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Annual Report 2014-2015
Student chapter: KU Leuven, Belgium Chapter advisor: Prof Dr Koen Clays Chapter ID: 1052438
1. Chapter members By the end of September 2014, despite the past active year of light, the number of members decreased
from 35 to 23. The student chapter organized about one activity per month, ranging from technical
seminars, lab visits, company visits or a symposium to more casual activities such as lunches, laser tags,
BBQs. While several students joined SPIE as students, a larger group has graduated in the past year.
2014 Chapter officers:
Function Name Email SPIE ID
President Barbara Gysbrechts [email protected] 3523365
Vice president Tristan Putzeys [email protected] 3537057
Secretary Janos Keresztes [email protected] 3455772
Treasurer Nick Van Steerteghem [email protected] 3578723
Members (01-10-2014):
20 Student Members:
Wouter Baekelant
Janos Keresztes
Maarten Vanbel
Raja Sekhar Bandaru
Julien Mailfert
Stefaan Vandendriessche
Maarten Bloemen
Karen Markey Louis Vanpraet
António Correia Tristan Putzeys Vincent Vanweddingen
Steven Deckers Vivek Sharma Rick Vleugels
Barbara Gysbrechts
Nick Van Steerteghem
Kuo Zhong
Masanao Inokoshi
Karlien D'huys
3 Alumi Members:
Ward Brullot
Evelien De Meulenaere Wouter Saeys
2. Activities We organized activities on a monthly basis. All these events were announced via regular emails and
our website (www.spiekul.be). Most activities were also advertised with posters, flyers distributed on
the University campus and broadcasted on TV advertising panels across the campus. Professors from
the physics, chemistry professors also promoted several events during their lectures. Advertising was
also extended to research centers such as Imec. A more elaborate description of the events can be
found below.
2.1. Board Elections (12-09-2014) As every year, a new SPIE board needs to be elected.
9 voting members were present, 3 by proxy. The votes were collected and counted by the voting
supervisor, Dr. Stijn Van Cleuvenbergen. The following board was elected with everyone in favor.
President: Barbara Gysbrechts
Vice-President: Tristan Putzeys
Secretary: Janos Keresztes
Treasurer: Nick Van Steerteghem
After the election, the electors had the chance to know more about the planned activities of the new
board, and network with new members around Chinese food.
2.2 Day of Photonics (21-10-2014)
On the 21th of October, the day of photonics, we promoted the event a week in advance across the
campus.
2.2. SPIE Dog (31-10-2014)
On the Friday 31th of October, the student branch organized a SPIE Dog event. At 12.00 AM, our
president introduced the attendees to the year of light, what is it, and how to spread the word. Further,
the PhD student Wouter Sempels presented his current research on stimulated emission depletion
(STED), followed by Janos Keresztes on SWIR spectral radiometric calibration using a supercontinuum
laser. The attendees were then all invited for an offered hot dog lunch. 12 people attended the event.
2.3. Laser tag (6-10-2014)
On Monday 6th of October after work, the branch organized a laser tag activity in the woods. For the
first 30 minutes, two teams and a game master were shooting at each other to survive. A flag was later
placed in each team’s base to be captured by its opponent. The game ended in survival mode. 9 people
attended the event, bringing new potential members, promoting light as an entertainment.
2.4. Lab visits (14,21,28-11-2014)
The month of November was devoted to the interaction between different departments working in
optics and photonics, and open the labs. The visits lasted 1h every Friday for 3 weeks. On Friday 14th
of November, people were introduced to photo-acoustics, fluorescence thermometry and pyroelectric
microscopy. On Friday 21th of November, attendees were introduced to scanning electron microscopy,
and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. On the 28th of November, the agriculture – bio-photonics
group introduced attendees to SWIR hyperspectral imaging, active thermography, laser scattering and
double integrating sphere based scatter measurements, in order to correlate optical properties with
food quality such as freshness, or damages such as bruises in apples. Around 9 to 15 people attended
the different activities, ranging from master students to PhD and Post docs, with also IEEE students
from electrical engineering. The lecturers were rewarded with some Belgian chocolate. The event was
a great success, enabled networking within the university.
2.5. SPIE invited lecturer: Jean-Luc Doumont
On Thursday evening 4th of December, we had the honor to host Dr. Jean-Luc Doumont. Our president
first introduced our branch, activities and the year of light. Jean-Luc then presented for 1h45 minutes
on effective page layout for rational minds. He first presented common layouts used in industry which
lead to confusion, unclear messages, or too much information. He further introduced some guidelines
on page layout, font size, horizontal, vertical layout, minimizing effectively pictures. This event was
advertised massively across the campus, with labelled chocolates with the event, university wise
emails, posters placed in all the different faculties. The event was a great success, with more than 205
attendees, with people from all ages. It was also a nice networking evening.
2.6. Soirée techniques
Our second SPIE/OSA Student Chapter activity was co-organized with the IEEE Student Branch of
Leuven. Professor Emanuel Van Lil from KU Leuven, Belgium first talked about RADARs. He started with
the history of the first to the latest RADARs, then moved onto their basic working principles, and
classified different types such as pulsed or mono-pulsed RADARS. We further described several civil
and military applications, and current challenges. Professor Marijke Vandewal from the Belgian Royal
Military Academy then talked about Terahertz (THz) imaging. She first introduced the attendees to the
basic principles behind THz and described the different types. She then moved onto civil and military
applications, current European projects and challenges. About 7 SPIE-OSA and 20 IEEE members
attended the event.
After the seminar, the attendees were kindly invited for a drink, where IEEE and SPIE-OSA members
had further positive interaction, and a mutual learning experience.
2.7 PhD Symposium on optics (03 and 04-02-2015)
We organized a free, 2-day symposium about optics. Throughout the first day and a half, we invited
speakers (from Belgium but also from the United Kingdom) to give a lecture about their work and
area of expertise. Special care was taken to ensure that the lectures were broad enough, but also
diverse, so that all participants could find something they themselves find interesting and helpful.
Amongst the lectures was an introduction to basic optics, an introduction to microscopy, a lecture
about the paradox of the eye lens, and so on and so forth. The second half of the second day, we
organized practical sessions, where the participants who registered, could improve on their practical
skills involving optics, such as building a beam expander, aligning polarisers, ...
The overall response was positive. Participants found the lectures interesting, diverse, and broad
enough so everyone could follow the lectures even without having an extensive background in
optics. This was very important since the expertise of the participants ranged from medicine, to
optics and even to computational chemistry. The participants that followed the practical courses
(building a beam expander, aligning polarisers, building a diffraction setup, lens exercises) were very
delighted to have done so, as they said the practical exercises that we organized were very relevant
for their future (PhD) careers. Special mention should go to the introductory lecture given by Prof.
Em. Andre Persoons, which received very positive reviews stating it was a very clear, structured
presentation.
With the promotional material we were given from SPIE and OSA (stickers, T-shirts, balloons, ...) we
took the opportunity to not only introduce our chapter, but also introduce SPIE and OSA to people
involved in optics, but whom we normally don't have a lot of contact with. There was a lot of interest
of participants to join our activities in the future.
2.8 Company Visit Xenics and Nikon (17-04-2015)
On March 17th, we visited Xenics and Nikon metrology at the Haasrode research parc, Belgium. At
Xenics, a company specialized in infra-red cameras, we were introduced to the company and their
products. After the presentation, a demo of their cameras was given and some applications were
explained in more detail. There was time left to ask quesions and have a drink together with some
employers.
At Nikon Metrology, an overview on the company and its history was given, followed by an extensive
demonstration of their 3D cameras (eg. X-ray). The principles and potential applications of their
machines were explained and showed in detail. Our host was enthousiastic and after the tour we had
some time for a more informal talk with him about buying their products, working for their company,
etc.
The participants not only gained knowledge on the products that are developed by Nikon Metrology
and Xenics, but also on current trends and challenges in imaging technology. For both companies,
our hosts explained what profiles they are typically looking for. Participants looking for a job (now or
after their PhD) now what they can expect when applying for a job at on of these companies.
2.9 Barbecue for Members (27-05-2015)
This year we have decided to organize a BBQ for our members, along with a Quiz to test their
knowledge on both Optics and General knowledge. We are organising this instead of the photograph
contest, because we have seen a decline in participants for that activity in the last 2 years.
The BBQ is a great way to end the academic year, to reflect on our accomplishments and to provide a
comfortable environment for socializing and networking.
The activity functioned as a networking opportunity and was informative in the form of the Quiz with
questions (and answers) like "Why is the sky blue?", "Why does a mirror flip text from left to right,
but no up to down?", etc..
2.10 Board elections (18.09.2015) As every year, a new SPIE board needs to be elected. 14 members were present, the new board was
elected unanimously.
President: Nick Van Steerteghem
Vice-President: Vivek Sharma
Secretary: Charlotte Verstraete
Treasurer: Valérie Van Steenbergen
After the election, the electors had the new board, and network with new members around Chinese
food.
4 Financial Information Since our chapter is a combined SPIE and OSA student chapter, all the listed activities were financed
by both funding sources. The doctoral school scholarship was only dedicated for the symposium on
optics.
Activities Details Spending in Euros
General meetings and activities
October November January July September 2015 Total
62 75 85 70 124 416
Jean-Luc Doumont Thank you Gift 65.7
Symposium Promo Catering Lodging/Travel guest Poster prizes & gifts speakers Total
116.55 1132.36 867.43 131.29 2247.63
Company Visit Public Transportation 40
Barbecue Food/Rent Terrain 360.11
Website Domain registration 27
Total 3156.44
Funding
SPIE Funding 911.73
Doctoral School Symposium 1000
OSA 1189.81
Overview
Spending 3156.44
Funding 3101.54
Balance -54.9
