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SPIE Annual Report University of Michigan Chapter

2015

Est. August 2012

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Overview This is the annual report for the Optics Society at the University of Michigan (OSUM), a joint student

chapter of SPIE and OSA. OSUM has OSA, SPIE, and non-affiliated student members. As of 1 August

2015, we have 22 OSA student members, 14 SPIE student members, and over 140 people on our email

list. We reach our members via email lists, Facebook, and twitter.

This report details the activities from this year in the categories of:

Outreach

Academic Activities

Industrial Activities

Social

Plans for the new year

These activities are in line with our mission to “promote the discipline of Optical Science and

Engineering through the organized effort of students and faculty, disseminate knowledge of the field of

Optics and Photonics, and to further the professional development of the students.”

Connect with OSUM on multiple platforms!

Check out our MaizePage: https://maizepages.umich.edu/organization/optics

or our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OpticsUMICH/

or our Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpticsUMICH

or our Website: osum.osahost.org

or our Google Calendar: opticsUMICH@gmail.com

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Table of Contents Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 2

SPIE Chapter Officers: ................................................................................................................................... 4

Executive Board: ........................................................................................................................................... 4

All SPIE Student Members: ........................................................................................................................... 4

SPIE Alumni: .................................................................................................................................................. 4

Budget ........................................................................................................................................................... 5

Outreach ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

Demonstration Day at Slauson Middle School with Society of Women in Physics (SWIP)....................... 7

Dueling Bright Demo Stars – Outreach Competition ................................................................................ 7

International Year of Light: Michigan Light Project .................................................................................. 8

Academic Activities ....................................................................................................................................... 9

General Meetings ...................................................................................................................................... 9

Student-Faculty Welcome Mixer .............................................................................................................. 9

Conferences and Symposia ....................................................................................................................... 9

Faculty Seminar ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Dr. Zhan Chen ...................................................................................................................................... 10

Dr. Somin Lee ...................................................................................................................................... 11

Dr. Sandra Biedron (SPIE Visiting Lecturer) ........................................................................................ 12

Zemax Study Group ................................................................................................................................. 12

Qualifying Exam Preparations ................................................................................................................. 12

Industrial Activities ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Industrial Seminar ................................................................................................................................... 12

Use of Nanoimprint Lithography for the Fabrication of Nano-Optical Devices .................................. 12

3D Direct Laser Writing for Micro and Nano Lithography .................................................................. 13

Collaboration with Ann Arbor OSA ......................................................................................................... 13

SPIE Short Courses .................................................................................................................................. 13

Socials.......................................................................................................................................................... 14

IYL Laser Tag ............................................................................................................................................ 14

Recruitment Social with AAOSA and APS................................................................................................ 15

PhD Defense Support .............................................................................................................................. 15

Upcoming Plans .......................................................................................................................................... 15

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SPIE Chapter Officers: Position Name Email

President Heather Ferguson hthrfrg@umich.edu

Vice-President Kyu Hyun Kim kyhykim@umich.edu

Treasurer Zhizheng Zhang zvzhang@umich.edu

Secretary Elizabeth Dreyer efcloos@umich.edu

Advisor John Nees nees@umich.edu

Executive Board: Position Name Email

Faculty liaison Long Chen lonchen@umich.edu

Industry chair Zhaorong Wang zrwang@umich.edu

Outreach chair Brad Smith bradcs@umich.edu

Publicity chair Qiaochu Li qiaochul@umich.edu

Social co-chair Mahdi Aghadjani mahdia@umich.edu

Social co-chair Nooshin Mohammadi estakhri@umich.edu

All SPIE Student Members: Name Email Expires

John Bailey jcbailey@umich.edu unknown Long Chen lonchen@umich.edu 29 July 2016

Caleb Coburn calebcob@umich.edu 30 July 2016 Brandon Demory Bdemory2@gmail.com 15 January 2016

Elizabeth Dreyer efcloos@umich.edu 25 January 2016

Heather Ferguson hthrfrg@umich.edu 9 December 2015

I-Ning Hu andrehu@umich.edu 11 December 2015 Kyu Hyun Kim kyhykim@umich.edu 30 July 2016

Nooshin Mohammadi Estakhri estakhri@umich.edu 21 July 2016 Zhaorong Wang zrwang@umich.edu 13 January 2016 Shang Hua Yang shanghua@umich.edu 8 January 2016

Cheng Zhang chengzh@umich.edu 12 October 2015

Zhizheng Zhang zvzheng@umich.edu 26 July 2016 Tong Zhou tongzhou@umich.edu 29 October 2015

SPIE Alumni: Name Email Graduation Date

Leng-Chun Chen lengleng@umich.edu July 2014

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Budget The primary source of funding for the Optics Society at the University of Michigan is our parent

organizations, SPIE and OSA. Additional funding sources are available through the university. This year

we sought university funding for a community building social. We also received corporate sponsorships

for the outreach activities of our sister organization – the Michigan Light Project.

Balance as of August 1, 2014: $2864.51

Amount Reason funds received or used Date

Old funds 2864.51 Roll over from 2014 8/1/2014

Funds expended 80.04 Outreach Supplies 8/22/2014

43.62 Food for SPIE Lecture 8/22/2014

357.50 Jerusalem Garden 9/17/2014

191.67 Food for Speaker Event 9/22/2014

5.19 Food for General Meeting 10/3/2014

10.97 Food for Meeting 10/17/2014

38.55 Supplies for Lab Tour Day 11/11/2014

4.49 Food For General Meeting (11/13/2014) 11/18/2014

137.15 Industrial Seminar with NIMSA 12/5/2014

7.70 Industrial Seminar with NIMSA 12/5/2014

20.60 Industry Seminar with NIMSA 12/22/2014

13.08 Food for Meeting 1/23/2015

3.54 Food for Meeting 2/6/2015

129.32 Joint Prof. Dev. Event with NIMSA 2/6/2015

165.10 Laser Tag 2/23/2015

26.92 Laser Tag 2/23/2015

36.28 Laser Tag 2/27/2015

336.00 Laser Tag 2/27/2015

35.70 Laser Tag 3/4/2015

140.75 Labor and Admin Charges – Room at U of M Museum of Art

3/13/2015

9.32 Food for General Meeting (4/2/2015) 4/8/2015

99.62 Out-Of-The-Box Professional Presentations 4/15/2015

37.03 Food for Election 5/5/2015

642.50 Purchases for IYL – Microscopes 6/4/2015

226.32 Purchases for IYL – LEDs 6/4/2015

377.76 Purchases for IYL - Piezodisks 6/4/2015

98.95 IYL – A2SF – Postcards 7/16/2015

601.13 IYL – A2SF – Yard Signs and Holography 7/16/2015

55.01 IYL – A2SF – Solarbiotics 7/16/2015

116.57 IYL – A2SF – Signs 7/16/2015

181.31 IYL – A2SF – Polarizer and Meijer Supplies 7/31/2015

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Amount Reason funds received or used Date

SPIE funding received

500.00 30668 SPIE 2014 Funds 1/7/2015

4500.00 37365 SPIE IYL 2015 CYCLE 2 4/1/2015

Other funding received

44.12 TSF PRT AP06489037; 7/14 7/14/2014

600.00 TRF Community Grant Funding 11/24/2014

1100.00 37359 OSA WINTER 2015 GRANT FUNDS 3/11/2015

140.75 Deposit 5/5/2015 – AAOSA reimbursement 5/7/2015

500.00 Deposit 6/4/2015 – Thorlabs UFO 6/5/2015

1000.00 Deposit 7/16/2015 – IPG Photonics, Mi-Light 7/17/2015

Balance as of July 31, 2015: $7019.69

At the end of this financial cycle, we have an account balance of $7019.69. However, out of those funds

$4200.45 is allocated for outreach activities under the collaboration with the Michigan Light Project.

Thus, the Optics Society at the University of Michigan has a general balance of $2819.24.

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Outreach Outreach is one of the core missions of our student chapter. We believe that it is our duty to inspire the

next generation to study light, plus it is a ton of fun! This year we had three major optics outreach

activities as described below.

Demonstration Day at Slauson Middle School with Society of Women in

Physics (SWIP) In collaboration with the Society of Women in Physics

(SWIP), we brought short demonstrations to a local

middle school. Throughout the day, eighth grade classes

rotated through 8 stations of physics demonstrations in

small groups. As the optics society, we brought two

demonstrations focusing on Diffraction and Total

Internal Reflection (TIR). Each of these demonstrations

were linked to real world scenarios and applications,

such as, why do we see a rainbow on the back of a DVD,

or how TIR allows us to have fast internet through fiber

optics. In total, we reached over 250 eighth grade students and their teachers.

Dueling Bright Demo Stars – Outreach Competition Previously we had held a successful demonstration competition where people proposed and built

demos that then could be used in outreach events. Unfortunately, this year, we did not have enough

submissions to make a viable competition. However, we learned some things from this failure.

Previously we had advertised by having a presenter go to classrooms and talk about the competition.

This year we set up tables in high traffic areas for 4 hours along with flyering. It seems that the

classroom approach was more suited to getting the information to people. If we attempt this event

again, we will go to classrooms and possibly collaborate with another organization. However, we did

reorganize each of the demos so that all of the current demos are organized and in more portable cases.

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International Year of Light: Michigan Light Project 2015 is the International Year of Light (IYL) and we are determined to celebrate with anyone who will

join us here in Michigan. By partnering with the Michigan Light Project (a local group of academics,

industrialists, and artists who share the IYL values) and the University of Michigan’s Student

Astronomical Society, we coordinated a youth education event called the KidZone at this year’s Ann

Arbor Summer Festival on June 30th from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM. We assisted in demo development and

provided volunteers to run some of the demos. There were approximately 250 people who attended the

event and roughly half of them were children. The demonstrations were:

1. Make your own hologram

2. Make your own piezoelectric powered LED

animal

3. Learn what is polarization

4. Solar powered toys

5. Tiny take-home microscopes

6. Solar telescope to see sunspots

7. Chromatic dispersion using diffraction

gratings

8. How the human eye works

Learn more about the Michigan Light Project at www.MichiganLightProject.wordpress.com.

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Academic Activities

General Meetings The biweekly general meeting was continued this year. Each hour-long general meeting focused on

promoting both professional development and social networking. During meetings, members gave semi-

formal talks on their research topics. Sometimes members rehearse their conference talks to improve

their public speaking skills. Recently, we held journal club during the meeting to learn about research

activities outside our university. Occasionally we also used the meeting as a snack time for a social

meeting such as a small Khet tournament.

Student-Faculty Welcome Mixer The Optics Student/Faculty Welcome Mixer is one

of OSUM’s capstone events each fall. It gives

incoming students a chance to meet current optics

students, faculty, and staff from a wide variety of

optics-related disciplines. New PhD and Master’s

students often don’t know with whom they want to

do research. This event gives them the opportunity

to learn about a variety of research groups directly

from the researchers. We also requested that

faculty bring a graduate student with them who can

give interested new students a lab tour after the

mixer.

Conferences and Symposia This year was a productive year for our society in terms of conference involvement. In the fall, we sent

our publicity officer, Brandon Demory, to the Frontiers in Optics Conference. Brandon brought back

many new outreach ideas and OSA t-shirts. In February, we used our SPIE Officer Travel Grant and sent

our industry co-chair Tong Zhao to SPIE Photonics West. Tong greatly enjoyed attended the chapter

leadership workshop. We optimized our conference grant and used it to support OSUM officers Heather

Ferguson, Elizabeth Dreyer, and Brandon Demory as well. Besides sending officers to student chapter

development activities, we also helped OSUM members coordinate with each other when attending

conferences. This helped OSUM members to split room and travel costs when available.

Another event to note is the Engineering Graduate Symposium (EGS) held in November 2014. EGS is the

College of Engineering’s annual graduate research showcase and poster competition. For the second

year in a row, OSUM participated with a poster about our chapter activities and how they can support -

and even enhance - a student’s research experience. By participating in EGS, we were able to recruit

successfully a few new members.

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Faculty Seminar This year we held three different faculty seminars. All of them were very successful and well attended.

Dr. Zhan Chen

This was our “out of the box” faculty seminar. Dr. Zhan Chen is a professor from the Chemistry

department at the University of Michigan. Normally people wouldn’t think that a chemistry professor

has anything to do with optics. However, Professor Chen’s research on molecular structures of buried

polymer and biological interfaces widely adopts nonlinear optical spectroscopy techniques. Our

president Cheng Zhang happened to know about his research from a casual social event. He soon invited

him to talk about his research to OSUM members and any interested non-members campus-wide.

On Friday, April 10, 2015, around 40 people including graduate students, postdocs, and even a few

faculty members gathered in the LBME building for Prof Chen’s talk. It was like a show. Prof. Chen was

energetic and humorous to talk about his group’s work. It was eye opening that nonlinear optical

spectroscopy was developed to detect the interfaces of embedded polymers, biological tissues and

semiconductor wafers. His research is not only interesting but also socially beneficial-- to the study of

plasma treatment of materials, antimicrobial peptides and model cell membranes, and help with the

microelectronics packaging. His jokes about his graduate students are still memorable to many of the

OSUM members. We efficiently spent the limited funding on cheap yet high-quality Costco pizza and

pop to accommodate the unexpected high attendance. Overall, this is a very successful event and many

of the graduate students learned more about nonlinear optical spectroscopy, and got to know such a

witful and humorous professor from the chemistry department. We expect to host more of these “out

of the box” seminars in the future!

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Dr. Somin Lee

One mission of OSUM is to promote the connection between students and faculty members, especially

those who are not yet well known to graduate students. Professor Somin Lee joined the Electrical &

Computer Engineering Department and Biomedical Engineering Department in summer 2014. Her

research interests lie in advancing innovations in nanoscale-dependent properties to enable unique

spatial and temporal capabilities needed for quantification in bioscience and medicine. Her research is

at the interface between life science, physical science and engineering. Therefore, we saw the value of

publicizing her work among all the engineering and physics graduate students.

On Thursday, January 29, 2015, upon invitation from OSUM and NIMSA (joint event), Professor Lee gave

a talk to 30+ graduate students from many disciplines about her recent research “Reversible Plasmon

Rulers for Secreted Single Molecules”. The funding applied for faculty seminars was spent on food and

drinks. After the talk, many questions were asked to this stunning young scientist, which indicated that

this event was well received by our audience. In the end, Professor Lee talked with several officers about

how to get involved with our society in the future. She joined our email list and anticipates joining us for

outreach events. We really think this seminar helped create a tight bond between this new faculty

member and all the attendees and with our society in general.

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Dr. Sandra Biedron (SPIE Visiting Lecturer)

On Thursday, September 18, 2015, we hosted Dr. Sandra Biedron from Colorado State University for a

talk on “Beam for Security and Defense.” Dr. Biedron’s travel was supported by the SPIE visiting lecturer

program. Dr. Biedron’s talk was very well received by our membership. Although most of our member’s

research use lasers for electronic, biological, and fundamental optics applications, we appreciated

hearing about laser applications in security and defense. We also used monies from our budget to buy

food and drinks for all of the attendees.

Zemax Study Group As a summer study plan, a Zemax study has been organized as a professional development event. The

study was aimed at self-learning of one of the most-used optical simulation tools. All University of

Michigan students were welcome to join our study. Participants ranged from undergraduate, graduate

students, and post-doctoral fellows. As a group, we went through the basics of Zemax using the tutorial

from the company. In addition, we used some of the materials from a textbook. As a first OSUM-

initiated study, we gained experience on how to organize a study group as a student chapter. Since

preparing good studying material is crucial to the study and next time, the need of purchasing course

material for the study is present.

Qualifying Exam Preparations One of OSUM’s missions is to build community among the optics students at the University of Michigan

and support them at all levels of their academic career. One major milestone of a PhD student at the

University of Michigan is the qualifying exam. The qualifying exam usually occurs in the second year of

the PhD program after the fundamental classes have been completed and consists of four one-on-one

oral examinations with professors. For the second year in a row, OSUM has supported our members by

hosting mock-qualifying exams three times a year. For each mock-exam, we invite the exam takers to

present their research to older members who have already passed their exams. The older members ask

questions about their research and any other optical topics that they may need to know for their exam.

This event has been well received by both the students taking the exams and the other members. So far,

we have helped over 15 Electrical Engineering students – optics and non-optics included – prepare for

and pass their qualifying exams.

Industrial Activities

Industrial Seminar

Use of Nanoimprint Lithography for the Fabrication of Nano-Optical Devices

On Monday, November 17, 2014, we hosted Dr. Giuseppe Calafiore from the Molecular Foundry at the

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, CA. In this co-hosted talk with NIMSA, we learned how he is

studying nanostructured materials and patterning techniques to learn more about the interaction of

light and matter at the nanoscale. We purchased pizza and drinks for the over 30 attendees. After his

talk, a few OSUM and NIMSA officers took Dr. Calafiore out for a late lunch to learn about his research in

greater depth. Overall, Dr. Calafiore is a great speaker and we highly recommend his talks.

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3D Direct Laser Writing for Micro and Nano Lithography

One Wednesday, November 5, 2014, OSUM hosted a talk from Dr.

Wanyin Cui of Nanoscribe. Dr. Cui was invited to the University of

Michigan by Dr. Jay Guo to discuss the Nanoscribe system. We

learned how three-dimensional (3D) direct laser writing (DLW)

based on two-photon polymerization enables versatile fabrication

of micro- and nanostructures.

Collaboration with Ann Arbor OSA This year we continued to collaborate with the Ann Arbor OSA. We co-hosted a special International

Year of Light visiting lecture with the Ann Arbor OSA. On Monday, March 16, 2015, Dr. Charles M. Falco

from the College of Optical Sciences and Department of Physics at the University of Arizona in Tucson

spoke about “The Science of Optics; The History of Art” at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

(UMMA). UMMA was an ideal venue for an event of this caliber. We had a lively audience of over 40

people from both the science and art communities. After the talk in a special auditorium at UMMA, we

hosted a reception at HopCat in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor OSA coordinated most of the logistics and funding

and OSUM led the publicity campaign.

2014 also brought about a new collaboration with the Ann Arbor OSA for outreach – the Michigan Light

Project. By coordinating the Michigan Light Project, we have deepened our relationship with many of

the individual members of the Ann Arbor OSA and optics companies.

SPIE Short Courses In the late summer and early fall of 2014, OSUM ran a SPIE DVD course on ”Diffraction, Interferometry

and Holography, and Diffractive Optical Elements (SC298).” Using professional development funds from

SPIE, we purchased a SPIE DVD course on Holography by the late Emmett Leith. Since DVD courses are

meant for individual consumption, we got special permission from SPIE to show the DVD in a small

lecture environment. Since Dr. Leith used to teach at the University of Michigan and was the inventor of

Laser Holography, it was very inspiring to see his DVD course. Around a dozen graduate students

attended the DVD course. The biggest challenge we had with running the SPIE short course was finding

time where everyone who was interested in learning about Holography could attend. We hope to run

the DVD course again later next year to expose new students to the topic of Holography.

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Socials

IYL Laser Tag To celebrate the International Year of Light (IYL),

OSUM held a social event on Tuesday, February 17,

2015. We advertised our Optics Society and made

people aware that 2015 is the International Year of

Light. This event served as a great opportunity for

graduate students to network with each other.

At the start of the event, we held a meeting in which

one of the OSUM members (Elizabeth Dreyer)

talked about the IYL, the history of optical science,

and showed the official SPIE promotional video.

Food was provided for the approximately 40

students who attend the meeting.

Following the meeting, all the attendees and

OSUM members went to Zap-Zone to play laser

tag. We split into two large groups and each

student played two rounds of laser tag. For many

of our members, this was the first time they had

ever played laser tag. Despite the frigid

temperatures outside and the stuffiness inside,

everyone had a good time. This event was funded

through a community grant from the College of

Engineering at the University of Michigan.

After the event, we asked the attendee to fill an online survey form in order to have their feedback for

future events. The questions were as follow:

1. How would you rate this event (1-10 level)?

2. Would you like to participate in this kind event again?

3. Would you like to be notified about other OSUM events?

4. What are the things to be improved?

All the participants answered that they want to participate to this kind of event in the future and 75%

rated this event 10 out of 10.

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Recruitment Social with AAOSA and APS Throughout the year, OSUM heavily collaborates with the Ann Arbor section of the Optical Society

(AAOSA) and the American Physical Society. This year on Thursday, October 2, 2014, we held a joint

recruitment social. The social was entirely funded by AAOSA and APS. Over 10 OSUM members attended

the social and networked with local industry professionals and academics. We also met a Master’s

student in Astronomy from Eastern Michigan University and got him involved in our future events.

PhD Defense Support One of the biggest highlights and stressful times of one’s academic career is giving a PhD Defense

presentation. To make these a little less stressful, OSUM advertises member’s defenses. Many members

show up to the defense and sometimes we even prepare ‘easy’ questions in advance. This year we

celebrated over six successful PhD defenses.

Upcoming Plans The upcoming 2015-2016 year is going to be a wonderful 4th year for OSUM. Activities we already have

planned include:

Optics Student-Faculty Welcome Mixer

International Year of Light outreach activities at the Back to the Bricks Festival in Flint, MI on

August 15th and the Kensington Astronomy at the Beach event on September 25th

Optics-related Career Fair events

Working group for Job Seekers

We thank SPIE for their continued support of our student chapter and are excited for the new year.