<![CDATA[Photonics Society at UCSB - Outreach Events]]>Sat, 19 Jul 2025 01:08:03 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Fluorescence Activity at SBMA]]>Fri, 14 Feb 2020 07:17:04 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/fluorescence-activity-at-sbmaThe Photonic Society Outreach team had a great time on Feb. 5 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) presenting their new Fluorescence activity to over 150 students as part of their field trip. For more details, see our page about the activity.
]]><![CDATA[September 2019 LaserComm at MOXI]]>Sun, 22 Sep 2019 05:41:36 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/september-2019-lasercomm-at-moxiLaserComm at MOXI - Thursday 9/19, from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
 
The UCSB Outreach volunteers had a blast hosting the LaserComm acitivity again at MOXI. It was a field trip day with many student visitors from 2nd grade to 6th grade. The day started with 30 third graders from Rio Del Sol arriving at 10:00 AM. They started with a lab activity in the back, then explored the museum floor. After the 3rd graders, 75 sixth graders arrived from Westfield Elementary. Later, 26 second graders visited from St Anthony’s and started their engineering lab at 11:30.

It was another exciting day for both the students and the volunteers. Check out the photos of the activity below!
More info on this activity can be found here.
]]><![CDATA[LaserComm at MOXI for Summer 2019]]>Thu, 22 Aug 2019 05:04:52 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/lasercomm-at-moxi-for-summer-2019Animation of dry ice on laser beamDry Ice "Bucket o' Steam" to make the beam visible.
After the successful pilot LaserComm workshop at the MOXI Wolf Science Museum, the activity will be hosted by the UCSB Outreach volunteers again on the following days:
  • Saturday 8/24 @ 9:00am - 12:00 pm
  • Thursday 9/19  @ 10:00am - 1:00 pm

On 9/19, we will be hosting the activity for local middle school students who will be visiting the museum. We learned a couple of ways to improve the LaserComm activity from our pilot workshop, so we expect even more fun and learning in the workshops to come! 
More detailed info on this activity can be found here.
Picture
Using a Smoke Machine to make the red laser beam visible. (from left: Demis D. John, Joel Guo, Sam Shaw)
photo of family guidiing red laser light
PhoSoc president Takako Hirokawa helps a family experiment with the bent plastic "guide" and mirror.
]]><![CDATA[MOXI Museum Pilot LaserComm Activity]]>Tue, 13 Aug 2019 05:39:36 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/moxi-museum-pilot-lasercomm-activitySam Shaw at the MOXI Wolf Science Museum held a pilot workshop on August 11 2019 to test out the PhoSoc LaserComm activity with local kids and families. 
The newly revised activity uses laser cut components, printed circuit boards and 3D Printed mounts to allow museum visitors to focus entirely on manipulating light.  See the LaserComm activity page for more info.

​We made all the components fit onto a peg-board, which has sides to prevent stray laser light and allow kids to see where the light is going. The activity includes the following components:
  • Red Laser & LED transmitters that send music from a connected iPad/iPod. Powered by USB adaptors.
  • Solar-Cell Receivers hooked up to portable speakers for immediate audible feedback.
  • Mirrors mounted to pegs (One with a plastic coat to diffuse the light)
  • Tape on Plexiglass acting as optical diffuser
  • Three different glass lenses mounted to flat bases
  • Bent Plastic “Guide” mounted to flat base
  • 3 tall Walls on pegs, to make a “challenge” where kids have to get the light to reach a detector behind the Wall. 
  • Fog machine or Dry Ice for making beams visible.
(You can use our original DIY LaserComm instructions to build your own at home!)  
Picture
]]><![CDATA[Shereen Outreach Chair at ETOP 2019]]>Sat, 29 Jun 2019 06:01:25 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/kareem-outreach-at-etop-2019Picture
​On May 24th 2019, Shereen Hamdy the chair of the PhoSoc Outreach Committee, presented at the ETOP 2019 conference (Education and Training in Optics & Photonics) in Quebec, Canada! Her paper discussed the outreach activities that the Phosoc Outreach Committee has developed to show the exciting principles of photonics while developing good practices for scientific inquiry and research. 
​
Light-based educational outreach activities for pre-university students 
Paper 11143-71
Author(s): Shereen W. Hamdy, Takako Hirokawa, Philip Chan, Warren Jin, Victoria Rosborough, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (United States); Eric Stanton, National Institute of Standards and Technology (United States); Andrew M. Netherton, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (United States); Marilyn Garza, Santa Barbara Junior High School (United States); Wendy Ibsen, Demis D. John, John E. Bowers, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (United States) 

​Abstract:
​We developed three light-based educational outreach activities for pre-university students, emphasizing hands-on components for core learning. These activities leverage concepts from integrated optics and solid-state lighting, centering on (1) building a free-space optical link, (2) subtractive and additive color mixing, and (3) guiding light using gelatin "waveguides". We garner considerable excitement in students when activities culminate in an open-ended challenge. Activity leaders emphasize important research practices such as learning from the success of others' experiments, making and testing informed hypotheses, persistence in understanding and solving problems, and the desire to improve upon even a working solution.
]]><![CDATA[Color Mixing Activity at Santa Barbara Museum of Art]]>Wed, 20 Feb 2019 07:36:29 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/color-mixing-activity-at-santa-barbara-museum-of-artOn Feb. 19, the Photonic Society at UCSB lead the FUSE color mixing activity at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art with help from Wendy Ibsen and the CSEP group. This activity was part of the Santa Barbara Junior High School field trip to the art museum. 

To keep up with CSEP news check their website and their Facebook page. 
For more info on Photonic Society activities, check out our After-School Science page. 
Picture
]]><![CDATA[Women in Photonics 2018]]>Thu, 08 Nov 2018 08:00:00 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/women-in-photonics-2018In October 2018, The Photonic Society held another successful Women in Photonics week this year with great speakers, tours, activities.

See the full week of events at the main event page:
​Women in Photonics 2018 - Full Event Listing
]]><![CDATA[OFC San Diego: "Bringing STEM to Light"]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2018 23:03:34 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/ofc-san-diego-bringing-stem-to-lightIn collaboration with Lauren Mecum at the IEEE Photonics Society & Laser Classroom, the PhoSoc Outreach team will be volunteering teach pre-university teachers how to use the Laser Classroom educational outreach kits, from 9am–12n at OFC in San Diego.

"Lunch & Learn"
When: Sunday March 11th, 12:00 – 14:00
Where: OFC, San Diego // Room 14 (Mezzanine Level)  
RSVP: We will also be at the "Lunch & Learn" in which pre-university teachers & photonics scientists get to interact and network.
Every attendee will get a free Laser Classroom education kit.  Lunch is provided.
If you're attending OFC on Sunday March 11th in San Diego, come by Room 14 (mezzanine Level) for the Lunch & Learn.  See the OFC special events page for more info, and be sure to RSVP at the link above!
]]><![CDATA[MESA Day @ UCSB]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2018 23:00:58 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/mesa-day-ucsbThe PhoSoc outreach team will be hosting hands-on demos at MESA Day at UCSB, on Friday March 3rd in Phelps 1425 at 11am.  Check out the Los Inginieros website for more info!
]]><![CDATA[I HEART STEM]]>Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:19:17 GMThttp://ips.ece.ucsb.edu/outreach/i-heart-stemVictoria Rosborough & Takako Hirokawa (PhoSoc President & Secretary) hosted a hands-on Laser Communications workshop at WISE's I ❤️STEM weekend on October 28th.  The event was specifically for high-school women, and features numerous science and technology workshops and demos. We re-used our LaserCom activity for the workshop, which you can find here (lesson 1). ]]>