged about 280 to 320 children and approximately 300 adults in conversations about optics and our chapter at our booth. Many children were fascinated by the laser maze and shocked by the effect, which laser pointers might evoke on chocolate. The responses to our olive oil experiment were very positive as well, since it showed an everyday product in a new light. Due to several articles about laser pointers in the press prior to our event the visitors were especially interested in these experiments and asked a lot of questions to them. Fourteen students of our chapter were involved in the preparation and support for the booth. We received financial support from the SPIE, EPS, NCCR must and the Scientifica team which made it possible to build all the experiments and ensure safety. We made a very good experience with the booth and are considering to show some of the experiments at local schools. The following students supported the Scientifica: Kerstin Hans, Zachary Lapin, Mena Issler, Vijay Jain, Johannes Heinsoo, Mario Mangold, Tobias Thiele, Sabine Riedi, Frieder Lindenfelser, Anna Hambitzer, Renate Landig, Urs Grob, Julien Rey, Christian Beyer