A wee school trip to Scotland

Fàilte!

I am in St Andrews, Scotland, for the 2018 Summer School in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Photonics. The school is organised by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Applied Photonics and is hosting an impressive list of experts from many branches of the photonics sector. I look forward to gaining some varied perspectives on drivers and lessons learnt in photonics-driven technological innovation.

Invited speakers at the 2018 Summer School in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Photonics. Photo source @cdtap.

Why the need for such a summer school for postgraduate and early-career professionals? The organisers have described the motivations very succinctly:

The worldwide photonics market is worth $150 billion. Graduate schools around the world are producing excellent photonics researchers, but achieving sustainable economic impact makes it important to stimulate a spirit of enterprise, technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship in this community of early career researchers.

The attendees will likely be postgraduate researchers and early-career professionals, and it will be a great opportunity to meet to discuss their work in photonics and applications in industry and academia.

As part of the summer school I will also present work in the development of integrated waveguides and gratings for integrated optical gyroscopes for potential applications in navigational systems, which has stemmed from work in my PhD and an international collaboration with researchers from Zhejiang University in China (as described in a previous post). I am also excited to be exploring an idea I have for a consultancy service to improve the “STEM fluency” in public and private organisations wanting to make more efficient Impact in their work in their local community.

I wish to take the opportunity to thank the organising committee for awarding me a bursary to have the privilege of attending this summer school. More to follow in the coming days, so make sure that you subscribe to my updates from the website!

Every day is a school day

The 14th International Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics has offered me a unique perspective into how local community and institutional education work ties into the bigger picture. The conference featured 1 plenary, 16 keynotes and 16 invited talks, in addition to 8 parallel sessions. I have developed my understanding of classroom teaching methods and been inspired by case studies at regional, national and international level. I have found out about useful tools and evaluation techniques that I wish to integrate into my future activities. I am struck by the overwhelming desire to better the global education system and prepare the skilled workforce needed for the next photonics technology revolution.

Coming into this conference I was hoping to get some insight on the role of industry in the education sector. This came, often in unexpected places! I attended a workshop given by Judith Donnelly (Judy) in Problem-Based Learning, a pedagogy that was adapted to the photonics technology sector as a result of an industry demand for students to be better prepared for the workplace. Some educators related their experiences of delivering successful projects working alongside industry, where students trained in technical photonics skills were being scooped up by companies in the private sector. It was encouraging to see a small number of members of industry participating in this conference with stands and talks. Tsutomu Hara from Hamamatsu offered some perspective on outreach programs offered in the private sector to develop the public’s appreciation of Optics and Photonics technologies, as well as educational and training activities implemented to train students.

Creating a world "wherein the intriguing nature and limitless potential of light are communicated and educated to the younger generation. — Creating a world “wherein the intriguing nature and limitless potential of light are communicated and educated to the younger generation.”

I was also going to attend a second workshop organised by Judy, which is called Dumpster Optics. It aims to teach graduate students how to use simple experiments to explain optics phenomena to children. I’d developed a workshop with similar aims in the past (see TS Squared) so I was looking forward to getting some new perspectives. To facilitate the communication exercise Judy, had invited conference attendees to bring their children; as a unforeseen consequence, the children outnumbered the adults considerably. Doff the student cap, don the teacher hat, and here I am, bemused, standing with Mei, local student turned translator, Judy and her assistant-son Matt, in front of 40 very excited Chinese children. It was unsuspectingly amusing to be faced with exactly what got me there: a classroom full of very excited primary school students with bags of experiments at their disposal! I learnt that “Wow” does not get lost in translation, and I it was a pleasure to give these children the opportunity of practising hands-on experiments and experiencing various optics phenomena.

"How did this happen?", I must be thinking. Teaching under the guidance of Judy, and saved by our excellent student translator Mei. — “How did this happen?”, I must be thinking. Teaching under the guidance of Judy, and saved by our excellent student translator Mei. Picture courtesy of Judy Donnelly.

Heading East

I’m excited to be travelling to China. I’m on my way to Hangzhou, which is a couple hours away from Shanghai. This will be a relatively short trip, and a good opportunity to revive the blog with news and pictures of where my research and outreach activities take me! Thanks for tuning in, expect 2-3 posts a week over the next fortnight.

Next week I will be presenting a paper at the 14th International Conference on Education and Training on Optics and Photonics (ETOP) on organising science classes in places where you wouldn’t expect them. This is based around a couple of events, one that I run at the 2016 Winchester Cathedral Primary Science Festival, and another show on particle physics that co-author Alex Jantzen did at Salisbury Cathedral. You’ll read (and see) more about that in due course!

Finding new places for teaching: optical sciences workshops in Winchester Cathedral.

I will also be visiting Zhejiang University to meet with potential collaborators on research projects. I posted a while back on the research I am doing to build photonics integrated circuits to make polarisation filters. An application of these filters is to enhance optical integrated gyroscopes, a type of sensor that can be used for navigation in aerospace or satellites for instance. The polarisation of light in these circuits can cause unwanted sources of noise that are detrimental to the signal they are trying to sense. The technology I’ve been developing could offer a significant improvement of the “signal-to-noise” ratio in these devices. I am looking forward for the opportunity to present my research and find out about work happening in Zhejiang.

I was very near Guangzhou in 2008, but I never visited. Back then I spent time in Shanghai, studying Mandarin Chinese at Fudan University. The memories are great, alas the language skills not so good anymore! I have found that Chinese is an unforgiving language, which will slip away without regular practice! I imagine that in the past 9 years Shanghai has changed a lot, and I’m looking forward to catch up with people and see how things have changed!

The Shanghai Bund, July 2008. — The Shanghai Bund, September 2008.

This trip will not have been possible without the support of a few organisations, and I am grateful for receiving travel grants from the IOP Physics Communicators Group, Zhejiang University, the University of Southampton EPSRC-funded Future Photonics Manufacturing Hub and Impact Acceleration Account.

World classes

Last week I attended an international conference called Optics Education and Outreach IV (IV because it’s the 4th time it’s run!), which was held at the SPIE Optics + Photonics 2016 congress. I presented work that I and colleagues from the University of Southampton carried out during the 2015 International Year of Light (IYL 2015). IYL 2015 was proclaimed by UNESCO to recognise and celebrate the importance of light and light-based technologies for society, healthcare, education, environment, economy and as a means to connect the world.

2015 was proclaimed the International Year of Light by the United Nations to raise awareness of light sciences and its applications.

The conference was inspiring. It brought together a rich mix of researchers, educators and industry professionals to present outreach and education activities running around the world. Truly world-class. Words cannot begin to capture the diversity, enthusiasm and richness of what is going on. The work will eventually appear in an open access journal, and I will update this page when it becomes available.

I and, I felt, all of the authors sought to present our work on the world stage to inspire and inform. I had the pleasure to write 3 papers with 12 incredible human beings that go by the label of researchers:

Class-based outreach led by postgraduate students for school pupils. I presented types of activities that are suitable for working with schools, including poster competitions, school assembly lectures, workshops, classes, and more! This also included a once-in-a-lifetime project where 4 PhD students, from Southampton, and 2 high school pupils, from the Thomas Hardye School, took to the world stage by presenting outreach at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris for the IYL 2015 opening ceremony; here’s a great write-up of what happened in Paris, courtesy of Nicholas Wong.
Reflecting Photonics: a garden, with flowers, inspired by the world-leading research in photonics (the science of light) carried out at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre. Watch the full video of my presentation here, courtesy of Dirk Fabian.
A compact optics suite with hands-on optics experiments and fully self-contained, like the one I have been touring during my trip through North America. It has now travelled to over 15 locations in 3 continents and 5 countries!

I presented the first 2 papers, and Nicholas did a great job at presenting paper #3.

Suited to educate: Nicholas and I presenting our oortable hands-on optics experiments suite at the 2016 SPIE Optics + Photonics congress. — Suited to educate: Nicholas and I presenting our portable hands-on optics experiments suite at the 2016 SPIE Optics + Photonics congress.

IYL 2015 had a global reach and the global impact will also, no doubt, be huge. I will be going back to UNESCO next month to hear the report on the year. It’s humbling that I played a part in this. I presented my hard work on the world stage at an international conference, people will read about this in a journal article, and I was filmed in front of a live audience on Facebook! Over 400 people have tuned into my talk, and those dearest to me, my girlfriend, sister, parents and family, were able to watch me present; that means the world to me.

Demonstrating live how light can be guided through fibres of plastic by total internal reflection. Watch the full video here, courtesy of Dirk Fabian.

Volunteering for leadership

Last week I attended a Student Leadership Workshop in the sunny town of San Diego, California. Over 240 students from over 30 different countries congregated at a large international meeting called Optics + Photonics that was organised by the SPIE. I had the pleasure to meet students at various stages of their education (both undergraduate and postgraduate), conference organisers, workers in universities and in private companies. The workshop was run by a very well-spoken gentleman, Jean-Luc Doumont, and over the course of the day explored the theme of leadership through group activities, presentations and role plays.

SPIE 2016 Student Leadership Conference. Picture credit SPIE Students.

At the start of the day 26 groups set about a creative brainstorm, half on what a leader is and the remainder on what a leader is not. My group quickly decided that a good leader is not indecisive. Indecisiveness is second nature to me, so it was uncomfortable to hear a lot of valid reasons of how my leading ability could be hindered by my personality. We discussed this a lot, and I found that one could become decisive through listening and asking questions: to make informed decisions, and strive to clearly communicate ideas and visions for a group to steer itself through a process. Being indecisive, listening and asking questions are three things I can do very well, I would like to think. I must practice to balance these for the sake of productivity!

A good leader is NOT indecisive; a morning well spent at the 2016 SPIE student leadership workshop. — A good leader is NOT indecisive: a morning well spent at the 2016 SPIE student leadership workshop.

“Leader-ship”. 2 words: leader and ship. Why would one take the responsibility to lead a ship? I have met people who think they are the best for the role, and some who feel a duty to step into the leader’s shoes simply because someone must. Someone at the workshop said that people volunteer to lead, and I can agree with that statement from my humble experience. I volunteered to take the reins of the Optics and Photonics Society (OPSoc), and I volunteered to attend this workshop in San Diego. In return, the SPIE supported me through a travel grant, and the OPSoc gave me access to a wonderful community of people that like to get together (preferably in a sunny place!). “Leaders coming together” feels to me like a chore; “volunteers coming together” feels much richer. My leadership roles have taken me to some incredible places and my path has crossed those of some incredible people. I will continue to make the time to volunteer; there, I’ve said it and so please hold me accountable to it.