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News From Student ChaptersUC Irvine Chapter Hosts “Art in Science” ContestOn May 3, 2007, OSA Student Chapter UC Irvine hosted the “Art in Science” contest. A contest co-sponsored and held at the Department of Chemistry, UC Irvine was open to all UCI students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty in all disciplines to present their work in an elegant form of art. In a world where science literacy is dismayingly rare, illustrations provide the most immediate and influential connection between scientists and other citizens, and the best hope for nurturing popular interest and a necessity for public understanding of research developments. In an increasingly graphics-oriented culture, where people acquire the majority of their news from TV and the World Wide Web, a story without a vivid and intriguing image is often no story at all… With 22 applicants and over 40 pieces of artwork presented, the contest attracted a large scientific community. Approximately 60 researchers and students all over the campus stopped by to check out the presented artwork and get to know the current activities and mission of the chapter. The contest culminated with the panel of five judges concluding the winners of the contest as presented below. OSA Student Chapter, UC Irvine, was founded in 2003 in collaboration with students in the departments of Physics and Chemistry to break down interdisciplinary barriers and raise optics awareness. Since its foundation in 2003, the chapter attracted many students from various department including Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Beckman Laser Institute. The chapter efforts were honored by the OSA Excellence award in 2005 at Tucson Annual Meeting. The chapter has recently partnered with the Optical Society of Southern California (OSSC), as well as with the Optics Institute of Southern California (OSIC) that allow useful interaction with others involved in optics within Southern California. A great example of this collaboration was the recent “Optics Extravaganza” held at UC Irvine. The chapter’s ongoing activities include “Frontiers in Photonics” biweekly seminars that bring in prominent speakers in photonics and related technologies from Southern California Institutions, such as USC, UCSD, UCLA and Caltech. The chapter has also a large amount of outreach activities that spans from junior high all the way to undergraduate students through visits to local schools, hosting of students and outreach seminars. The chapter goal is to become a home to all optics related centers and research groups at UC Irvine through promotion and collaboration with all the professors in optics and related sciences. With its due diligence and continues endeavor the chapter has one solid mission “Advancing the Science of Light”.
Calit2, Engineering, UC IrvineThe micrograph of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) spin-coated onto a silicon wafer made for analysis of film composition and thickness prior to patterning via nano-imprint lithography (NIL). A pair of forceps disrupted the surface of the film, creating the wrinkled pattern shown in the micrograph. PAN is most commonly known as the precursor material of carbon fiber used as reinforcement in lightweight composite structures such as carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs). PAN is also of interest to the AFY research group for its potential use as a precursor material for patterning graphene nanowires using NIL due to the highly graphitic composition it exhibits after graphitization heat treatment. The image was taken at the Carl Zeiss Center of Excellence under the guidance of Professor Albert F. Yee and graduate student Yen Peng Kong with support from Emulex as part of the Calit2 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Information Technology (SURF-IT).
This picture was generated by a superposition of 2D sources using the Biot-Savart Law. The inspiration for this artwork came while I was studying Electromagnetic Theory II (Physics 112B). Software used: POV-Ray 3.6.1
Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UC IrvineThe incredible morphological and behavioral diversity of batoid fishes (stingrays and relatives) is often overlooked in favor of their more notorious sister group, the sharks. And yet, although batoids are a younger group (i.e., they have had less time to diverge evolutionarily), there are more living batoid than shark species. This image was created for research investigating how batoid skull evolution has contributed to their explosive ecological radiation. By scaling species to approximately the same size (some are nearly an order of magnitude larger than others) and representing them as simple outlines, I sought to highlight this group’s impressive diversity.
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A Wrinkle in Film (1st place)
Magnetic Field of a Solenoid (2nd place)
Morphological diversity of batoid fishes (3rd place)