Skip to main content

International Day of Light: SPIE Now Welcoming Micro Grant Applications


On 16 May, the second International Day of Light (IDL) will celebrate the importance of light and light-based technologies to individuals and communities around the world. SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, supports IDL in part by offering Micro Grants towards SPIE Member activities that showcase and share the role that light plays in our lives. We are currently welcoming applications for 2019 IDL Micro Grants, with an application deadline of 15 December.

Last year, SPIE supported activities across the globe, from Cote D’Ivoire, Argentina, the US and India, to Thailand, Italy, the UK, and South Africa. Programs engaged students of all ages, professors, volunteers, and industry professionals, resulting in exciting, impactful events.

The Université Laval SPIE Student Chapter in Quebec City built an interactive, informative, light-phenomena-sharing platform, La Terrasse Optique, in front of the Quebec Parliament, making their venture an educational, scientific, and artistic endeavor as well as a central-city tourist attraction.

In New Zealand, the SPIE Student Chapter at the University of Auckland held a Historic Science Fair, complete with costumed volunteers representing famous scientists as well as engaging technical demonstrations and question and answer sessions with the university’s researchers. Students from the city’s primary schools were invited along with their parents, and hired buses transported regional students to the day-long fair as well.

The Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon in San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico, held events over two days, including an Optics Outreach Workshop on diffraction and scattering; an informal coffee-and-chat session between a university professor and undergraduate students; a “Dumpster Optics” workshop for elementary and secondary public school teachers covering fun, inexpensive ways to enhance their science classes; and a public, day-long event chock full of workshops (kaleidoscopes; pinholes; polarization; astronomy; 3D art), and optics-focused puppet-plays featuring Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Carl Sagan, and Ben Franklin.

Participants at the day-long event hosted by the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon
in San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico

And Quaid-i-Azam University’s Department of Physics in Islamabad, Pakistan, held a two-day Optics Fair, welcoming about 400 students and more than 50 faculty members from local schools and colleges. Interactive experiments included demonstrating, via candy and LEDs, how light is absorbed and reflected; how to create a hologram pyramid; and a playful, colorful look at how to generate optical illusions.

Participants at the Optics Fair at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan

If you have an optical-illusion-generating-trick up your sleeve; fancy running a series of optical-focused workshops for your local schools and community organizations; have a terrific idea about shining a new light on optical phenomena; or would like to participate in 2019’s International Day of Light in other ways, please visit the SPIE website to find out more about IDL, our Micro Grants, and how to apply.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Ways to Celebrate the first International Day of Light

The first International Day of Light (IDL) is less than a month away. A global initiative highlighting the importance of light and light-based technologies, communities around the world are planning events celebrating IDL on 16 May. First Place Winner of the 2017 SPIE IDL Photo Contest SPIE will participate in outreach events local to our community in Bellingham, Washington, attend the inauguration in Paris, France, and host an IDL reception for our conference attendees at SPIE Optical Systems Design in Frankfurt, Germany taking place May 14-17. SPIE is also supporting local events in 13 different communities from the US to India, Canada to South Africa, who were awarded SPIE IDL Micro Grants to create activities that highlight the critical role light plays in our daily lives. Do you need some ideas on how to show your appreciation of light on the 16th? Here is our top ten list of ways you can celebrate IDL 2018: 1. Throw a Celebration:  Light up your party with light an

#FacesofPhotonics: NASA Intern Elaine Stewart

MIRROR, MIRROR: Elaine with the JWST at Goddard Space  Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland Meet Elaine Stewart: chemical engineering student, world-traveler, intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and this week's SPIE Face of Photonics. Elaine is fascinated by space exploration and how optics impacts our ability to "study distant stars that have never been seen before." Her research has taken her around the world -- from Bochum, Germany, where she studied material science and engineering at Ruhr-Universität, to Houston, Texas, to work on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) while it was under cryogenic vacuum chamber testing, to Melbourne, Australia, where she studied biochemical and product engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2017. And, when she's not busy traversing the globe, she is focusing on graduating from the University of Delaware in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering. Elaine makes a point of remaining an active

Taking a Deep Dive into the World of Biophotonics

Gavrielle presents her research in Ven SPIE Student Member Gavrielle Untracht is pursuing her PhD at The University of Western Australia. She had the chance to participate in the 9th International Graduate Summer School in Biophotonics this past June on the island of Ven between Sweden and Denmark. At the school, sponsored by SPIE, invited experts from around the globe gave extended presentations on topics like tissue optics, strategies for cancer treatment using lasers, and entrepreneurship in photonics. Attendees also had the opportunity to present their current research projects, results, or ideas. Gavrielle shares her experiences of the summer school with this community in the following guest blog post. I recently returned from a week of great discussions and beautiful weather at the 9th Biophotonics Summer School on the Isle of Ven, Sweden. This experience, made possible (in part) by SPIE, was an invaluable opportunity for networking and a deep dive into the world of bi