the uofa spie...the uofa spie student chapter finished off its academic year with its distinguished...
TRANSCRIPT
The UofA SPIE Student Chapter finished off its academic year with its Distinguished Speaker as its highest successful event. Other events this semester included lab tours, industry tours, research seminars and outreach events. The Space Elevator continues to be one of the most talked about projects at the UofA and designs are on track to compete at the Oct 2007 competition. More details will be listed below.
One cause for concern is despite the involvement SPIE has taken in the UofA Engineering Faculty as one of the – if not the most active student clubs, the membership base did not grow accordingly. Turnout for the SPIE AGM was also disappointing, likely due to the lateness in the year and students studying for exams nothing that other clubs had poor turnout for their end‐of‐the‐year AGM. A solution to this concern is for volunteers to take charge of SPIE‐led events after the SPIE exec’s have set up the event – this type of participation has been a success to most established clubs such as IEEE.
Currently, many SPIE events are open to anyone interested with first priority given to SPIE members. This helps increase visibility and event attendance, but makes it harder to differentiate the advantages to being a SPIE member. (This follows from past years where events were open to all students.) Some events such as the Micralyne Tour and having lunch/dinner with the Distinguished Speaker were attractive benefits to SPIE members and helped increase membership by a few members. As a 2nd full year operation of the club, gaining visibility has been important to the SPIE Chapter, but in the future, the UofA SPIE Student Chapter may wish to make their (popular) events more exclusive.
The 2006‐07 student chapter was led by outgoing executives Edward Lau, Ivan Chan, Dan Sirbu and Navid Vafaei. Edward Lau and Navid Vafaei are staying on for the 2007‐08 year as VP and Treasurer, respectively, while Moiz Qureshi is the 2007‐08 incoming President, and Dan Nyugen as the incoming Secretary. The Space Elevator Team also helped in many SPIE events, and special thanks to Ben Zittlau, Allison Bidulock, Moiz Qureshi, Dan Nyugen, Matt Hopley at many SPIE events. The aforementioned SPIE members really helped in putting in a lot of hard work to make it possible, notably the Science Olympics (organized and volunteered by Ben), Outreach (organized by Allison).
The support from the UoA ECE Department was outstanding. Their co‐operation with lab tours and other SPIE led events made it possible for the SPIE chapter to run many events, and their openness to students made the tours a great success. A special thanks to the SPIE Student Chapter Supervisor Dr Elezzabi for his continued hard work outside of his responsibilities for pushing the chapter to a success year with his commitment to SPIE and the Space Elevator Project, as well as the ECE Department’s Jim Sellers for his communications and external relations support for SPIE and the Space Elevator Project.
I believe the UofA SPIE Student Chapter has continued to grow in its 2nd full year (3rd overall) and has specific plans goals in its direction to grow and continue to be one of UofA’s most prominent clubs. While the SPIE chapter is a considerably new club to the UofA, it has provided more events and the most prominent clubs among all engineering clubs, and its visibility and involvement will inevitably pay off for the health of the UofA SPIE Student Chapter for many years to come.
Regards,
Edward Lau President, 2006‐07
Tours This semester’s tours included an industry tour to a local MEMS and Nanotechnology Fabrication Facility, Micralyne, as well as a lab tour at Dr Ray DeCorby’s UofA’s TRLabs . The Micralyne tour was a very popular event and was booked to the max of approx 22 students. Led by Marketing & Communications Associate Jaya Gurjar and Dr Steve Jakeway, students were given a presentation on Micralyne’s R&D and production of MEMS and Microfabrication. This event was primarily composed of SPIE members, but was also open to a few Electrical Engineering and Engineering Physics students at the UofA.
Jaya Gurjar shows students how a MEMS cantilever is made.
Dr Steve Jakeway talking to students about life working at Micralyne.
Dr Ray DeCorby’s Lab Tour at TRLabs on Integrated Optics was a lower turnout then hoped due to the lateness in the year and final projects and presentations coming up. However, Dr DeCorby still gave a very good tour on his research into waveguides and photonic crystals, and how semiconductor, glass and polymer materials can be used to realize optical source, amplifiers, modulators, switchers and detectors.
Talks This semester’s talks included a joint event with the UofA IEEE Student Branch on a Research Forum on Photonics and Nanotechnology and SPIE’s Distinguished Lecturer, Dr Philip Stahl from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The IEEE & SPIE Research Forum a joint venture between the two chapters, hosted by IEEE and organized by SPIE, and given by Dr James McMullin and Dr Vien Van, both from the UofA ECE Department. Dr James McMullin gave a talk on waveguides and integrated optics, and touched on such topics as lab‐on‐a‐chip. Dr Vien Van gave a talk on Nanophotonics and photonic logic gates, and how usual electrical logic gates and components can be realized by photonics, and how photonics can work in co‐ordination and replace electrical components in the future. This talk was well received, populated by over 120 undergraduate ECE students who were fascinated by the unrealized potential of Photonics. It should be noted that this was a event hosted by IEEE as an event they wish to pursue again, and SPIE had hosted a similar event the previous year with a more disappointing turnout, but the success of this does show promise
for a independent SPIE event similar to this in the future. It is important to note that the success of this event was to target the comprehension of the undergraduate students, showing only operation using concepts and not equations. After last year’s success with Dr Paul Corkum as the Distinguished Lecturer, the UofA Student Chapter once again hosted its Distinguished Lecturer event, this year featuring a Dr Philip Stahl from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, as well as a active leader in the SPIE Society… and needless to say, the event was a bigger and better then its previous success. Dr Philip Stahl gave a talk on the James Webb Space Telescope and the attendance reached faculties and researchers across the UofA and more. The local newspaper, The Edmonton Journal, even showed up, however, unfortunately they had come late when the event was already over. Dr Stahl started off his day touring the UofA’s NanoFab facilities. We then went to lunch at the UofA’s Faculty Club with Dr McMullin (ECE), Dr Fedosejevs (ECE), Dr Lange (MecE), SPIE Exec’s Navid Vafaei (Treasurer), Edward Lau (President), Dan Sirbu (Secretary) and SPIE member and Space Elevator Project member Andrew Burke. Afterwards, he met the UofA Space Elevator Team as well as toured UofA ECE Faculty facilities Dr Fedosejevs and Dr Elezzabi’s lab as well as visited Dr John Tulip. Dr Stahl then gave his talk to an audience to almost a full crowd of over 130 people from students and faculty members all across UofA. Afterwards, we took Dr Stahl to dinner Earls (restaurant) with SPIE exec’s Edward Lau, Navid Vafaei and Dan Sirbu, as well as Space Elevator members Ben Zittlau and next year’s President Moiz Qureshi. We found Dr Stahl’s especially advantageous in the fact that he was well diverse in both technical and industry, and could give points of view on student development, technical learning and exposure, the business and politics of engineering and science and professional development of a researcher. Following Dr Stahl’s talk and comparing it previous experiences with academia research, we found the audience to prefer Distinguished Speakers from Industry in the future, and the 2007‐08 executives have a short list of candidates they would like to invite for next year.
Dr Stahl meets the UofA Space Elevator Team
Dr Stahl gives his lecture of the James Webb Space Telescope
Outreach This year, the UofA SPIE Student Chapter volunteered at the Edmonton Science Olympics as well as visited a Grade 2 class at a Garneau Elementary School.
Ben Zittlau, SPIE member and Space Elevator Team member, represented the Space Elevator project at the Edmonton Science Olympics, introducing a challenge to Grade K‐12 students their own mini‐space elevator competition. SPIE Members Allison Bidulock (Event Organizer), Edward Lau, Ben Zittlau, Dan Nyugen (2007‐08 Secretary) and Matt Hopley visited Garneau school to present SPIE’s Laser Maze and Liquid Crystals (i.e. Mood Rings) donated generously from the University of Rochester. Both events were popular, but the unstable construction of the Laser Maze resulted in a short time frame of operation and hours of setup and calibrating. Thankfully, the Liquid Crystals and demo’s using various diffraction gratings entertained the students while the Laser Maze was being calibrated. In the future, we hope to propose the Laser Maze to be programmed to a microcontroller in one of the UofA Electrical Engineering 4th year Design Coarse to give a more robust Outreach project.
SPIE Member and Space Elevator Team member Ben Zittlau overlooks the various Space Elevator designs done by the Science Olympics participants.
SPIE Volunteer Matt Hopley shows what kind of mood the students are from their mood rings… happy!
Space Elevator Project
Space Elevator Team member Dan Nyugen does tests on the Climber Tracking System.
Space Elevator Mechanical Team Sebastian Hanula and Matt Hopley constructing the Climber for demonstration.
The UofA Space Elevator Team, a SPIE‐led project led by SPIE members, continues to work towards challenging for the NASA Challenge X‐PRIZE Cup and a $500,000 USD prize offered by The Spaceward Foundation. The team features Edward Lau (2006‐07 President, 2007‐08 President), Moiz Qureshi (2007‐08 President, Space Elevator Technical Lead), new comer Dan Nyugen (2007‐08 Secretary), Andrew Burke (Microwave Power Beaming Design), Ben Zittlau (Logistics Project Lead), Matt Hopley , Sebastian Hanula, Behzad Vafakhah, Steve Rutludge, much help and support from UofA SPIE Supervisor and Space Elevator Supervisor Dr Abdul Elezzabi, and notable contributions from ECE staff Rick Conrad, Jim Sellers and Dr Rambabu Karaumudi. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose confidential design secrets, but we will unveil our design in the October 2007 competition!
Future The 2006‐07 UofA SPIE Student Chapter featured many tours, but ones that had been done recently in previous years and students had asked for more of a variety. As a result, some events didn’t have the turnout that was expected, so the 2007‐08 have designed their outline for a 2 year cycle of events (matching a turnover of students) to give students a good spread of tours without overlap and also improve attendance. The Following is a list of events for the 2007‐08 year: Promotions : SPIE Info Night (Sept), ENGG 100 (Presentation to 1st year Engineering Students), ECE 200 (Presentation to 2nd year ECE Students). ENGG Open House, ECE Info Night and Orientation have not been found to be good recruitment events, but may be attended to increase visibility. Outreach : As described above, the Laser Maze will be proposed to the 4th year EE Design Coarse for a more robust project and should be ready for the 2007‐08 year. Liquid Crystals leftover can still be used for 1 class of 30 thanks to the donation by the University of Rochester. Project : The Space Elevator Project will compete in Oct 2007 and continue on next year. Industry and Lab Tours : As described above, we will look at a rotation of 6 Photonics Lab Tours over a 2 year cycle so that 3‐4 labs can be toured each year. Next year’s plan includes the following tours:
Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April Dr Tulip Dr Elezzabi Dr Decorby Dr Tsui Micralyne Dr Van NanoFab
Speaker Events : As described above, the success of the IEEE‐SPIE Research Forum has given the option to branch off into a Photonics Research Seminar next year. Plans are in the works for a talk on Laser Plasma Fusion by Dr Robert Fedosejevs, as well as another speaker. Similar the lab tours, it is our hope to have a cycle of speakers to avoid redundant events for students, so the 2007‐08 year may wish to bring back Dr Vien Van and Dr James McMullin, who were very popular speakers for the students. Plans for the Distinguished Speaker are already in the works, and will begin the invitation in the coming summer months. Website : Currently, 2007‐08 President Moiz Qureshi is re‐designing the website from scratch for a more attractive view.
UofA Student Chapter Member Roster Total Student Members: 30 Mr. Corey Baron May-31-2008
Miss Allison Bidulock Oct-31-2007
Mr. Andrew Burke Jul-31-2007
Mr. Kenneth Chau Mar-31-2008
Mr. Eugene Chen Mr. Ivan Chan
Jan-31-2008 Feb-31-2008
Mr. Zahidur Chowdhury May-31-2007
Mr. Paul Coutts Sep-30-2007
Mr. Sebastian Hanula Jan-31-2008
Mr. Matthew Hopley Sep-30-2007
Mr. Steven Jim Jan-31-2008
Mr. Sean Kirkwood Jan-31-2008
Mr. Edward Lau Sep-30-2007
Mr. Jia Luo Apr-30-2007
Mr. Steven Melenchuk Dec-31-2007
Mr. Dan Nguyen Feb-29-2008
Mr. Robert Oracheski Sep-30-2007
Ms. Christina Pape Dec-31-2007
Mr. Moiz Qureshi Sep-30-2007
Mr. Jose de Jesus Robles Perez Oct-31-2007
Mr. Steven Rutledge Oct-31-2007
Mr. Ryan Shippelt Jan-31-2008
Mr. Dan Sirbu Jan-31-2008
Mr. Locke Spencer Apr-30-2007
Mr. Mark Summers Jan-31-2008
Mr. Navid Vafaei Oct-31-2007
Mr. Jaron VanDijken Oct-31-2007
Mr. Andrew Walsh Sep-30-2007
Mr. Rami Zewail Jan-31-2008
Mr. Ben Zittlau Sep-30-2007
UofA SPIE Student Chapter University of Alberta
ECERF Level 2 Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4, Canada
Email : [email protected]
http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~spieuofa/
2006‐07 Executives
2007‐08 Incoming Executives
President : Edward Lau President : Moiz Qureshi VP : Ivan Chan VP : Edward Lau
Secretary : Dan Sirbu Secretary : Dan Nyugen Treasurer: Navid Vafaei Treasurer : Navid Vafaei