On my last day in Vancouver, I visited the University of British Columbia (UBC). Through the SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, I was able to reach out to students of the SPIE UBC student chapter and arrange to visit UBC. A lot of people are away for the summer, but I had the pleasure of having a short meeting with Edison.
Meeting with Elison
Edison is working in silicon photonics and making devices that are 10-100s nanometers (1,000 to 10,000 smaller than the width of your hair!) and that use light to detect molecules, and in particular certain types of pesticides. It was fascinating visiting his labs where he can prepare the chemistry and do the optical experiments.
UBC has a lovely campus. It’s so big that I had to drive around it to take it all in. Here’s what I guess the campus centre looks like.
UBC campus panoramic
There’s also a botanical garden on campus, with lots of trails. It’s a very relaxing place, with lots of walks through shaded areas and many beautiful flowers.
I’ve got a car and, finally, I have a plan on where to take it.
I’m off to Banff, and then Calgary. Thanks to a very helpful lady in the Vancouver Tourist Information Centre, I also have the tools to get me there. I’ve cut out some maps, and found some campsites, that will take me to the
Squamish, the Canadian response to Yosemite
Whistler, world-renowned skiing (and good summer hiking too!)
Merritt and Kelowna down in the Okanagan wine valley
Revelstoke, on a recommendation from top lad Henners Nixon
Banff National Park, including Lake Louise.
That’s about 1,164 km in total that I have to do in the next 8 days. It’s going to be busy and the drive of a lifetime. Watch this space!
I have in my possession a portable outreach education kit named TS Squared: Teaching Students to Teach Students.
TS Squared: teaching students to teach students
It fits in a back pack, weighs less than 2.5 kg and is going to go on tour with me around universities in Canada and the USA.
In this box you will find hands-on experiments and visually exciting demonstrations on the subjects of photonics and electronics: mirrors, colours, EM spectrum and telecommunications. These are accessible to students who are not specialist in the subject area, and will enable them to understand and teach the fundamentals to younger students or peers.
The box also contains samples of the research that is carried out at the Optoelectronics Research Centre in Southampton. This is where I get to talk about my work on Integrated Photonics and my upcoming presentation, and grow the number of potential attendees!
We have sample give-aways (more on this in a bit) to give people ideas and explain how we can use different gifts to measure the quality of our engagement. Business cards are for business, diffraction gratings for a meaningful scientific interaction, and quantum key rings for something really special!
Back to the original quote then. I asked the conference organisers if we could display this kit, and they gratefully accepted my request and put me up in the conference exhibition hall.
The Ligthwave Roadshow on world tour, here in Vancouver, Canada.
It has been an enriching experience. I’ve enjoyed working with fellow-PHD student Miranda Turvey on the exhibit, and telling 8 research students, 3 conference organisers, 2 friends visiting Vancouver, 6 world-leading researchers and 3 members from industry about the outreach & public engagement of my research that I do, imparting some new scientific or practical knowledge on how I do my outreach. The table has also brought together 12 researchers from the Optoelectronics Research Centre and Gregory Quarles, the OSA’s chief scientist.
Researchers from the ORC at IPR Vancouver 2016
There’s a sour note to all this though. Today, 5 of our display items went missing*. People may have assumed that anything left out was fair game to take. Absolutely gutted that I’m missing these, but the show will go on.
Because it does. Today, I’ve had coffee to discuss potential outreach projects with Cloud State University, Minnesotta, discussing with universities in the USA and Canada to present the kit to the chapters, and learning exciting new stuff at this incredible conference.
* Update 21/07: the items have been retrieved and the show will go on!
I’m off to North America for 7 weeks. From today I will be in Canada and the USA and I will be back in the UK on 3rd September. During that time, I will be going to 2 international conferences
OSA Integrated Photonics Research in Vancouver, presenting my latest research results. See my previous post for more on this.
SPIE Optics + Photonics, where I will be attending a student leadership workshop, an Outreach Olympic Games and presenting two papers at the Optics Outreach and Education conference on my outreach and public engagement with research work that I carried out during the UNESCO 2015 International Year of Light.
In between, I will be travelling to different places in Canada and the USA to visit universities and companies, network with researchers and students, and tie in with family and friends. Here’s what the trip is going to look like. If you are near any of these areas, and I haven’t fixed a date to meet you, please get in touch!
When?
Where?
16/07-21/07
Vancouver
21/07-30/07
British Columbia, Alberta
30/07-02/08
Calgary
02/08-12/08
Boulder, CO
12/08-14/08
Toronto
14/08-19/08
Montreal
19/08-23/08
San Francisco and Bay Area, CA
23/08-26/08
LA, CA
26/08-02/09
San Diego, CA
03/09
Back to the UK
Watch this space for news and photos on my research, visits, travels, reunions and adventures.
Eureka. I made an experiment, and then made it better.
In my PhD I am building integrated optical circuits. The devices I have been making act as polarising filters: they split a light signal into 2 signals that have different amounts of polarisation in each of them. It’s a bit like with polarised sunglasses, where held one way (say horizontally) the light coming through looks strong, and when turned at a right angle, the light looks weak. My devices have the same effect, and I want to quantify this contrast in the strengths of the polarised light with physical quantities.
So this is how I did it
My integrated photonics experiment
Now the tricky thing with this experiment is that am trying to measure the polarisation contrast within a tiny ray of light that is very close to a huge sun that is a source of unwanted noise. The higher the noise the harder it is to measure a high level of polarisation contrast at the device output. It works on a scale of 1 to 100 (in dBs for those familiar with logarithmic scales). Said differently, without taking care, my device looks like it’s on level 5. If I collect the data by filtering out the noise then I can show a higher level of contrast. I used a combination of fibre optics, microscope objectives, highly precise mechanical stages and filters to try and make it better.
It’s a bit like playing Pokemon. I was at level 17 initially, worked hard to improve an experiment and after some time got to level 28. That’s a 10 billion (10^10!) fold improvement in contrast. Next step is level 30; at that point my device evolves from a research product to a device worthy of industrial interest.
Si tu trouves cette page, fais une pause en mémoire des victimes de l’attentat de Nice du 14 juillet 2016; et pour les victimes de crime de haine qui ne sont de monde, injustement.
Father and Son in lycraButser Hill WarriorsCycling action selfie, back in HampshireBeach Time, Lepe, UKNicasio valley selfies.Tagging along with the local Sunday club ride, Camino Alto climb.Entering Mount Tamalpais state park.My Californian ride, a Specialized Roubaix carbon with Ultegra.Riding a Specialized Diverge on the dirt tracks of the RockiesSmiling at Brainard LakeBrainard lake, on a bike. My first ride ever over 3,000 metres!My cycling companion for my time in BoulderAt the summit of Mount Revelstoke!Exploring trails on Mount MacPherson
Bike #1, Myra Canyon
Coffee, Time & good company
A refreshing sight
Team adventures at the Col du Mont du Chat, French Alps
The people I have met along the path of my life have provided me with incredible experiences and developed me as a researcher, a friend, and a person.
A surprise reunion with Becky at London Heathrow on my way back!Jane was a student at UCL when my Dad went to University. It has been 10 years since I last visited in sunny San Diego!I lived and studied in Shanghai, China, back in 2009. Here is the Fudan University crew reunited at Venice beach, Los Angeles, CA.China reunion with Chris at the Golden Gate bridge.High school reunion in Montreal with Laurie #montrealselfiesI discovered I had extended family in Toronto, and had the pleasure to meet up during my stay in town!Unexpected catch-up in downtown Vancouver with Wayne, a friend from my time in Shanghai in 2008Sun and good companyLemonade with a Shanghai buddy
There have been many people along the way. If you recognise any of these people from this non extensive series of pictures, then I hope that we can get in touch to organise our own reunion and share our space on this blog during the coming months.
I am embarking on a trip that will take me across North America from 16th July to 2nd September. During this time, I will be going to many cities in Canada and the USA: Vancouver, Calgary, Denver, Boulder, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, LA and San Diego.
This portfolio will be dedicated to this trip.
It will cover my travels, my visits to research institutions in Canada & the USA and reunions. I may even share my feelings on my experiences from time to time, even though this doesn’t come easily to me.
The audience will be my family and friends.
My family are the dearest and loved ones, and those I do not yet know and am excited to have the opportunity to meet in the not too distant future.
The friends are those that I have studied with, worked with, lived with and been on great adventures with. I hope that you will be able to put yourself into one of these categories and find a reason to come back to this space for some updates.
I would be delighted to reach a larger and yet unknown audience, and hope you can use this space to get in touch with me to share your thoughts on what I will be relating herein.
I will be adding posts 2 to 3 times a week about what I have been up to and what is coming up. They will be short and picturesque, probably comprised of those pictures that say a thousand words and lots of filters.
I will be travelling on my own and don’t want to forget what is going to be a once in a lifetime trip. I am also doing this so that we all know where to find me.
I hope to see you there and/or hear from you on the way.
