News From Student Chapters

OSA Student Chapter Update – University of Rochester

This spring has been an exciting semester and we've been keeping rather busy with our educational outreaches, social activities, company tours, and speakers! We kicked the spring semester off with a laser tag social activity. We traveled to a local arena where we immediately felt right home as we each had a laser placed in our hands. The event turned out to be an incredibly fun time and was very well attended. 

Following the laser tag we began a series outreach events using the Optics Suitcase created by the Local Rochester OSA Chapter. In early February, the UR Society of Women Engineers hosted an engineering fair for local Girl Scout troops to learn about the myriad of engineering disciplines being studied here and elsewhere.  We presented the "Rainbow Peephole," a diffraction grating with a colorful decal, demonstrating the properties diffraction in an accessible way.  Following this fair, we presented the Optics Suitcase to two different grade schools for a total of five presentations to sixth and seventh graders.  These presentations included descriptions of general engineering, diffraction of light, polarization of light, and liquid crystal displays.  These events have been extremely positive; the students always love the hands on demonstrations and after exit polls, some students admit that they want to go into optical engineering when they are older.  To see the students' eyes light up from seeing the colors in the white light through the various optical process is always very exciting.  It reminds us of the times that our eyes were opened to the wonders of science and when our passion has been sparked through the exploration of our nature.  We will be ending the semester with one more trip to a third school in the Rochester Public School System and a short presentation at an upcoming Engineering Open House on campus.

One of the highlights of the semester, was co-hosting with other student science and engineering societies "Bill Nye the Science Guy" to speak at our campus. The event sold out and was very popular among students. Bill Nye walked into the venue while being accompanied by his television show’s theme song, which for many us, gave a good dose of nostalgia. He gave a humorous speech while addressing several issues impacting global warming.

Other events include hosting and providing Optics demos at an event called Club Rochester, which is a wine and cheese type event with faculty and other students hosted in the campuses faculty restaurant. Our chapter also displayed some creative Optics demos at local art event.

For the upcoming month, we have created a two part event which will begin with the Vice President of Optimax giving a speech on campus followed by a tour of the Optimax facilities on the subsequent week. Optimax is optics manufacturing company here in Rochester. This tour will be an excellent complement to a tour at Rochester Precision Optics last semester, which is another optics manufacturing company.

 

To finish this semester we will be holding our annual spring picnic following the last day of classes for all of the students, faculty, and staff of The Institute of Optics.