Great Lakes SPIE Regional Chapter

The Outreach Day (October 26) went especially well. We first had PhD students from Kent State giving outreach presentations to students from Notre Dame and Dayton Universities.

Photos by courtesy of Mingxia Gu

We then had exchange of outreach experience between different student Chapters (Kent State, Notre Dame, Dayton).

Photos by courtesy of Mingxia Gu

After this we had Great Lakes Science Tour Program in a prestigious High School, Western Reserve Academy. We had 30-minutes demos and presentations by SPIE Student Chapters and then demos and presentations by young profesionals (postdoctoral fellows).

Photos by courtesy of Mingxia Gu

Dr. Ivan Smalyukh was conducting the program of the Outreach Day. When in the end of presentations he asked the high school students who will choose a career in optics and engineering, many students rised hands. Many of the high school students applied for SPIE membership that day and the application forms will be sent to SPIE. The high school students filled in evaluation forms, gave their comments, and evaluated which chapter presentation they liked the most. The winners of the tough competition are: Kent State (first place), Notre Dame(second place), and Dayton (third place); the difference between the scores of different chapters when we calculated the total was only about 10%. Great Lakes SPIE Regional Chapter awarded $1500 in prizes to the winners of the Finals of the Great Lakes Science Tour Program. All the demos and presentations were videotaped and every one will have a chance to see them on the web site soon.

Last update - October, 2007