S P I E S t u d e n t C h a p t e r, U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l cu t t a

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1 Chapter Report January - December 2008 S P I E S t u d e n t C h a p t e r, U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l cu t t a It gives us pleasure to prepare the activity report of our chapter, which is now a little more than 2 years old and just keeping up fine with its activities. Supported by the ardent spirit of its members who plays a crucial role in its functioning, the current strength of the chapter is 29. The election of new office bearers took place on 8 th August 2008, with the new office bearers as under. President : Vice-President : Secretary : Treasurer : Sourav Pal Nasrin Reza Paulami Ray Ujjal Dutta While reporting our activities we feel happy to inform that SPIE Student Chapter CU has had a successful year in terms of numerous events, seminars and outreach activities. There was keen participation in the seminars and lectures on various topics delivered by eminent scholars and scientists from reputed institutes in India. We have also conducted several Outreach programs this year (especially in the rural areas of West Bengal) with which we have been able to spread our knowledge of optics hands on to many students including several underprivileged students in remote areas. We have received overwhelming responses to all our activities. 1. Seminar on Global Warming, February 13, 2008 The seminar on Global Warming, was just the right way to roll out our activity program for the year The speaker, Dr. N. Sundararaman brought the entire audience face to face with the impending threats posed by the nature as a result of global warming. Though with a flavor little different from the ones we are attuned to, the seminar was just the perfect one to incite one s

2 conscience that so often remains oblivious to all wrongful ways of exploiting our planet. With unveiling of breathtaking catastrophes that looms large above us the session was successful to unite the audience for a common cause i.e. to face and fight the menace of global warming. 2. Participation at the SPIE Student Chapter Conference, SPIE Asia 2008, June 30 July 02, 2008 The then president of the chapter Ujjal Dutta, represented our chapter, at the SPIE Student Chapter Conference, "SPIE Asia 2008" organized by SPIE Student Chapter, NUT, Singapore, between June 30 - July 02, 2008 in Singapore. A conference of its kind is organized for the first time providing an opportunity of interaction between the different chapter representatives in Asia. The workout session and discussions with the SPIE student coordinator Mr. Dirk Fabian was valuable not only in framing out the activities of a chapter but also to analyze the challenges and various ways to keep up to these for any chapter in its coming years.

3 3. Seminar on Mysteries of Universe, November 7, 2008 We are pleased to report on the success of our endeavor to organize a collaborative activity with Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore consisting of seminars on The fate of Massive Stars and In search of life outside Solar System, on November 7, 2008 at the B. R. Nag Auditorium. Both the seminars were highly exciting, with the speakers providing insights on various haunting aspects of the universe and sharing their practical perceptions on the observational aspects in Astronomy with the audience who were very interactive as well. While speaking on the seminar talk entitled, The fate of Massive Stars, speaker Dr G. C. Anupama, Associate Professor from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore discussed on the life of a star and its mass, which determines a star s life span. She also gave a brief introduction to the various observational aspects in the studies of supernovae. Dr. Sujan K. Sengupta, Reader from the same institute discussed on the aspects leading to the discovery of planets, their physical properties and their habitability in his seminar talk entitled In search of life outside Solar System. He also unveiled the current status of the search for life in some of the extra-solar planets. It seems his lecture will initiate an interesting collaborative research work on the development of few urgently required instruments useful for astronomy with the Department of Applied Optics & Photonics. It is to be mentioned that this collaborative activity is covered by the $250 grant from SPIE and some additional support from IIA, Bangalore. The participation at the seminar has been notable with students, research scholars and teachers from various science and technology faculties turning up in good numbers. The total number of participants who attended the program is given below. Students: 46 Research Scholars: 10 Teachers: 12 Total: 68

4 Seminar on Mysteries of Universe 4. Outreach Activity at Vidyasagar Study Centre, Shantiniketan, November 16, 2008 It gives us pleasure to report on the outreach activity held in Vidyasagar Study Centre, Shantiniketan, on November 16, 2008 carried out by the students on behalf of the SPIE Student Chapter-University of Calcutta. A team of six members from the Chapter headed by Dr. Kallol Bhattacharya (Reader, AOP-CU and Faculty Advisor) visited Vidyasagar Study Centre, Shantiniketan to represent various physical phenomena through models and interactive scientific demonstrations before a group of young, underprivileged students. The students were caught with much interest in all the models and study materials that were demonstrated before them. They were closely engaged with the experiments and cherished the way of learning through interaction. Both the students and their teachers expressed their willingness for another such outreach event that may be conducted for them in near future. The total number of participants who attended the outreach activity program is given below. Total Students: 86 Boys: 52 Girls: 34

5 5. Outreach Activity at Sultanpur High School, Ghatal, Paschim Midnapur, December 1, 2008 As an agenda of the Outreach activity for SPIE, a group of six students from the SPIE Student Chapter CU accompanied by their faculty Dr. Rajib Chakrabarty (Reader, AOP,CU) reached out with interactive scientific study materials to the students of Sultanpur High School, Sultanpur, Ghatal, Paschim Midnapur, West Bengal. This time a large number of students turned up to attend the program, both from the middle school and high school. Our students had a hectic day out spending time with the students over the models demonstrating science phenomena to as many as 415 students. The students were beaming with enthusiasm and spent the day long session over each and every models with profuse interest, portraying a quest for scientific explanations alive in them, while living in the lap of nature at a remote place from the city. It was very satisfying for our volunteers to interact with the students and their teachers who were in high praise of the program and expressed their interest in organizing another similar one with us in future. The total number of participants who attended the attended the program is given below. Total Students: 415 Boys: 280 Girls: 135

6 Outreach Activity at Sultanpur High School, Ghatal, Paschim Midnapore 6. Seminar on The SUN, December 17, 2008 We are glad to report that on 17th of December 2008, we had arranged for a seminar on the topic The Sun delivered by Dr. Dipankar Banerjee, (Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore) at the Applied Physics Lecture Theatre. The seminar turned out to be an extremely exciting and a highly interactive one with active participation from the students, members, research scholars, faculties of many departments of CU. There were interesting discussions on the different aspects

7 of the sun like the sun spots, helio and asteroseismology, solar activities, solar outbursts, coronographs, solar magnetohydrodynamics etc. The lecture was very enriching in terms of its contents resulting in tremendous response from the students and requests to conduct many such lectures in the near future. The total number of participants who attended the conference is given below. Students: 35 Research Scholars: 6 Teachers: 7 Total: Seminar on Pattern Recognition, December 19, 2008 It is our pleasure to report that we had successfully arranged a lecture on Pattern Recognition in association with TEQIP on the 19th of December 2008 at the N.R. Sen Auditorium. The first lecture was delivered by Professor M.S. Alam, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of South Alabama, USA who spoke about Ultrafast Pattern Recognition and Tracking in visual, infrared & hyperspectral imagery. The next lecture was given by Professor C.A. Murthy, Professor & Head, Machine Intelligency Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India who spoke about Feature Selection in Pattern Recognition. The seminar was inaugurated by Professor Susanta Sen, Dean, Faculty Council for Engineering Technology, CU and introduced by Professor Ajoy Ghosh, Head, Department of Applied Optics &Photonics, CU. Active participation of the students, scholars and Professors resulted in an interesting and interactive meet.

8 The total number of participants who attended the conference is given below. Students: 37 Research Scholars: 6 Teachers: 5 Total: Outreach Activity at Radhakantapur High School, Ghatal, Paschim Midnapur, December 23, 2008 As usual another very enjoyable event of science education through interactive models prepared by the chapter members coupled with some resources of the optics kits from SPIE rolled out. It was a fruitful one to end with a prospect of organizing a joint science fair between our chapter and the school. The primary discussions with the school authorities over the prospect of a science fair in near future has been very satisfactory. Well, all well that ends well, would be the right way to depict the success of the program at the end of the year The total number of participants who attended the outreach activity program is given below. Total Students: 264 Boys: 170 Girls: 94

9 Outreach Activity at Radhakantapur High School, Ghatal, Paschim Midnapore

10 Financial Statement SPIE Student Chapter, University of Calcutta Chapter Bank Account details: Savings Account A/C No: State Bank of India Manicktala Branch, Kolkata India Available Balance as on 1 st January INR Activity Grant Sanctioned (2008) INR (Amount credited to SPIE chaptera/c on ) Available Balance as on 9 th April INR Expenditure Incurred Expenditure in Seminars & meetings INR (Jan 01 Dec 31, 2008) Steel Almira for SPIE office 9300 INR Expenses incurred in outreach activities INR (Jan 01 Dec 31, 2008) Expenses incurred in making models 5000 INR for outreach activities INR Available Balance as on 31 st December 2008: 1839 INR