SPIE Student Chapter – IIT Madras
Chennai – 600036, India
Invited talks
1. As part of the activities conducted by the IIT Madras chapter there was an
invited talk by Prof. Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, University of Waterloo
on 23rd July, 2014. His talk was on “The Sunstone and Polarized Skylight:
Ancient Viking Navigational Tools?” He is presently a visiting Professor of
Physics and EE at the University of Michigan. He is a fellow of OSA, SPIE,
IEEE, APS, IOP etc. Recent awards include SPIE Optics Educator (2011),
Esther Hoffman Beller of OSA. He received his M.Sc. in theoretical physics
from Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai and Ph.D. from Berkeley. He is
in the global steering committee of the International Year of Light.
Abstract of the talk:
The Vikings landed in north America around 1000 about 500 years before
Christopher Columbus. How did they cross the stormy and cloud/fog covered
north Atlantic? This was also about 300 years before the invention of the
magnetic compass. It is possible that the Vikings used the polarization of the sky
in conjunction with calcite (the sunstone referred to in Viking legends) a doubly
refracting crystal and the Haidinger‟s brushes phenomenon to detect the position
of the sun.
Details of the chapters activities since last report to March-2015:
Invited Talks:
Annual Report
Prof. Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan being felicitated after his talk
2. By the month of September-2014, on behalf of SPIE Student Chapter-IIT
Madras, we have invited Prof.Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri, University of
Connecticut, USA for a special lecture. After his talk, he also donated his book
called “Causal Physics: An engineer’s journey to visualize the invisible
interaction processes" to our chapter advisor.
Abstract of the talk: Since very ancient times human species has succeeded in
accelerating its rate of evolution through innovations of tools and technologies by
emulating nature allowed processes in different permutations and combinations
irrespective of whether they had the FINAL theories for the relevant phenomena
under consideration. Today we have entered the Knowledge Age through our
skills in generating, manipulating, propagating and then detecting electrons and
photons. But we still do not know what exactly electrons and photons are made
of! Physics can remain connected to nature‟s causal realities if we consistently
keep on asking questions that help us understand the real physical processes
going on in nature. Here are some typical questions by an engineer thriving on
Physics & Optics.
What are the physical processes behind the appearance of the spectral fringe
broadening corroborating Time-Frequency Fourier Transform (TF-FT) when we
analyze a pulsed light? What are the physical processes behind the appearance of
the far-field diffraction pattern due to a single slit, which corroborate the Space-
Space Fourier Transform (SS-FT)? What are the physical processes behind the
appearance of the superposition (interference) cosine fringes under the single slit
diffraction envelope in the far-field diffraction pattern due to a double-slit? Are
the spectral and spatial resolution limits due to the Uncertainty Principle of
nature; or, are they limitations of our theories and technologies?
Is superluminal velocity physically real; or, limitations of our theories and
interpretations? Are the Doppler effects for sound waves and optical waves
fundamentally different? For sound the source and detector velocities with
respect to the stationary air is clearly discernable. Is such discernibility an
irrelevant search for EM wave Doppler effect? How do, the randomly moving
excited detecting-atoms before responding to a stimulating photon (in a gas
laser), know their relative velocities with the source atoms (the mother of the
distant spontaneous emissions)? Is the space between atoms inside a gas laser
tube fundamentally different from those between atoms in the corona of distant
stars? Evolution Congruent Thinking leads to better answers! All these and
innumerable other questions tend to facilitate causal answers: (i) if we explicitly
recognize Non-Interaction of Waves (NIW) that is waves in the linear domain do
not interact (interfere) to reorganize their spatial and temporal energy
distributions by themselves in the linear domain in the absence of some
interacting medium; and
(ii) if we accept the space as a Complex Tension Field (CTF) that is responsible
in enabling the perpetual highest velocity c to all EM waves across the entire
galaxy without any velocity-related contributions from the emitters.
Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri during his lecture at IIT Madras, Chennai.
Audience visited during the talk of Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri at IIT Madras
Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri (left)
receiving memento from Prof AR Ganesan.
Prof. Chandrasekhar Roychoudhuri (left)
donating his book to Prof AR Ganesan
. . . . .
After his wonderful talk on wave and
particle nature of light, as a token of
respect a memento was given on behalf of
SPIE Student Chapter–IIT Madras. The
memento was given by the faculty advisor
of the IIT Madras SPIE Student Chapter,
Prof. AR Ganesan (Right side)
3. The second talk for the year was organized during the month of February.
Prof.S.Anantha Ramakrishna from Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur was
invited for the talk. He presented on the topic of “Active Materials perfect
absorbers”
Abstract of the talk:
Composite structured materials, also called metamaterials, now offer an alternate
route to optical device design by offering material properties that are not
normally available in natural materials. Unique phenomena such as negative
refraction, perfect lenses to focus beyond the diffraction limit, cloaking for
electromagnetic invisibility etc. have been made possible by metamaterials.
Nearly perfect absorbers made of metamaterial structures, with absorption
exceeding 99% with specified frequency bands can be designed by a proper
impedance matching of the radiation to a resonant structure at frequencies across
the electromagnetic spectrum from the microwaves to the optical. The impedance
matching is achieved by using metamaterial structures that have almost
degenerate electric and magnetic resonances at the frequency of interest. These
absorbers are interesting for various applications such as frequency selective
sensitizer layers for thermal bolometers and detectors, sensors, solar cells,
imaging devices and thermal emitters.
In this lecture, I will review our recent work on the design, fabrication and
characterization of perfectly absorbing metamaterials. I will discuss a variety of
metamaterial structures with very large resonant absorption at bands over the
near-infra-red wavelengths to long-wave infra-red wavelengths and show how
these metamaterials can have a switchable character by incorporating in them
phase change materials such as vanadium dioxide.
4. On March 11th 2015, SPIE student chapter and OSA student chapter of IIT
Madras jointly organized an invited talk. The speaker of the talk is Dr.Siddharth
Ramachandran, ECE department & Photonics center, Boston University,
Boston, MA, USA. This talk was organized as a part of spreading International
Year of Light.
Abstract of the talk:
In the last decade, some of the most extensively studied complex light beams are
optical vortices, which possess phase or polarization singularities. These beams
are interesting because they resemble the emission patterns of single molecule
diploes, or because they potentially represent an infinite set of eigenstates that
can be constructed with light. Their use has been demonstrated in, or proposed
for, several applications such as higher-dimensional quantum encryption,
information capacity scaling, single-molecule spectroscopy and nano-scale
imaging.
A recently developed fiber that has a ring-shaped core has enabled their stable
generation and propagation in optical fibers for distances up to km. Since fibers
are well known for their ability to offer nonlinear dispersive tailoring of light, this
additionally opens the door to studying and exploiting nonlinear phenomena with
such beams. The talk discussed about the recent results and intriguing
possibilities enabled by fiber propagation of beams that have been considered
interesting, but hitherto unstable in nature.
Dr.Siddharth Ramachandran during his lecture at IIT Madras, Chennai.
Audience visited during Dr.Siddharth’s talk at IIT Madras
On 17th October, 2014 free spectacles were distributed as part of the SPIE
outreach programme to poor students in government school at Chennai after
testing their vision.
Prof A R Ganesan, Faculty Advisor, SPIE Student Chapter-IIT Madras giving free spectacle
to a student
SPIE student chapter along with OSA student chapter & Optical society of
India, IIT Madras has jointly organized for a school children science
demonstration. More than 150 school children from different schools around
various parts of the city had participated in the science demonstration and
technical quizzes. The event was named as “Optics Esposizione”. As the year
2015 is proclaimed as the “International Year of Light (IYL) and light-based
technologies” by the United Nations (UN), the optics community of IIT Madras
had organized such an event to bring out the awareness about the awareness and
advancements in the light and light based technologies at different levels.
Talks on history and relevance of optics in everyday lives
Experiments by school students from different schools in Chennai, India.
Photography exhibition for students
Quizzes – School level and Under Graduate level
Research exposition
Event: 1
Highlights of the event
Event: 2
Prof C.Vijayan during his lecture at IIT Madras, Chennai.
Prof Anil Prabhakar receiving the memento from a student of IIT Madras, Chennai.
Written test were conducted for school students. There were two set of quiz
competitions happened - Individual and group competition. For individual quiz, a
written quiz was conducted for the entire students participated in the quiz and the
winner was selected.
For group competition, four students per school formed a group and participated
in the competition. The top five groups were selected for the second round of oral
quiz. Top three schools were selected from the oral quiz competition.
Students attending the quiz competition
Sishya school students exhibiting their experiment
Quiz Competition
Science Exhibition
Professors evaluating the demonstration
There were around 12 schools showed their demonstrations. Starting from
bending of light to satellite communications, students have showcased their
knowledge in optics with simple experiments.
Science Exhibition first prize winners receiving the medal from SPIE Student
chapter president Udayakumar
Prize distribution
Prize winners of quiz competition awarded by Prof. C.Vijayan, IIT Madras
Science Exhibition first prize winners receiving the medal and cash prize from
SPIE Student chapter faculty advisor AR Ganesan, IIT Madras
Name and email address of our SPIE Student Chapter officers:
S.No Designation / Posting Name Email address
1 Faculty advisor Dr. A.R.Ganesan [email protected]
2 President K.Udayakumar [email protected]
Details of planned activities for the future
1. Industrial tours to Pondicherry and Karnataka having optical factories are
planned.
2. To conduct vision screening and distribute free spectacles to
underprivileged school children.
3. To demonstrate basic optics experiments to school children.
4. We are also planning to invite experts in the field of „Optics and
Photonics‟ for invited talks and interaction with students.
5. Seminar talks by the members of the chapter will be continued.
Financial Statement 2014-2015
Details of the Chapter’s Bank Account:
Name of the Account : IIT Madras SPIE Student Chapter
Account No : 34138480114
SHIFT SBININBB453 SHIFT CODE: 1055
Bank : State Bank of India, IIT Madras
Branch : IIT Madras
Amount details:
Closing Balance (as on March 31st -2014) : 2,18,268/-
Transaction details:
Income:
I. Interest Credited : 11,632/
II. SPIE SOAP fund credited on April 25th
2014 : 3,03,800/
III. Balance of symposium expenses credited : 90,000/-
Total : 6,23,700/-
Expenditure:
1.Vision check-up for school students & issuing of spectacles : 2,08,972/-
2. For invited talk of Prof Vasudevan lakshminarayanan,
on July 23rd
2014 : 9609/-
3. For invited talk of Prof Chandrasekar Roychoudhuri
on September 25th
2014 : 9310/-
4. For invited talk of Prof S.Anatha Ramakrishnan
on February 26th
2015 : 9034/-
5. For invited talk of Prof Siddharth Ramachandran
on March 11th
2015 : 1125/-
6. Optics Esposizione, April 18th
2015 : 55,816/-
Total : 2,93,866/-
Financial status from April 2014 to April 2015
Opening Balance (as on 31.03.2014) : Rs. 2,18,268/-
(Refer : Income I)
Income : Rs. 4,05,432/-
(Refer: II. SIPE SOAP fund +III. Symposium balance)
Expenses : Rs. 2,93,866/-
(Refer: Expenditure)
Closing Balance as on April 30th 2015 : Rs 3,29,834/-