Annual Report:

Transcription

1 Annual Report: Est. October 2016

2 Table of Contents Overview... 3 Chapter Officers and Members... 4 Budget... 5 Outreach... 6 EngX... 6 Academic Activities... 7 Summer Seminar Series... 7 Social Activities... 8 USCOptics Hollywood Bowl Night... 8 USCOptics Solar Eclipse Viewing Party... 8 Future Events

3 Overview This is the annual report of the Optical Society at the University of Southern California (USCOptics), an SPIE chapter. We currently have 18 SPIE student members and 10 unaffiliated members, totaling 28 members of USCOptics. Within the next year, we hope to increase in size to help ignite interest in the burgeoning fields of optics and photonics. In this report, our activities can be categorized as follows: Outreach Academic Activities Social Acitivities Future Events We reach out to our members via s and these platforms: Twitter: Instagram: We are currently in the process of designing our website and should have one up in the next few weeks. 3

4 Chapter Officers and Members Chapter Officers: Name Position SPIE ID Andre Kovach President Erick Moen Vice President Dongyu Chen Secretary Alexa Hudnut Treasurer All Chapter Members: Name Membership Expiration Andre Kovach 19 September 2018 Erick Moen 16 March 2018 Dongyu Chen 20 September 2018 Alexa Hudnut 11 January 2018 Changjing Bao 15 January 2018 Mingkun Chen 3 February 2018 Bernard Chen 17 April 2018 Hyungwoo Choi 8 January 2018 Arsenii Epishin 26 March 2018 Arynn Gallegos 5 June 2018 Omar Garcia 17 April 2018 Nemal Gobalasingham n/a 22 April 2018 Brock Hudnut 18 March 2018 Daeun Kim 16 July 2018 Hsiao-Chuan Liu n/a 10 January 2018 Sara Madaan 13 February 2018 Samantha McBirney 16 November 2017 Soheil Soltani 8 January

5 Budget Since this was our very first year being active, our primary source of funding came from personal sources to start us off. This coming year we will seek an activity grant from SPIE as well as funding from our own university for specific chapter events. Since our events this year did not meet specific university criteria, we did not apply for university funding. Amount Explanation Date Funds Raised $0 No fundraisers were necessary to fund our events this year Funds Expended $100 EngX (mostly used funding raised by Prof. 2/25/17 Armani for event) $20 USCOptics Solar Eclipse Viewing Event 9/21/17 $0 Summer Research Seminar Series Summer 2017 $36 USCOptics Hollywood Bowl Night 7/20/17 $10 Recruiting Session 1/11/17 SPIE Funds $0 Other Funds Raised $200 Personal funds from chapter president/treasurer to start up chapter Total amount as of October 1, 2017: $

6 Outreach When the founding members first decided to start an SPIE chapter at USC, we knew that we wanted to have a large focus on outreach. We recognize that one of the most effective ways to further the fields of optics and photonics is by enriching the STEM educational experiences of the next generation of scientists and engineers. Therefore, we have made it our chapter mission to enrich the education of K- 12 students in underserved communities neighboring USC. In the coming year, we seek to accomplish this mission by organizing even more events, with two already planned by December. EngX This was our very first outreach event, in coordination with Prof. Andrea Armani, our chapter faculty adviser. The event was designed to be a crash-course/workshop in engineering for roughly 1500 K-12 students from schools within south central Los Angeles for an entire Saturday. Stations were set up in the engineering quad at USC, at which roughly 50 students could interact with a live demo, illustrating various concepts in engineering such as: virtual reality, 3D printing, and lasers to name a few. Optics and photonics demonstrations were created using the SPIE Outreach Kit, which proved to be immensely useful and one of the more popular demos with the students. Overall, the event was a huge success and will serve as a template for any outreach events of this scale that we plan on organizing in the future. Below are some pictures of the event for context: 6

7 General Meetings Academic Activities This year we only had three general meetings, in which two of them were used to discuss organization for the EngX event, and one was used to discuss organize the socials and summer seminar series. This coming year, we plan to hold a general meeting once a month so that we can spend more time planning more activities. Summer Seminar Series Research is a big component of optics and photonics and USC. We found that a good way for chapter members to be acquainted with each other s research was to hold seminars during the summer. Essentially, these were short presentations (5-10 minutes) on a person s current research and/or an interesting new research topic in optics and photonics. These seminars would be held nearly every Friday during the summer and would last approximately hours. Below are some pictures of some speakers and their presentations. 7

8 Social Activities As a chapter, we try and incorporate social activities so that newer members can become acquainted with the rest of the chapter in a fun and interesting way. USCOptics Hollywood Bowl Night Being in the heart of Los Angeles, USC is not too far from any sort of entertainment. During the summer, the Hollywood Bowl hosts a series of classical concerts with the LA Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Tickets are generally cheap, and this event allowed our members to come together through a mutual interest in familiar classical music. Below are some pictures of the event. USCOptics Solar Eclipse Viewing Party The total solar eclipse across the United States, one of the biggest natural events to occur in our lifetimes, proved to be a wonderful way to showcase the power of optics. In this event, we made pinholes from paper plates and used special glasses to safely view the eclipse. 8

9 Future Events This coming year will prove to be a great second year for our chapter. Below is a list of already planned events: First outreach event: WonderKids Optics and Photonics After School Program at the California Science Center. Second outreach event: Collaboration with the Joint Educational Project at USC with SPIE grant funding. Invite SPIE visiting lecturer. Monthly general meetings. Faculty/Student mixers. Apply for chapter activity grant. Apply for Women in Optics chapter activity grant. Chapter hike. We would like to thank SPIE for giving us the opportunity to start this chapter and future support. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship between SPIE and USC. 9