A Gaze at the Moon
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosi OSA Student Chapter
During Science Week, along with the “Instituto de Investigación en Comunicación Óptica” (IICO) and the Science Faculty we carried out various activities related to the centennial of The Optical Society.
Our OSA chapter organized an astronomical night and a telescope workshop with the participation of children, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as teachers of the Institute. The activity consisted of a conversation about astronomy and radio-astronomy by Astrophysical Hugo Jasso, which ended with the observation of the Moon and a dinner (pizza).
This activity took place on Tuesday 18 April, starting with the talk of Astronomy at 19:00 hours followed by the telescopes workshop from 20:00 to 21:30 and ending with the observation of the moon at 21:30 and dinner following, the telescopes elaborated in the workshop were used.
Dr. Edgar Cerda was the special guest from Coffee Science, talking a little about micro-cavities and polaritons as a research topic, this event took place on Wednesday 19 April at 13:00 hours. Undergrads and postgraduates from the institute attended but also students from other research centers incorporated to the UASLP. The researcher is a graduated of the IICO and was working with polaritons in Paul Drude Institute in Berlin. This event was recorded and will soon be uploaded to YouTube.
The poster contest was held the same day as the Coffee Science. As we had children evaluators; participants were very enthusiastic to explain the subject in a more informative way. Intending to stimulate creativity and promote popular science, students performed projects in the areas of Optics, Materials and Optoelectronic devices, Electronic and Mathematics. The prizes for first place were $ 1,000 Mexican pesos and an OSA's membership for one year. And the prize for second place was also an OSA's membership for one year.
Finally, The Knowledge Contest took place on Friday 21 April. The event was a great success for students, teachers and researchers because the contestants faced a round of questions from all categories, from history, geography to physics and optics. The prizes were $500 Mexican pesos and four books. This type of event has a great impact on people as science is motivated through competitions and interactive workshops. We would like to thank OSA for the Centennial Special Events Grant to make this event possible.
