Annual Report. University Of Alberta. Student Chapter

Transcription

1 Annual Report University Of Alberta Student Chapter

2 Student Chapter Member Roster Total Student Members : 25 Siamak Abdollahi 11 January 2011 Aassem Askari 31 October 2010 Mustafa Babadagli 20 September 2010 Jordan Backs 30 September 2010 Ahmed Elmallah 19 May 2011 Tyler Harrison 12 July 2011 Tate Hauger 30 November 2010 Travis Jensen 30 November 2010 Joshua Krabbe 13 December 2010 Derek Law 23 March 2011 Nolan Liss 17 October 2010 Shiyuan Liu 12 May 2011 Pouya Maraghechi 31 August 2011 Ashok Prabhu Masilamani 31 December 2010 Navid Paydavosi 22 July 2010 Avishek Roy 23 November 2010 Matthew Sederberg 31 October 2010 Dan Sirbu 31 January 2011 Orit Skorka 30 November 2010 David Sloan 30 November 2010 Christopher Smith 30 November 2010 Cameron Straatsma 11 January 2011 Robert Teed 3 October 2010 Navid Vafaei - Najafabadi 31 October 2010 Marcelo Wu 6 January 2011 University Of Alberta 2

3 UofA SPIE Student Chapter University of Alberta ECERF Level 2 Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4, Canada spieuofa@ece.ualberta.ca Website : Chapter Executives President Avishek Roy avishek@ualberta.ca Vice President Aassem Askari aassem@ualberta.ca Treasurer Jordan Backs jabacks@ualberta.ca Secretary David Sloan dsloan@ualberta.ca Faculty Advisor Dr Abdulhakem Elezzabi University Of Alberta 3

4 Foreword The academic year ended with a lab tour of Dr Fedosejev s Laser Plasma Lab. This was one of many events that were done this semester including lab tours, guest speakers and a few projects. One of the major drawbacks for this year is that most of the SPIE group has graduated and are moving away from the university, hence our membership base has decreased considerably. With that being said the academic year starts in September which is when the group will get most of its members. Most of the SPIE events that were organized were made open to the public however priority was given to SPIE members, which helped increase membership by a few members. The student chapter was led by the executives Travis Jensen, David Sloan, Christopher Smith, and Pouya Maraghechi. Only David Sloan will be staying for the Secretary position for the year. Other than that the new executives will be Avishek Roy, Aassem Askari, and Jordan Backs. Other Activities that were included were the Lab tours of Dr Elezzabi s Ultrafast photonics and Nano-Optics Lab, Dr Fedosejev s Laser Plasma Lab, guest speaker Dr Reuven Gordon talk on Surface Plasmon Nanophotonics, a presentation by Dr Peter Baum on atomic movies, a presentation by Dr Elezzabi on terahertz plasmonics, and finally a lab tour of Micralyne which is a MEMS and Nanotechnology Fabrication Facility. Selected members of SPIE also decided to take on the Space elevator challenge 2010, and the laser Harp projects. Avishek Roy President, UofA SPIE student Chapter University Of Alberta 4

5 Promotion ECE Info Night As part of the effort to promote the SPIE UofA student chapter, a SPIE booth was set up at the University of Alberta's annual Electrical & Computer Engineering Information Night in the fall. The ECE Info Night targets first-year engineering students interested in the applications of engineering in these areas of study, which naturally extends to the field of optics and lasers. SPIE UofA chapter president Travis Jensen was present along with several other chapter members to speak to students about SPIE and show off our latest prototype project: the laser harp. Many students expressed interest and signed up for the chapter mailing list. Micralyne Lab Tour Micralyne is a MEMS and nanotechnology fabrication facility located in the south end of Edmonton, Alberta. Members of the UofA SPIE student chapter were led through the facility and enjoyed an hour-long question and answer period with a Micralyne employee discussing the MEMS fabrication process. University Of Alberta 5

6 Dr Elezzabi s Lab Tour Dr. Elezzabi, Canada Research Chair in Ultrafast Photonics and Nano-Optics, led the tour and spoke about the developments and interesting work in his field. He went through the ramifications of much of the research conducted in his laboratory, and also conducted a demonstration for students that used a powerful, femtosecond laser to generate plasma by concentrating the laser onto a single point in space. A speck of plasma (ionized gas) was generated from this, and we could see light emitting from the spot. Dr Fedosejev s Lab Tour ultrafast phenomena. Dr. Fedosejevs is one of the world's leading researchers in Laser and Spectroscopic Techniques and Laser Plasma Interactions and their applications in various areas including fusion energy research, the generation of XUV and soft x-ray radiation for lithography applications, micromachining, thin film coatings and studies in University Of Alberta 6

7 Talks And Presentations Guest Speaker Dr Reuven Gordon Surface Plasmon Nanophotonics: Existing Technologies and Future Prospects The talk explained the benefits of using nanostructured metals for applications involving light. Nanostructured metals allow the squeezing of light to the nanometer scale, providing smaller feature sizes, greater local intensity and enhanced interactions with matter. This has been used in many commercial devices, and there are many new technologies emerging as our understanding and capabilities advance in this area. Three applications from my collaborative research program will be highlighted: densely-integrated highly-sensitive biosensor chips, templates for Raman spectroscopy of individual molecules and optical trapping of dielectric objects (for future application in the study of viruses). Presentation by Dr. Peter Baum Dr. Peter Baum from Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, and Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität München, Germany visited our department on February 24, He presented his latest research with Prof. Ahmad Zewail (the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry) on making atomic movies. Presentation by Dr. Elezzabi Dr Elezzabi from the ECE department at the University of Alberta presented on the SPIE opening night his work with terahertz plamonics. He showed his work with extremely fast femtosecond lasers, which is the invisible light frequency between infared and microwave radiation, and how this can be transmitted through metals. He then continued to show all the real world applications for his research. This was a great start to the year and helped gather lots of members including our current executives. University Of Alberta 7

8 Space Elevator Project A few selected members of the Student Chapter tried to participate in the Space Elevator 2010 Challenge set by NASA. The competition is to be held mid October, and U of A will be trying to enter into the power beaming challenge for a grand prize of 1.1 million dollars. The project is a great way to generate buzz around campus and helped a lot get new members. With the help of the ECE department and some various other faculty members the space elevator competition will be a great way of promoting optics and showing a real life scenario Goals President Avishek Roy, and vice president Aassem Askari will be attending the Optics and Photonics conference in San Diego. This will allow them to see what the other groups are doing, and how they can help promote Optics and Photonics at the University of Alberta. The student chapter will continue to provide lab tours of various professors as this seems to be a popular item. The chapter will look for outreach opportunities at the University of Alberta, and also help promote the field of Optics by creating a few demo items such as an interactive light table, a led cube, and so forth. The new group will also like to participate in the NASA night rover centennial challenge. The full details of this competition are not yet known, but a lot of members in the group have shown an interest toward it. Most of the grant money that was given from SPIE was used for outreach, to provide catering, and host events to promote the world of optics and photonics to the University of Alberta students. This aspect will stay the same, the grant money will be used to promote and introduce students to world of light. University Of Alberta 8

9 Financial Statement University Of Alberta 9