2018

IOSA Seminars 2018

Past 12^th of December, IOSA organized the 5^th edition of IOSA Seminars, a great opportunity to show other colleges of the Institute of Optics in what you are working on, and also to know about the research of other groups.

We started with a guest talk of Prof. Javier Alda, from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, talking about Resonant optics for light manipulation and detection.

After that, we had a very special and Spanish networking break: chocolate con churros!

Once we were happily full, we started with the talks. 3 IOSA members were part of the scientific cammittee: Frances Gallazzi, Rocío Gutierrez and Clara Benedí and 7 young researchers explained about very different topics:

1. Esther Soria Sensing chip for POPs detection in water

2. Andres de la Hoz Silk photobonding to corneal tissues

3. Alba Espina Raman and SERS characterization of Iron Gall Inks

4. Sara Aissati Testing the effect of ocular aberrations on perceived Transverse Chromatic

5. Carlos Honrado-Benítez Narrowband coatings for Lyman β imaging

6. Judith Birkenfeld Towards non-invasive assessments of corneal biomechanics

7. Jesús Ruiz-Santaquiteria Alegre Automatic diatom identification for water quality assessment (AQUALITAS)

Here, you can see IOSA members with the speakers of the day:

After so many interesting talks, we finished with part of the speech of Donna Strickland, who received Nobel prize of physics past 10^th of December.

After the seminars, Prof Alda visited our laboratories:

CEIP El Vellón

IOSA is planning to visit new schools this year but we cannot forget one of the visited last year: El Vellón CEIP. We took our suitcase and traveled to a small village on La Sierra de Madrid past March. We explain new things about optics the children from 8 to 12 years old. They learn how vision works, how Internet arrives to their home thanks to optical fibers and what the difference is between fluorescence and phosphorescence.

We finish the day with a special photocall, but… Is this fluorescence or phosphorescence? Try and discover!!

Week of Science 2018

As every year, IOSA participated on Week of Science. Our activity consisted on a “Spectrum challenge”, where each children had to solve different questions related with different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. We explained them many things with our workshops to help them to solve the challenges. Some of them where: communication, fluorescence and UV, ray tracing, color, optical and IR. At the end of the gymkana, the had to cross our typical laser maze! It was really fun for everybody and you can see in the photos below:

Who is the murderer? UV and fluorescence show us!:

Here we learn about colors:

Tyndall effect workshops help us to explain how to drive light using water, and then we move to optical fibers:

Learning how lenses work is easier with ray tracing worshop. Everybody wanted to tray:

Optical ilusions are always amazing to see:

We tried our new IR camera. Children had to look for an object in a dark room:

Here you can see how we prepare the different objects in the dark room:

Preparing the laser maze and the finished laser maze!:

Myopia @ The Royal Botanical Garden

Past 16th October, IOSA collaborated with MyFun group in an outreach activity. We explained them some of our workshops and moved to the Royal Botanical Garden, a very unique venue, to explain to the general public about myopia, vision and optics in general. Having researchers from all around the world about myopia, it was a great opportunity and we all learnt from each other’s.

Then, we ate all the chapter members with her. Lot of croquetas and Spanish omelette for everybody!!!!!

At the end of the day, Andrea shared a coffee with assistants to #WomeninOpticsCSIC monthly coffee, where we talked about different situations that we have lived and who to react when gender inequality is questioned.

We think that it was a really complete experience and we really enjoy time with Andrea!

Prof. Vijay Janyani’s visit

Last 25^th June, IOSA hosted Prof. Vijay Janyani, who came from India.

He gave us a speech about where is his University and how his country is. After learn a little more about India, he explained us about his field of research: solar cells. We could know about new technologies on this topic, like flexible and transparent solar cells.

After that, we shared a nice lunch all together so we had the opportunity to talk and know each other better.

IOSA’s “DISCOVERING LIGHT” WORKSHOP VISITS MOTA DEL CUERVO WITH CIUDAD CIENCIA

On May 2th IOSA joined once again the outreach activities promoted by Ciudad Ciencia a project organized by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Obra Social “La Caixa”, which objective is to bring researchers in small towns far from large urban areas and universities/research centers, so that their inhabitants can experience first-hand science and technology with experts in different fields.

We conducted the activity in the town public library, where we were warmly welcomed by the librarians who are in charge of the local organization. After showing basic principles as reflection and refraction, the attendees had the opportunity to learn about ray tracing & visual optics, fluorescence & phosphorescence and optical fibers & communications. In the morning we had about 90 kids from middle and high school and in the afternoon we opened the workshops to general public (we had especially a group of very nice and curious ladies from the library reading club).

Everyone enjoyed the workshops and the feedback was very good.

HACKATHON GETAFE 2018

Last Friday, April 20^th, we had the pleasure of doing an outreach activity in support of HACKATHON GETAFE (Getafe, Madrid), which had an important topic: ‘Design of technological solutions to improve day-to-day life of people with disabilities’.

While the contestants participated in the HACKATON, thinking about technological solutions to the problems raised in the forum, relatives and visitors roamed around the other workshops (among which IOSA’s) located in the venue, some with simultaneous translation in sign language.

In the big bright space of a former market, we decided to present our Ray Tracing & Vision and Optical Communications workshops.

Attendees have been especially curious about refractive errors (myopia, hyperopia) and understanding why people wear glasses, considering most of them wore glasses. But after the explanation, they were very satisfied having understood the basic principles of visual optics.

In the optical communications workshops, we woke up the interest especially of kids, keen in discovering the ‘mystery’ of how light can transport information and realizing how fibre optics are convenient, to listen to music or the audio of their favourite cartoon.

It has been a good experience for IOSA, participating in this kind of event gave us a different perspective and helped/trained us in being able to explain the same concepts in a lot of different ways.

We hope to participate in similar events again soon.

IOSA's Women's Month STEM Activity for Girl Scouts

Last Friday, 9th of March, came to visit us Girl Scouts from Madrid with an activity called “IOSA’s Women’s Month STEM Activity for Girl Scouts” with the occasion that the previous day, 8th of March, was the International Day of Women.

A total of 29 girls could participate on several workshops and visit some laboratories on the Instituto de Óptica. They recived a passport at the beginning of the activity and they got a stamp on each workshop that they did.

Downstairs, James and Sara explained in the laboratories the work that they do in the Instituto de Óptica: James works with microscopy and Sara with Adaptive Optics. Really big and cool optic tables full of lenses and mirror used for two very different applications!!

Also, we want to thaks Girl Scouts for this amazing video they edited:

http://iosastudentchapter.osahost.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GS-IOSA-38A2157C- 73DB-4C41-BDFE-939ABA9B3521.mp4

We hope you had fun and see you again next time.

Ciencia es femenino

Ciencia es femenino is the event that IOSA organized on the occasion of the International Day of Woman and girls in Science. We organized a round table with interesting women to talk about the absence of the women in Science:

• Mª Jesús del Río Alcalde is the chief of the president office and she explain us the differences between girls and boys in a pre-university period.

• Pilar López Sancho, from Comisión de Mujeres del CSIC, told us about the numbers of women in science, and in CSIC specifically.

• Juana Bellanato Fontecha, who used to be professor at CSIC, remembered her experience since she started her scientific carrier in the 40’s.

• Mª Luisa Calvo Padilla could provide us her point of view as professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

• Susana Marcos talk about her experience as a woman in science.

We also wanted to ask how children, the future society, think a scientist is. So we contacted the teacher of the school that IOSA visited the following month, CEIP El Vellón, to challenge them to send us a drawing of a scientist. They sent us 34 really fun and interesting drawings, but only in 9 of them did a woman appear.

Here you have the drawings:

Also we could talk about different topics, such as the representation of women on textbooks, the importance of having references and good teachers. We knew some studies about the perception of girls and boys about themselves and some survey about the time that women and men spend looking after others.

There was an enthusiastic public that made lot of questions and share their opinion and experiences.

At the end of the event, we invite attendees to have a snack and meeting us a little bit more, and we could observe all the childrens' drawings while we talked with each other.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Next 11th of February is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

For this reason, IOSA is organizing “CIENCIA ES FEMENINO”, a round table on 15^th of February where we will learn about several initiatives that are being carried out. Also we will debate about different topics related to Women in Science in order to make us think both men and women.

For this round table we will count with extraordinary women: Juana Bellanato, Mª Luisa Calvo, Susana Marcos, Mª Jesús del Río, Pilar López Sancho and María Viñas

Save the date!!! 15th February 2018, 11:00h, Instituto de Química Física Rocasolano

IOSA @ CEIP Antonio de Nebrija

Last week IOSA visited CEIP Antonio de Nebrija, in Alcalá de Henares. We bring different workshops for students aged from 10 to 11 years old. They learnt about the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence, about why objects have different colors and about the kind of lenses there are and how we can use them to correct visual problems. Everybody could touch and experiment with all workshops, so they really enjoy them!

We also elaborate a survey in order to know which one is their favorite workshop or the most difficult one. In this way, we also learnt about how to improve our workshops.

Following you can see some photos we took:

Prof. Ursula Keller visits us for the IOSA Scientific Seminars!

Last December we were pleased to host Prof. Ursula Keller’s at the IO-CSIC Student Chapter. The day started with lab visits, to show her the research being carried out at the Institute of Optics (IO-CSIC). Then, at the conference room, Prof. Keller gave her talk, titled Attosecond Ionization Dynamics and Time Delays. It was a very interesting look over quantum mechanics progress and the research done in her lab related to this topic. The audience, which included researchers from IO-CSIC as well as from other universities and institutes, was lively and showed their interest in the topic by asking many questions at the end.

Prof. Keller’s lecture was the kickoff to our IOSA Scientific Seminars. These one-day Seminars consist on short talks given by the researchers (pre-doc, post-doc, and tenured researchers) of the Institute, and the goal is for researchers to explain their current work in a lively, concise manner. These talks followed Prof. Keller’s talk and a coffee break intermission. They were a nice overview of the research that is being carried out at the IO-CSIC. Many questions from the audience came up as well.

Before having lunch, we gave Prof. Keller a short tour around our campus and talked about its history. She was quite excited to learn more about Spain’s history and culture, which she already had an affinity for.

Afterwards, the Student Chapter as well as our advisor, Prof. Susana Marcos, had lunch with Prof. Keller, and had the opportunity to talk to her about women in science and share different points of view. Ursula Keller was positively surprised by the high amount of female scientists that there are in our Student Chapter. We gave her some presents as souvenirs of her visit to our Chapter.

After lunch, we showed Prof. Keller another lab. This was the end of the “official” visit. Then, she invited us to have a drink in a bar. Besides her incredible resume, Ursula is a very approachable, kind and straightforward person and told us about her background and how she worked to get her current position. She also asked us about our career expectations and gave us very valuable advice.

Prof. Ursula Keller’s visit was great and we thank her for finding a spot in her tight schedule to visit us. We’d also like to thank the OSA Traveling Lecturer Program for giving us the opportunity to invite Ursula Keller and being always so helpful with our inquiries.