Biannual Chapter Report

January 2006 – April 2006

Our New 2006-2007 University of Alberta SPIE Student Chapter Executives

Edward Lau President eclau@ualberta.ca Ivan Chan Vice President inchan@ualberta.ca Navid Vafaei Treasurer navid@ualberta.ca Dan Sirbu Secretary dan.sirbu@ualberta.ca

Foreword First thing to note: activities of our 2005-2006 year, the 2nd year of operations of our chapter, are displayed in this biannual report and the May-December 2005 biannual report. The earlier report covers recruitment events and activities as well as several tours, and both reports can be found at the University of Alberta SPIE Chapter page on the SPIE Website. Full kudos should be directly given to Aleksandr Kylashitsky, Jaron VanDijken and Sarah Tsai for the content and activities found throughout this report. Having an out-of-province co-op work term for January-April 2006, I was reduced to an advisory role while they, the executive, took up the responsibilities of planning and running the events readily. Effectively, they became the Presidents of our chapter; capable, responsible, and professional, none of the massive events listed here would have been possible without their impressive commitment and drive. The help from our volunteers and officers must be mentioned as well. Believing in the cause of educating students and bringing fun optics to pre-secondary students, I am glad to note that their passion has helped them take on the new executive roles for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Thus, without further ado, we introduce and congratulate our new student chapter executives:

The current executive team would also like to extend it’s thanks to Dirk Fabian from SPIE for helping us throughout the year. It should be noted that both the laser maze project and the liquid crystal presentation both resulted from the Student Leadership Day at Optics and Photonics that Dirk puts together. We would also like to thank the ESGF (Engineering Student Group Fund) Committee for their approval of our funding request; among other projects, our laser maze and promotional events were made possible by these engineering student leaders. Finally, we’d also like to thank the staff at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Faculty of Engineering for their continuing support of our new student chapter. In particular, we’d like to thank Dr. Elezzabi, our SPIE Faculty Advisor, whose vision and advice in creating the student chapter resulted in the many activities to educate our students and promote the many fields of optical engineering. Sincerely, Eugene Chen 2005-2006 President, University of Alberta SPIE Student Chapter

Outreach Program

Laser Maze Project

The original idea for the laser maze came from the Student Leadership Day at Optics & Photonics 2005, where student leaders from UC Davis proudly presented their laser maze. From this, members from our chapter made upgrades to the original design idea; the entire music circuit would be cut immediately when the laser was blocked. The moment the laser is blocked, the music would need to be restarted, indicating that the game is over and the next player is to start.

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Outreach Program

Laser Maze Project

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The main outreach project at the University of Alberta SPIE Student Chapter this year was the Laser Maze. It included two trips to a local elementary school to teach students a bit about lasers and let them challenge the maze. We made two trips this year to Westbrook Elementary School, visiting the 4th grade students on February 21st and the 5th grade on May 12th. During the winter trip we had a Liquid Crystals presentation in conjunction with the laser maze. Our group included Juval Bothe, Jaron VanDijken, Sarah Tsai, Edward Lau, Jonathan Kwan, Ivan Chan and Aleksandr Klyashitsky. I’ve been involved with the Laser Maze during both trips and I found that not only did the kids enjoy our visit immensely, but their excitement was allergic to the extent that we were soon having as much fun as they were. This was an excellent opportunity to introduce engineering and optics to a younger generation. Aleksandr Klyashitsky, 2005-2006 Vice President, University of Alberta SPIE Student Chapter

Trying to avoid the laser:

Instead of using fog generated by a fog machine, which may be unsuitable for students with asthma, water sprayers were used to let students creatively spray water in the air to see the laser lines and then avoid them. This alteration also made it more fun and challenging

Outreach Program

Liquid Crystal Presentation

Also resulting from the Student Leadership Day at Optics & Photonics 2005, our members made full use of the liquid crystal materials kindly provided by Dr. Stephen Jacobs, Professor of Optics and Chemical Engineering at the University of Rochester. The students had a lot of fun with creating their own “mood rings”; the experiment was educational, easy to do, and the students really appreciated being able to create something they could bring home to show to friends and family.

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Outreach Program

Liquid Crystal Presentation

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I had presented the Liquid Crystal presentation, took pictures, and helped with the laser maze presentation. It was wonderful to see how excited and interested these elementary school students were in the presentations. They greatly enjoyed constructing the liquid crystal ‘mood patches’ and were ecstatic while navigating through the maze. During our setup, students would approach us and ask some surprisingly in-depth questions about the projects and their setup. It was a delight to see how interested the students were to participate and learn about science and technology. Juval Bothe SPIE member and volunteer for both Laser Maze trips

Visiting Lecturer Program

Dr. Paul B. Corkum

Femtosecond Science Program Leader Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, National Research Council of Canada

About Dr. Corkum:

Dr. Paul B. Corkum is a Senior Scientist and Group Leader of Femtosecond Science Group at the NRC's Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences in Ottawa. Paul Corkum's research is characterized by unusually brilliant theoretical insight which has led him to propose and perform the most important recent experiments towards the achievement of creating and measuring "attosecond" (10-18s) laser pulses. Some of the more notable awards presented to him are the 1996 Canadian Association of Physicists’ gold medal for lifetime achievement, and the 2003 Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Corkum presented two talks at the University of Alberta, the first geared toward undergraduate students where using only basic physics he described how femtosecond pulses are produced and measured and then how femtosecond pulses lead to attosecond pulses. The second talk presented was geared to a more advanced audience and was centered around the use of interferometry to measure attosecond pulses and image a molecule’s electrons. At the end of the day the U of A SPIE Chapter organized a farewell dinner for Dr. Corkum at a local restaurant with invitations going to a number of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students.

Dr. Corkum answering questions in the afternoon talk

Left to Right: Dr. Corkum, Scott Irvine, Kenneth Chau at the farewell dinner

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Chapter Promotion

Spreading the Word on Optics

We presented a tabletop version of our laser maze at a technology display at the Telus World of Science (a.k.a. The Odysseum), a popular science and technology venue in Edmonton. Visitors were intrigued by our design, and the children enjoyed playing with the system.

Here is Jaron and Aleksandr presenting SPIE and our student chapter at a Grad Studies Conference at the University of Alberta by invitation from the president of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate Students Association.

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Tours

Industrial & Lab Tours

In 2006, the University of Alberta SPIE Studen Chapter organized an industrial tour to Micralyne, a full-service microfabrication company developing and manufacturing MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) -based products. With core competencies in micromachining, thin film deposition, and test & assembly capabilities, Micralyne develops and manufactures devices for the communication, energy, life sciences, and transportation markets.

Later in the year, our student chapter organized a lab tour to Dr. Hegmann’s laboratory at the University of Alberta. His lab studies ultrafast phenomena in materials and devices (semiconductors, nanostructures and organic materials) using a femtosecond laser source. Understanding of these materials is gained by exploring the transient properties over the femto, pico, and nanosecond time scales. On this tour, Dr. Hegmann has given us an overview of his lab as well as research and highlighted is with some examples of his lasers’ capabilities. By focusing an ultrafast laser on a spot of air one is able to ionize the air and obtain an emission spectrum similar to that seen above. Furthermore, by focusing the same beam on a non-linear crystal, one can frequency shift the incident radiation. Dr. Hegmann explaining the ionization

of air by one of his lasers

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Member Name: Membership Expiration: Mr. Corey Baron May-31-2007 Mr. Chris Bliss Oct-31-2006 Mr. Juval Bothe Oct-31-2006 Mr. Bryan Carter Sep-30-2006 Mr. Ivan Chan Jan-31-2007 Mr. Kenneth Chau Mar-31-2007 Mr. Eugene Chen Oct-31-2006 Mr. Marc Dumont Dec-31-2006 Ms. Anastasia Elias Jun-30-2006 Mr. Noland Germain Sep-30-2006 Mr. Jake Goerz Oct-31-2006 Mr. Garrett Hansen Oct-31-2006 Mr. Sebastian Hanula Oct-31-2006 Mr. Scott Irvine Sep-30-2006 Miss Aneesha Jyoti Sep-30-2006 Mr. Sean Kirkwood Jan-31-2007 Mr. Aleksandr Klyashitsky Oct-31-2006 Mr. Jonathan Kwan Oct-31-2006 Mr. Edward Lau Sep-30-2006 Mr. Jia Luo Apr-30-2007 Mr. Maxwell McLeod Oct-31-2006 Mr. Alexander Noot Sep-30-2006 Miss Sarah Riske Sep-30-2006 Mr. Chris Ryziuk Jan-31-2007 Ms. Meghna Singh Dec-31-2006 Mr. Dan Sirbu Jan-31-2007 Mr. Steven Soneff Oct-31-2006 Mr. Locke Spencer Apr-30-2007 Miss Sarah Tsai Jan-31-2007 Miss Heidi Tsang Mar-31-2007 Mr. Navid Vafaei Oct-31-2006 Mr. Andy van Popta Jun-30-2006 Mr. Jaron VanDijken Oct-31-2006 Mr. A. Zahidur Rahim Chowdhury Sep-30-2006 Mr. Rami Zewail Jan-31-2007

Chapter Information

Membership

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This past year, we concentrated heavily on starting initiatives and events to attract new members for the upcoming year. Our current count of members is at 35, and we are looking forward to working with the new executive to increase this number by showing our projects, initiatives and various events over the past year.

University of Alberta SPIE Student Chapter

University of Alberta ECERF Level 2 Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4, Canada

www.ece.ualberta.ca/~spieuofa

This report was written on behalf of and approved by the 2005/2006 University of Alberta SPIE Student Chapter executives: Eugene Chen (President) - Aleksandr Klyashitsky (Vice President) - Sarah Tsai (Treasurer) - Jaron VanDijken (Secretary)

Date Description Credit Debit Balance2005/1/19 Deposit $5.00 $5.002005/2/10 Deposit $20.00 $25.002005/4/10 Deposit (SPIE) $1,084.74 $1,109.742005/4/10 Handle Charge $14.00 $1,095.742005/4/29 Interest Earned $0.03 $1,095.772005/5/6 Paying back the $20.00 loan to Muhammad Jabakhanji $20.00 $1,075.772005/5/31 Interest Earned $0.04 $1,075.812005/6/30 Interest Earned $0.04 $1,075.852005/7/5 Paying back the $5.00 loan to Sarah Tsai $5.00 $1,070.852005/7/29 Interest Earned $0.04 $1,070.892005/8/26 Deposit (University of Alberta, ESGF - Engineering Student Groups Fund) $1,187.64 $2,258.532005/8/31 Interest Earned $0.05 $2,258.582005/9/30 Interest Earned $0.09 $2,258.672005/10/30 Interest Earned $0.08 $2,258.752005/11/29 Interest Earned $0.06 $2,258.81200512/30 Interest Earned $0.06 $2,258.872006/1/31 Interest Earned $0.06 $2,258.932006/2/28 Interest Earned $0.04 $2,258.972006/3/9 Picture Frame for SPIE chapter certificate $5.50 $2,253.472006/3/31 Borrowed from Aleksandr Klyashitsky to help pay Dr. Corkum $250.00 $2,503.47

Subtotal $2,547.97 $44.50 $2,503.47Events

Brainstorming Session2005/4/10 Drinks $8.32 $2,495.15

Annual General Meeting2005/5/6 Refreshement from Pizza 73 $66.80 $2,428.35

Graduate Student Talk 2005/5/24 Donuts from Tim Hortons $44.00 $2,384.352005/9/30 Donuts from Tim Hortons $66.00 $2,318.352006/1/11 Reimbursment from ECE Department for the refreshments $66.00 $2,384.35

Information Night2005/9/27 Refreshments from Pizza 73 $225.55 $2,158.802005/9/27 Drinks from Safeway $46.65 $2,112.152006/1/11 Reimbursment from ECE Department for the refreshments $272.20 $2,384.35Speaker2006/1/23 Refreshments for speaker event $33.00 $2,351.352006/3/1 Drinks from Safeway $26.33 $2,325.022006/3/1 Picture Frame for Dr. Corkrum's certificate anda roll of tickets $19.25 $2,305.772006/3/2 Dr. Corkrum's travel and accomandation expenses $430.00 $1,875.772006/3/2 Refreshments from Pizza 73 $149.59 $1,726.182006/3/2 Dr. Corkrum's dinner $27.54 $1,698.64

Industrial Tour2006/1/30 Transportation cost $100.00 $1,598.64ECEGSA2006/1/30 Poster and report printing $88.81 $1,509.83

Subtotal $338.20 $1,331.84 $1,509.83Laser Project

2005/8/25 Smoke machine $101.63 $1,408.202005/8/25 Mirrors and lasers from Dollar Store $17.12 $1,391.082005/8/27 WAL MART (Tripods) $160.40 $1,230.682005/9/7 Nuts for the mirrors from the Home Depot $9.95 $1,220.732006/1/5 Photodiodes from Digi-Key $33.30 $1,187.432006/2/9 Laser Pointer from Staples $26.56 $1,160.872006/2/13 3 Mirrors from Walmart $6.29 $1,154.582006/2/13 Nuts for the mirrors from the Home Depot $3.08 $1,151.502006/2/13 Laser Pointer and 2 Magnifier Bifocal from Staples $38.95 $1,112.552006/2/13 Battery Holder from Active Electronics $8.54 $1,104.012006/2/17 9V DC adaptor from the Source $53.48 $1,050.532006/2/19 Carpets from Carpet World $54.57 $995.962006/2/20 Printing liquid crystal handouts at Staples $147.34 $848.622006/2/20 Buying 4 more mirror from Dollar Store $4.28 $844.342006/2/20 Nuts for the mirrors from the Home Depot $0.94 $843.40

Subtotal $0.00 $666.43 $843.40Library

2005/8/27 Popular Science Magazine Subscription $28.00 $815.402005/8/27 WIRED Magazine Subscription $49.19 $766.212006/1/11 Textbook Purchases $240.00 $526.212006/1/14 Textbook Purchase $100.00 $426.212006/1/23 Textbook Purchase $85.00 $341.21

Subtotal $0.00 $502.19 $341.21Promotion2005/9/22 U of A bookstore $3.10 $338.112005/9/22 Student's Union Print Centre $30.01 $308.102005/9/27 Printing in ETLC Computer Room $2.20 $305.902005/9/27 Student's Union Print Centre $59.39 $246.512005/9/29 Student's Union Print Centre $79.08 $167.432006/3/1 Printing Dr. Corkum's Certificate at Student's Union Print Centre $3.75 $163.68

Subtotal $0.00 $177.53 $163.68Total $2,886.17 $2,722.49 $163.68

* Note that Aleksandr is still owed $250