04-30-09

Watt's Up

College of Optical Sciences News for April 30, 2009

Today's Colloquium. April 30. 3:45 p.m. Meinel 307

Anthony Siegman, Stanford University, will present Optics with Gain. Masud Mansuripur is the host.

Abstract: Interesting questions and phenomena can arise when one inserts even small amounts of gain into familiar optical systems.

Can, for example, amplified total internal reflection or "evanescent waveguide gain" be produced by adding a small amount of gain to the lower index reflecting medium, or to the evanescent cladding region around an optical waveguide? Or must one supplement Augustin Fresnel's classic analysis of dielectric reflection to include the much less familiar concept of "Lenserf reflection" as proposed by the mysterious and little known optics researcher Nitsugua Lenserf?

Or suppose one adds a small amount of gain to the core of an optical fiber which has lower index in the core than in the cladding, and thus no trapped optical modes. Can one thereby convert this antiguiding fiber into a truly propagating fiber-- and then use that fiber to make absolutely single transverse mode fiber lasers with extraordinarily large mode areas?

Answers will be provided . . .

This is the final Colloquium of the academic year. Colloquium will resume shortly after the beginning of the Fall semester in August.

WIO/SOCk End-of-Semester-Picnic

Saturday, May 2. 11:00 a.m. Ft. Lowell Park, Ramada 7

Bring a Potluck Dish to Share

Lunch from Noon to 1:30 p.m. Games Until ... Whenever

From WIO and SOCk. We couldn't let the semester go by without a Spring Picnic. Women In Optics and the Student Optics Chapter would like to invite the College of Optical Sciences to an end-of-the-semester social potluck picnic. Everyone is invited: students, faculty, friends and family.

The picnic will be a potluck-style lunch, so be sure to bring food or a dish to share for 5-10 people. Some ideas are lasagna, items to grill (including hamburgers or hotdogs), buns, potato salad, cookies, desserts, drinks, or ethnic food. Charcoal, plates, cups, utensils, napkins, condiments and some drinks will be provided. (We will provide some sodas, but be sure to bring plenty of water, especially if it’s hot. Please note that we will not have a liquor license, so do not bring alcohol. Also, no glass containers are allowed in the park.)

Lunch will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. We have Ramada 7 reserved until 1:30, therefore the food must be cleaned up by then. However, we are free to use the park for fun and games well into the afternoon.

After lunch, we would like to have games, such as volleyball, Frisbee, soccer, etc. available, so be sure to bring the appropriate toys for the games you would like to play.

Please contact Brittany Lynn at blynn@email.arizona.edu if you have any questions or need help finding transportation.

You're Invited to an Ice Cream Social

Monday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m.

Third Floor Lobby

With final exams and graduation right around the corner, the hard-working faculty and staff in our Academic Programs office have decided to end the school year in exactly the same way we started it -- with lots and lots of ice cream.

Please come and join us. There will be plenty of ice cream and toppings for everyone.

Call for Participation: Assessing User Interfaces in the SCAPE Environment

From Sangyoon Lee. We are currently conducting a user interface evaluation of SCAPE, an immersive 3D virtual environment developed by faculty and students in the 3DVIS lab at the College of Optical Sciences.

We are looking for study participants who satisfy following requirements:

20/20 corrected vision
normal color vision
normal stereo vision (e.g. experience 3D perception when watching 3D movies)

The purpose of this study is to compare the quality of various SCAPE user interfaces for performing 2-user collaborative tasks. In the test, you will be asked to wear a helmet (Head-Mounted Display) to see a 3D virtual world visualized on a turntable. You will be asked to interact with certain objects in that world. The data collected in this study will be kept entirely anonymous.

The study will consist of two sessions, each on a separate day and consisting of about 1hr 30min each. Modest compensation will be provided to all participants for their time. For accounting purposes as required by the University, we will need your SSN or EID; this information will be kept separate from any performance data we collect.

This experiment is expected to run during the whole weeks of May, beginning on the 4th, but session scheduling is flexible and the experiment will run until sufficient data are collected.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Sangyoon Lee at sylee@optics.arizona.edu Thank you for your consideration.

Reminder: SWOSC is June 15-18 in Albuquerque

It's not too late to plan to attend the first Southwestern Optics Student Conference (SWOSC) to be held this June in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Our SPIE/OSA student chapter (SOCk) has teamed up with student chapters from University of New Mexico, the University of Colorado, and Texas A&M to organize SWOSC 2009. This will be a unique opportunity to meet and collaborate with students from other universities. In addition, representatives from companies and government labs will be in attendance, so students will have the chance to participate in panel discussions and present their research in a professional environment. Plus, group excursions are scheduled to give attendees time to explore the Albuquerque area.

Abstracts are due by May 15 and the registration deadline is June 5 (abstract submission is not required to attend). SOCk is planning to organize travel and registration for UA students as a group, so please contact Stefano Young (syoung@optics.arizona.edu) if you have questions or would like to register for SWOSC. The conference website is http://www.unm.edu/osa/swsc/

Thank you,

SWOSC Planning Committee

Students

Awards

We continue to be enormously proud of our students and their accomplishments. This week, Katia Shtyrkova won the University of Arizona Foundation's Outstanding Senior Award and three OSC students, Brian Wheelwright, Jun Zhang, and Rui Zhang, were awarded 2009 SPIE Scholarships in Optical Science and Engineering.

Congratulations Katia, Brian, Jun and Rui.


Katia Shtyrkova	Brian Wheelwright	Jun Zhang	Rui Zhang

Faculty

VOTE in SPIE's Upcoming Election

The SPIE 2009 election for officers and board directors will be held from June 1 to July 22. SPIE members who are eligible to vote will receive an e-mail message from SPIE with instructions on the electronic voting process.

At SPIE, members vote for one vice-presidential candidate. The person elected will serve four consecutive years in each of the four different capacities that comprise the presidential chain: vice-president, president-elect, president, and immediate past-president.

This year, SPIE has two excellent candidates for vice-president: Christopher Progler, with Photonics, Inc., and our own Eustace Dereniak. If you'd like to see a brief resume and a partial list of Eustace's many qualifications for the SPIE position, please visit his Web site at http://www.optics.arizona.edu/faculty/Resumes/Dereniak.htm

Although there are currently no College of Optical Sciences faculty members or alumni in SPIE's presidential chain, OSC faculty members and alumni have a long tradition of service to SPIE, At the moment, the SPIE Board of Directors (completely separate from the presidential chain) includes two OSC faculty members, Jennifer Barton and Donis Flagello, and one alumnus, David Wick, OSC MS 1992 and PhD 1997, now with Sandia. Tucson's optics community is further represented by Kathleen Perkins, formerly with Breault Research Corporation and now with OpticsReport, and there are quite a number of OSC faculty and alumni currently serving on SPIE Committees. Over the years, OSC faculty and alumni have made it a priority to serve SPIE in leadership and governance capacities and we would like to keep this tradition alive by electing Eustace to SPIE's presidential chain.

So -- one more time -- SPIE will e-mail those eligible to vote with instructions on the electronic voting process. You can vote any time between June 1 and July 22. (Vote for Eustace☺)

Watts Happening

Happy Birthday and Best Wishes for a Wonderful Year

OSC Calendar

April 30

Bob Bourland's Retirement Luncheon at Molina's Midway.

April 30

PhD Final Oral Exam. 10:00 a.m. Meinel 547. Ying Li will present Impact of Macrobend Loss on the Bandwidth of Standard and Bend-Insensitive Multimode Fiber.

April 30

OSC Colloquium. 3:30 p.m. Meinel 307.

May 4

Ice Cream Social. 3:30 p.m. Meinel 3rd floor lobby.

May 6

Last day of classes.

May 7

Reading day. No classes.

May 8

First day of final exams.

May 15

Last day of final exams.

May 15 and 16

UA Commencements.

On Campus

April 30

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar. 4:00 p.m. AME Lecture Hall, Room S212. Mr. Luthur Siu Lun Cheung, AME PhD candidate, will present Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells Under Hydrodynamic Loading in Microfluidic Systems.

May 1

Physics Colloquium. 3:00 p.m. PAS 216. Erich Varnes, UA Department of Physics, will present Measurement of the W Boson Helicity in Top Quark Decays.

Optics Community Events

April 30

AOIA Mixer. Solon Corporation, 6950 S. Country Club Rd. 5:30 p.m. RSVP to Sara Brown at sbrown@breault.com Speakers: RD Castillo Mastech, Bob Horn Adhocbiz, Gordon Goodyear, Steve Rosenberg Tucson Magazine, Fred Weber SA Labs Inc, Tom Shambo SBDC, Bill Austin Life Cycles, Walter Tighe Sustaining Edge Solutions, Inc., Barry Soloway Management Pragmatics LLC, and Martin Kelber Modular Systems Group. LLC. The anchor speaker, Tom Hunt of Northern Trust, will show alternatives ways to finance. No charge for members, $10.00 fee for guests and non-members.

Employment

Optical/Electrical Engineering Intern. Clear Align. Summary: Clear Align designs, prototypes and manufactures custom imaging, sensing and fiber optic systems for defense, aerospace and commercial customers. Clear Align’s imaging expertise spans the UV, visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR portions of the spectrum, delivering both narrow- and wide field-of-view systems. Fiber-optic and sensing expertise includes optical integration for communications, remote sensing and targeting, as well as medical fiber optics. Clear Align houses a highly sophisticated facility and engineering team in an organizational structure that is nimble, customer-driven and non-bureaucratic. We are currently looking for Optical/Electrical Engineering interns to support our product development teams. Essential Duties and responsibilities include the following: Taking measurements on optical systems including lenses, electronics, and mechanical assemblies. Aligning and assembling optical systems. Troubleshooting optical imaging systems based on test results. The candidate should have the following attributes: Completion of junior year (or higher) in optics, electrical engineering, or physics. Proficiency in optical principles and optical design or digital electronic design. Hands-on experience in optical testing or electronic design, assembly, and testing. Demonstrated ability to work in a cohesive team environment. Superior communication, organization, and math skills. U.S. citizenship. Clear Align is an equal-opportunity employer. Clear Align, www.clearalign.com Attn: Jeff Miller, Director of Recruiting. 2550 Boulevard of the Generals, Suite 280, Eagleville, PA 19403. careers@clearalign.com 484-956-0510

OSC On-Line Store

Short Courses | On-Line Classes | Clothing | Mugs

Short Courses on DVD

These non-credit, self-paced courses are designed for professional engineers, scientists, technicians, and managers who wish to explore specific topics, technologies, and techniques without committing to a semester-long course. The courses offer students an opportunity to continue their optics education anywhere, anytime: at home, at work, on travel... the convenience is priceless.

Courses are taught by faculty members at The University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences and the short course content is derived from the College's respected academic curriculum.

For more information and to purchase, please visit:
http://www.optics.arizona.edu/ShortCourses/Default.htm

On-Line Classes

Semester-long, for-credit optics classes, delivered anywhere in the world.

These are the same classes, taught by the same faculty members, that we offer to our on-campus students at The University of Arizona.

Take individual courses tailored to your specific interests, earn a professional graduate certificate in optics, or complete a Master's degree in optical sciences -- all on-line.

For admission and cost, please visit:

http://www.optics.arizona.edu/academics/distance.htm

Student-Designed T-Shirts

100% cotton tees. In addition to the three shirts shown at right, there's also a fourth shirt that comes in black. All the shirts are available in broken sizes ranging from very small to quite large. There are some children's sizes included in the mix.

Quantities are extremely limited. These shirts were winners in our annual Student-T-Shirt Design Contest and are not available anywhere else.

Price: $12 each or 2 for $20.

To Purchase: Bring cash to Sara Soto in Academics, Meinel 403.

OSC Baseball Caps

These distinctive caps are solid black with the OSC rainbow diamond embroidered over the bill in front and the words "Optical Sciences" arching across the back.

Our high standards are reflected in the high quality of the cap: it's made of 100% cotton twill with six venting eyelets and an adjustable Velcro closing in back for a custom fit.

Price: $12 each plus an additional fee for shipping if required.

To Purchase: please contact Luz Palomarez in the Dean's office by e-mail at luz@optics.arizona.edu or by telephone at 520-621-6997 ext. 1.

OSC Alumni Polo Shirts

Identify yourself as a member of one of the world's most elite groups -- College of Optical Sciences Alumni -- when you wear one of our amazing red polo shirts with OSC's signature rainbow diamond embroidered on the left front and the University of Arizona's red and blue block A on the right sleeve.

The shirts come in a good range of sizes in both masculine and feminine versions. They're exactly what you'd expect from the world's best optics school: 100% cotton pique, two-button placket, banded cuffs, taped back neck seam, even hem, and vented side seams. Cap sold separately.

Price: $25 each plus an additional fee for shipping if required.

To Purchase: please contact Luz Palomarez in the Dean's office by e-mail at luz@optics.arizona.edu or by telephone at 520-621-6997 ext. 1.

OSC Polo Shirts

Our alumni shirts (above) are also available for non-alumni and are the same shirts that our students and faculty members wear when they represent OSC at professional functions. The words under the rainbow diamond simply say "College of Optical Sciences. " The shirts are available in a variety of sizes for men and women and come in three colors: alumni red, UA blue, and white.

Price: $25 each plus an additional fee for shipping if required.

To Purchase: please contact Luz Palomarez in the Dean's office by e-mail at luz@optics.arizona.edu or by telephone at 520-621-6997 ext. 1.

OSC Mugs

These are absolutely gorgeous -- cobalt blue with our OSC rainbow diamond on the front and back, complemented by microwave-safe gold lettering and stripes at the top and bottom. Sold individually or as a set.

Price: $35 set of four or $10 each plus an additional fee for shipping if required.

To Purchase: please contact Luz Palomarez in the Dean's office by e-mail at luz@optics.arizona.edu or by telephone at 520-621-6997 ext. 1.

Subscribe to Watt's Up

Students: When you graduate and leave OSC, your subscription to Watt's Up automatically expires. If you would like to continue your subscription, you may add (and later remove if you wish) your name to our Watt's Up listserv by visiting http://www.optics.arizona.edu/helpdesk/listserv.htm

Cathy Alexander

Information Specialist Coordinator

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona

cathy.alexander@optics.arizona

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