News From Student Chapters

Università Politecnica delle Marche OSA Student Chapter Celebrates First Year, Holds Italian Workshop on Optics and Photonics

ANCONA, Italy — Within the past year, the Università Politecnica delle Marche OSA Student Chapter has more than doubled the number of members, taken a chapter trip, managed a successful workshop, and their list of upcoming chapter activities is extensive.

The chapter was made an official OSA student chapter in September 2005 and is composed of a pro-active community of undergraduate and PhD students belonging to different fields related to Optics and Photonics, from Electro-Optic Engineering to Opto-Mechanics and Physics. The founders and chapter leaders

In May, the chapter brought 20 undergraduate students in France to visit the “Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique,” the “Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire," the  “Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces and Couches Minces,” and the “Laboratoire d'Optique et Biosciences” de l’Ecole Polytechnique. The chapter trip created a lot of publicity for the chapter on the University of Ancona campus.

The Italian Workshop on Optics and Photonics (IWOP2006) is considered by the chapter leaders to be the most important chapter event yet staged.  It was their first Italian Workshop on Optics and Photonics organized for undergraduate and PhD students.  

The event, sponsored by OSA and Università Politecnica delle Marche OSA Student Chapter in connection with some regional industries in optics, was held in July in Ancona.  It provided the opportunity for many Italian students of optics and photonics to join the optics community with their contributions.  Many of the students appreciated the opportunity to present their works in a friendly environment, surrounded by an audience composed of people like them: students. The ability to hold oral presentations in English or Italian helped many of them to overcome the fears associated with their first talk.

Every oral and poster contributor also participated in a challenge for the best paper and poster. The two winners got a free membership to OSA and were proudly accepted into the student chapter of Ancona.

The presence of famous invited professors from all over the world contributed to create a cosmopolitan teaching session, attended with enthusiasm by everyone.

The event was also enriched by a very motivating brainstorming. The hot topics of the discussion and the close interaction between professors and students leaded the students to a get a better idea about the possibilities and opportunities they have in the world of optics and photonics, in Italy and abroad, within the university and the industry. Moreover some interesting new topics and study ideas came out.

The president of the Università Politecnica delle Marche OSA Student Chapter, Luigino Criante, said,

“With IWOP2006 we started a new network in order to connect the creativity and enthusiasm of young students with the experience and supervision of the biggest heads of the fields.”

Given the great success of the event, the founding members of the chapter decided that the Workshop will become an annual meeting and they are already planning the IWOP2007.