Career orientation conference for PHD students

Posted on 11/08/2017 by ggunaratnam

We took part in the organising the seventh DOFFI Conference, which is an event for hungarian PhD students in the field of physics to present their research and to learn about the others’ as well. The annual conference is also a great opportunity for the students to connect and build networks with academics and each other, too.
The event itself was four days long. Each day was divided into 15-minute sessions. During these sessions the students had 12 minutes to present their work. After that there were 3-minute periods when an assigned discussant, an academic of the student’s field and the audience could analyse and give feedback on the work and presentation.The students could also present their work on posters that were shown throughout the whole conference.
Academics were invited each day to hold plenary lectures about the newest research topics, this year for example about transport properties of graphene-BiTeI hybrid structures and the effect of virtual reality on human balance.
Several companies that employ physicists (e.g. Morgan Stanley) were invited to give presentations on the opportunities a student can get if they choose to work for them.
There was also a forum for discussing the difficulties that affect the community of physisists.
The conference was held in Balatonfenyves, a small town next to lake Balaton, where the participants could relax and go to the beach each day.
We hope that the participants learned a lot, and got to know each other.

Webpage with abstracts, pictures and program:
http://doffi.elte.hu/

Physics for everyone LIVE

Posted on 11/08/2017 by ggunaratnam

Primarily we designed this program for primary and secondary school pupils. During the day the kids could choose several type of activities. We cooperated with some academic teachers from Eötvös Loránd University and Budapest University of Technology and Economics, that gave some lectures about Cosmology, Big Bang Theory and etc. Besides these lectures we wanted to show some interesting physics experiments from the everyday physics and modern physics, like how to use apps for measuring the sound intensity, and how to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen, and we had a self-made cloud chamber. During this time some of our people made some spectacular explosions in the yard. We considered it is important to speak about the new energy resources, so we made a special corner for the fusion power, with the help of the guys from the Wigner Research Center. During these activities the Wigner Research Center made available for us their moving experimental station (the all-colour of Physics bus). This is an interactive exhibition about the wide range of physics of nanostructures. We had more than one thousand visitors just in the University, it is twice as much as last year, and we have more than ten thousand visitors across country because many school joined to our program . After the event we asked the visitors what they thought about the activities. We got many positive responses, and i think in this event we learned a lot about the technics of of presentation and any other skill so we can do this better next year.

We have some pictures in here : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4R1tDrTxGkWQWJKc0gwbHFOM2c

Alumni-evening of the University of Antwerp Physics Department

Posted on 11/08/2017 by ggunaratnam

On the 5th of May 2017, the Antwerp Young Minds section organized an alumni-evening for the Physics Department of the University of Antwerp, with the aim of bringing together the students, researchers and alumni of our department.
This event was a great occasion for our students and researchers to meet physicists who are now working outside academia and to learn more about future job opportunities. Furthermore, it provided alumni with the possibility to see their old friends and teachers again and to get to know the new generation of physicists. We were therefore glad to see that a lot of people attended the event.

After a short welcome drink, we began the evening with presentations of several alumni whom we had invited to speak about their career after graduation and to tell us more about their current occupation. Their occupations were:
• Validator at Argenta (a Belgian bank)
• Senior System Engineer at Verhaert
• Physics teacher in secondary education
• Junior ICT Analyst at Fluxys
The members of the audience always had the opportunity to ask questions in order to learn more about the different aspects of these professions.

The presentations where followed by an extensive reception, where everyone could enjoy a drink and a bite. This gave our students and researchers the possibility to freely speak with all of the attending alumni and to make important contacts for their own professional future.

Altogether, we received a lot of positive feedback from people who attended the event, which encourages us to repeat it the future.

Colloquium “Topology in atomic flatland”

Posted on 11/08/2017 by ggunaratnam

On the 7th of March 2017, the Antwerp Young Minds section invited Professor Doctor Jean Dalibard to give a colloquium at the University of Antwerp about his work on topology-related effects in 2D quantum gases. The target audience were the students and researchers of the University of Antwerp physics department, many of whom attended the lecture.

Professor Jean Dalibard is a professor at Collège de France and researcher at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory. His research focuses on the study of quantum gases, in particular Bose-Einstein condensates, and explores, among other subjects, the properties of rotating and low dimensional gases. His work on topologic transitions and other topology-related effects in 2D quantum gases served as a very fascinating subject for the colloquium, especially because of its close connection to the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Professor Dalibard began his talk with a general introduction on the subject of quantum gases in order to make those who might not yet be familiar with these systems acquainted with the topic. Subsequently, he focused on the key aspects of 2D quantum gases such as their topological transition to a superfluid state. He also addressed other topology-related effects in these systems, related to the creation of artificial gauge fields and quantum-Hall type phenomena. The colloquium as a whole was a great occasion for students to be introduced to the concepts of quantum gases, topology and the subject of last year’s Nobel Prize, while at the same time providing the researchers of our department with more profound insights into the underlying theory of these phenomena.

The lecture was followed by a reception, where the audience members and speaker could enjoy a drink and a bite. This also presented our students and researchers with the opportunity to speak with professor Dalibard in a more informal setting than the lecture itself.

The colloquium received a lot of positive feedback from the students and researchers who attended it.

OPTO2015 conference

Posted on 22/05/201722/05/2017 by ggunaratnam

The OPTO-Meeting for Young Researchers & 10th Anniversary International SPIE Student Chapter Meeting 2015, called OPTO2015 was organized by the Wroclaw University of Technology OSA & SPIE student chapters and newly formed EPS Young Minds Section at out university. I have been held between 27th and 30th of May 2015 in Wroclaw, Poland.

OPTO2015 was a great opportunity for young researches, BC, MS and PhD students to meet, present and talk about their scientific work. We organized several oral sections, poster session, lab tour, soft skills training and integration events. The number of attendees was around 100, making it the biggest even in Poland for students and young researchers within the physics field.

Because OPTO is the annual conference for OSA and SPIE student chapters in Poland, we decided to organize special event focused on their activities. After presentations and short discussion we presented the conference sponsors, which also was the EPS Young Minds organization. During this special section the conference participants could find out what the EPS is, what’s the Young Minds project, its mission, purpose, goals and tools to achieve them. Additionally we presented the benefits for new members and gave short instruction how to establish new EPS Young Minds Section and apply for grants.

This project cost us a lot of work. Organizing the conference by students who hasn’t done anything like that before is a big challenge, but our members accomplished that goal. We are very proud that the Warsaw University of Technology established their EPS Young Minds section and many other still consider doing so. For our section it was a good way to train ourselves within new EPS Young Minds structure at our university and to try work with our new and fresh team within other projects.

Fun with physics – demonstrations in kindergarten

Posted on 22/05/201722/05/2017 by ggunaratnam

Within our formed WrUT EPS Young Minds section all of our members have the experience in the outreach field. We have been very successful in that area in the OSA & SPIE student chapters, that is why we wanted to introduce these kind of activity in the newly form section.
This project was a big success. There wasn’t any problem in changing the scope of our lectures from optics to basic physics. For children in primary school and especially in preschool every scientific presentation is a lot of fun. It also brings to them an inspiration to thinking about the experiment, its result and asking question. As from our observation these children who cannot ask any question react in a special way, on their face you can see at the beginning surprise with disbelief, after that they want to repeat the experiment by their own. When they finally convince their self that experiment show true result they have more curiosity to see and experience another demonstration, which is one of our goal to increase the interest of our physical world.
We carried out demonstrations in one of the biggest kindergarten connected with the primary school in Wroclaw, Poland. The number of attendees where around 80 children (4 groups with around 20 children in each). Our presentation was divided for parts related with air, water, light and balance. At the end some of the children wanted to bring few experiments back again to demonstration, because of their high attraction, so we combined the topics.
In our opinion this project was a success. We increased the children’s curiosity of the physical world, their also trained the ability to perform some of the experiments by their own. The challenge of searching discussed phenomena in their surrounding world went also well. We had a bit of problems with the team work, because all the kids wanted to do the experiment at one time, but for us it was an opportunity to gain some teaching experience. We don’t see any problem to repeat such project in the future if our members will bring the will to do so.

Open Readings – YM BAA 2017

Posted on 20/05/201724/05/2017 by ggunaratnam

60th international conference for students of physics and natural sciences “Open Readings 2017” took place on 14-17th of March, 2017 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The conference gathered more than 300 presenters from 20 different countries all-around Europe while creating an interactive platform for sharing knowledge, scientific results and best practices in the fields of physics and natural sciences.

The four day conference was full of activities, including but not limited to the mentioned students’ oral and poster sessions, workshop on scientific publishing and discussion on career in science, but, of course, the highlight of the conference were the invited speakers – world-known scientists, top of the top in their fields:

Prof. Ben Feringa (Netherlands) – 2016 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, h-index: 103;
Prof. John Ellis (UK) – one of the most known theoretical physicist working at CERN, h-index: 150;
Prof. Philip Russell (Germany) – former president of OSA and leader in the field of photonic crystal fibers, h-index: 86;
Prof. Michael Graetzel (Switzerland) – Millennium Technology Prize laureate, 3rd most cited chemist in the world, h-index: 207;
Prof. Xi-Cheng Zhang (USA) – one of the best known researchers of THz technologies, h-index: 70;
Prof. Eugenio Coccia (Italy) – co-author of the gravitational waves discovery, h-index: 43;
Prof. Naomi Halas (USA) – one of the leaders in the field of plasmonics and the use of nanoparticles in cancer treatment, h-index: 106.
Prof. Robin Lovell-Badge (UK) – active scientist and policy maker in the field of genetics, h-index: 66;
Prof. Frederik Clayessens (UK) – novel material creator by using various light sources, h-index: 23;

The importance to motivate young minds to pursue their scientific path is of an extreme importance, the students are the force who is pushing the motors of science. It seems that taking attention of over 5000 science enthusiasts coming to the conference venue and watching lectures online – let’s us make the assumption the conference did it’s job. It was the biggest scientific conference in the Lithuania.

The full program and more pictures of the event can be found at: http://www.openreadings.eu/

Science fairs & Interactive lectures

Posted on 22/01/201722/01/2017 by ggunaratnam

Warsaw University of Technology EPS Young Minds Section organised and participated in several events aiming to promote physics and science among children and local community. Physics can be fun and very attractive for young kids. Thanks to a grant from EPS, WUT section was able to demonstrate great new experiments adjusted to the age of participant. WUT EPS organised a visit to the local kindergarten with a fairytale full of optical phenomena. Kids were learning, while having a good time.
The section attended also the biggest outdoor science fair in Europe: “Science Picnic of Polish Radio and The Copernicus Science Centre” at the National Stadium in Warsaw.
It is Europe’s largest outdoor event aimed to promote science. Every year, it attracts crowds (over 100 thousand) of visitors to Warszawa. Scientific institutions, universities, research institutes, museums, cultural institutions, and foundations related to science and science clubs present their achievements and reveal the behind-the-scenes aspects of their everyday work. This year’s theme was: “Health and inventions”, so we tried to show how light-based technologies are used in medicine.
Next event the Warsaw section attended was organised by Warsaw University of Technology. It was an educational picnic “From micro to macro” for kids mainly from primary schools.
In september section organised a game: “Rycerze koherencji: W poszukiwaniu gargulca” and a lecture on holography, as a part of Warsaw Festival of Science.
The target of this event was students from primary and secondary school. A game in which the participants under the pretext of searching Gargoyle learn about the phenomenon, and devices used in optical measuring, among others, interferometry, thermal imaging, 3D scanning and luminescence. The lecture was prepared for older audience, so everyone could find something for themselves.

Sounds right? Sounds good!

Posted on 22/01/2017 by ggunaratnam

Besides the various big science events that take place in Trieste, we believe it is important to bring
scientific dissemination to the general public also in its every day life. For this reason, we like to
organize events in pubs, to talk about science in a relaxed setting. Last summer, we had a talk
entitled “Sounds right? Sounds good!” about the physics of music at a pub, just before a local band
played some good music. With the help of a guitar and a string, we talked about how music is
described by waves, what spectral range we humans are able to hear and what the role of
harmonics is in the characteristics of the various music instruments.

Mini Maker Faire – Science Picnic

Posted on 22/01/2017 by ggunaratnam

Trieste has a very high concentration of research centres. This results in various big scientific events,
which gather people from the institutes and university to present their activity to the general
public. Among these events there are the Mini Maker Faire and the Science Picnic, which in 2016
took place consecutively at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, in which we took part
with our own stand. There, we presented to the public facts about space science and the Solar
System. We had 3D-printed models of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and of the ESA Rosetta
probe, paper models of the Rosetta probe to give out to kids, posters on the Solar System and a
binocular, which projected on a cardboard the Sun and a solar spot.
Besides our stand, we had many time-slots to present our talks on the physics of music (“Sounds
right? Sounds good!”), the ESA Rosetta mission, the measurement of the cosmic microwave
background, and the observation of the sky in the infrared spectral range from the Antartic and
from space. In more detail, the measurement of the CMB was discussed with the aid of guitar, to
present it in analogy to the description of waves on a string. The talk on the observation of the
infrared sky was, instead, in the form of a double talk with two speakers, each arguing in favour of
his preferred kind of location.
The number of people reached in these events is large, since these attract people both from the city
and from the whole Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. The total number of visitors to the Mini Maker Faire
has been estimated by the organizers to be 18000. Given its success, we will participate also in the
2017 edition.