1. 2015­2016 Officers 

President: Navid Farahi, nfarahi1@uncc.edu, #3482986 

Vice President: Ravil Bikmetov, rbikmeto@uncc.edu, #3622115 

Secretary: Yuanye Liu, yliu56@uncc.edu, #3307638 

Treasurer: Jack Chang, cchang40@uncc.edu, #3613510 

 

 

2. Current Members (32) 

 

Name Expires

Farzaneh Abolmaali  25 January 2017 

Jonathan Babaie  25 January 2017 

Ravil Bikmetov  13 May 2017 

Nitish Chandra  20 January 2017 

Chun­Hung Chang  28 January 2017 

Navid Farahi  14 October 2016 

Yasunori Furukawa  20 January 2017 

Jinghua Ge  28 October 2016 

Nasim Habibi  20 January 2017 

Luke Hardy  22 August 2016 

Zahra Hosseinimakarem  3 February 2017 

Elisa Hurwitz  3 August 2016 

Swati Jain  24 January 2017 

Rajendra Joshi  16 September 2016 

Diana Joy  9 November 2016 

Morteza Karami  20 January 2017 

Karteek Kunala  9 November 2016 

Yanzeng Li  20 January 2017 

Yuanye Liu  20 August 2017 

Sara Moein  24 January 2017 

Camilo Moreno Cleves  10 December 2016 

Joseph Peller  8 February 2017 

Abigail Peltier  4 March 2017 

Matthew Potter  2 May 2017 

William Raburn  20 January 2017 

Aubrey Shipley  3 February 2017 

Courtney Taylor  11 June 2016 

Ossama Tfeily  25 January 2017 

Herminso Villarraga­Gomez  20 June 2016 

Christopher Wilson  3 March 2017 

Madison Young  11 November 2016 

Bin Zhang  28 March 2017 

3. UNC Charlotte SPIE Student Chapter Activities 

The UNCC SPIE student chapter activities during 2015/2016 academic year are listed below. The 

details of the events are in the following pages. 

1) First Annual members’ meeting and chapter’s elections, Sept 2016 

2) Science Trivia night, Oct & Mar 2016 

3) “Science on the Rocks” at Discovery Place, Nov 2016 

4) Second Annual members’ meeting, Fall SPIE picnic, and chapter’s anniversary, Nov 2016  

5) Third Annual members’ meeting and “Welcome Party”, Jan 2016 

6) Student Workshop “What is the quality of light and why it matters?” 

7) Educational Outreach at Palisades Elementary School, Mar 2016 

8) Science EXPO, Apr 2016 

9) Fourth Annual members’ meeting and Spring picnic, May 2016 

10) Invited Speakers 

a) Dr. John Taylor 

b) Dr. Wayne P. Hess 

c) Edmund Optics: Dr. Katie Shultz, Dr. 

11) Other Activities 

a) Maintenance of the UNCC OSA/SPIE student chapter’s OrgSync website 

b) Chapter’s promotion at the Etiquette Dinner being held by the Graduate 

Professional Student Government (GPSG) of UNC Charlotte. 

c) Establishment connections and chapter’s promotion at public school and Discovery 

Place 

d) SPIE Optics Kit reception 

e) Revising the Chapter Bylaws 

12) Awards received 

a. Winning the third place in Fio conference Chapter competition 

b. UNC Charlotte GPSG operational funding 

c. Outreach recognition from Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC 

d. Outstanding Graduate Student Organization award from the UNC Charlotte 

Graduate School 

 

 

 

1) First Chapter meeting and Chapter officers election, Sept 2016 

First Annual SPIE members’ meeting for 2015­2016 academic year took place at the UNC                           

Charlotte campus on Sep 9, 2015. During this meeting, the key features of SPIE student chapter                               

were presented and elaborated for our current and new members. These features include the                           

mission of our chapter and SPIE society, the benefits and duties of our current members, the                               

structure of our chapter and its relations with the Graduate School of UNC Charlotte. All these                               

features are contained in the bylaws that were updated during this meeting. 

In addition to chapter’s promotions and bylaws’ updates, the Annual elections of SPIE                         

officers have occurred during the first Annual SPIE members’ meeting for 2015­2016 academic                         

year. Several students were nominated for officers’ positions: President, Vice­President,                   

Treasurer, and Secretary. Navid Farahi, Ravil Bikmetov, Jack Chang, and Yuanye Liu were                         

elected for the corresponding officers positions. 

On the average, about 25 students attended First Annual SPIE members’ meeting for                         

2015­2016 academic year. Chapter’s funding was used for making flyers for presentations,                       

snacks and refreshments for our members. 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Science Trivia night, Oct & Mar 2016 

Trivia Night event is focused on physics that entertained students who are curious                         to learn and explore advance topic in optics. Some questions were directly related to                           complex topics that professors ask over the qualify exams, the others were designed to be                             simple, yet interesting day to day optics knowledge.   

In this event, all participating students were divided into small groups, where                       collective teamwork solving challenge yet interesting problems were encouraged. The                   winning team not only proclaimed the intellectual glory, but also enjoy a small prize from                             the SPIE student chapter. 

The SPIE activity grant was used for snacks and beverages to fuel the intellectual                           spirit for optics. 

 

 

 

 

 

3) “Science on the Rocks” at Discovery Place, Nov 2016 

SPIE chapter of UNC Charlotte participated in “Science of the Rocks” event that was held                             

at the Discovery Place in downtown Charlotte. The main goal of the event is to show the                                 

importance and role of light and related technologies in our lives. In addition, our chapter and                               

SPIE society were introduced to the general public during this event. According to the current                             

theme of “Science on the Rocks”, the main topic of the particular event was optical fibers. Due                                 

to that reason, our chapter members have shown several experiments demonstrating optical                       

fiber technologies to the event’s attendees. These experiments include: 

● Reflection, absorption and scattering in layers of different media placed in the fish tank; 

● “TIR­buzzer” setup: detection of TIR laser beam by buzzer; 

● Voice transmission through optical fiber. 

More 20 chapter members joined the “Science on the Rocks” event at Discovery Place. 

Chapter’s funding was used for purchase of consumable materials for shown experiments, food 

and beverages for the participating members. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Second Chapter meeting, Fall SPIE picnic, and chapter’s anniversary, Nov 2016  

It was a small turnout for the SPIE student chapter meeting due to extreme                           

weather previous days. However, it allowed our SPIE student chapter to have more                         

intimate and closed meeting, where members discuss various outreach ideas and the                       

plans for the upcoming semester. Brainstorming and goal setting for SPIE student group                         

were the primary focus of the picnic meeting. In addition, students were able to                           

network and bond even closer through the picnic event and destress from school work                           

temporarily. 

SPIE chapter activity grant was used to reserve the shelter, provide                     

transportation, food, and beverages for participating members.  

 

 

 

 

 

5) Third Chapter meeting and “Welcome Party”, Jan 2016 

Every semester our Chapter holds a welcome party to introduce SPIE and OSA to our                             

new students and attracts newmembers for future participation. Dr. Boreman, our department                         

chair, always supports our Chapter by reimbursing the student’s membership fees. We had 12                           

new members and it was a great night for our Chapter. 

On the average, more than 25 students attended. Chapter’s funding was used for snacks                           

and refreshments for our members. 

 

 

 

 

6) Student Workshop “What quality lighting is and why it matters”, Feb 2016 

Our Chapter was among the selected Chapter to receive the SPIE KIT for this year. The                               

Kit was “Quality Lighting Teaching Kit” and since it was really important andmany people does                               

not know about this, we decided to hold our first event with this Kit, on our Campus. We                                   

selected a very nice and appropriate place and reserved a conference room at Student Union                             

building and advertised over the campus. This events took a few hours and people could freely                               

walk in and see the posters and we helped them and started discussion. We got really good                                 

impression from the students who had chance to come. No one knew this topic and it was                                 

simple and important and everyone noticed that. 

Approximately 50 students attended. Chapter’s funding was used for snacks and                     

refreshments for our members and attendees.  

 

 

7) Educational Outreach at Palisades Elementary School, Mar 2016 

Following the Discovery place outreach, Abigale Peltier arranged this educational event                     

with an Palisades elementary school through Discovery Place Museum. During this event the                         

volunteers from our SPIE student chapter went to Palisades Elementary school to show some                           

simple experiments about the nature and fundamental properties of light. Among them, the                         

experiments about plasma, TIR, luminescence, photoluminescence, and phosphorescence were                 

shown. 

SPIE activity grant was used for transportation, consumable material for experiments,                     

snack, and refreshments for participants. 

 

7) Science EXPO, Apr 2016 

SPIE student chapter partner up Biogen foundation to host North Carolina Science                       

Festival, a UNC Charlotte campus wide event. Science Expo is one of the crucial annual open                               

house science events, where scientists encourage the public to understand and embrace the                         

beauty of different scientific phenomena. 

An effective science outreach method to reach both, children and parents, city wide to                           

incite curiosity for science and specifically for the field of optics. Many drove in from                             

surrounding city to participate in this UNC Charlotte campus wide science demonstration. SPIE                         

student chapter were effectively collaborated and utilized such an event to increase general                         

awareness for optical science. 

SPIE activity grant was used for consumable material for experiments, snack, and                       

refreshments for participants. 

 

 

 

 

8) Fourth Annual members’ meeting and End of Academic Year party, May 2016 

Fourth Annual members’ meeting and End of Academic Year party took place in Grigg 

Hall, at UNC Charlotte campus. During this event, chapter’s promotion and goal setting for 

current and new members of SPIE were the primary focus of this event. In addition, students 

were able to network and bond even closer. 

SPIE chapter activity grant was used to provide food, and beverages for participating                         

members.  

 

 

9) Invited Speakers 

The invited speaker series provide the most direct interaction opportunities between                     

great researchers in the fields with the chapter members. The invited speakers ranges from                           

research group leads in national lab to industrial engineers.   

(a) Dr. John Taylor, Nov 2016 

Dr. John Taylor was invited to give us a talk on “Production of Large optics supporting                               

experimental campaigns at the national ignition facility”. Dr. Taylor was the group leader of                           

precision systems and manufacturing materials engineering division in Lawrence Livermore                   

National Laboratory, where hosts the most power laser facility. During his talk, Dr. Taylor                           

discussed about the requirement for optics in national ignition facility, or NIF. The SPIE student                             

chapter also hosted a “lunch with speaker” event where food and beverage were provided.                           

Student chapter members as well as the department faculty members asked questions on the                           

optical components manufacture and maintenance in the world’s most sophisticated laser                     

facilities. This event brought the state­of­art research results to the chapter member as well as                             

face to face discussion with great scientist.   

 

 

 

 

(b) Wayne P. Hess, Dr. William Hess, Dec 2016 

On October 22, 2015, SPIE student chapter hosted another “lunch with speaker” events                         

with another guest speaker Dr. Wayne Hess, the acting director of Physical Sciences Division at                             

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. During the discussion, Dr. Hess talked about the daily                         

life in the national lab and the fundamental difference between research in University and in                             

National Lab. He also encouraged young researchers to start the career with national lab, as                             

well as sharing with people fun stories. This event provided the chance for the chapter                             

members to interact with chief in national lab.  

 

 

 

d)  Katie Shultz from Edmund Optics, Apr 2016 

Beside the academic speakers, the industrial speakers such as Katie Shultz from Edmund                         

Optics are invited to give a talk on optics in Edmund Optics. After the talk, SPIE student chapter                                   

hosted the “lunch with speaker” event. During the meeting, Katie Shultz shared many career                           

suggestions with the student chapter members. She also shared experiences as the entry­level                         

optics engineers in optics industrial.  

The event established the connection between student chapter and Edmund Optics. It is                         

also the direct opportunities for the chapter member to talk with industrial people about the                             

life in real optics industrial.  

 

 

10) Other Activities 

f) UNC Charlotte GRaduate & Professional Student Government  

The student chapter maintained an active member in UNC Charlotte Graduate &                       

Professional Student Government (GPSG). The activities the chapter participated including                   

Senator meeting twice a week where the voice of the chapter were presented on the critical                               

issues, for example, funding allocation, election of GPSG board members. The chapter also                         

remains active in the only organization administrative system in UNC Charlotte, through which                         

notifications are sent out.  

g) Connections formed during the outreach 

During all the activities, the influence of the chapter had been casted on optics related                             

field in great Charlotte region. Active relationships maintained between the chapter and                       

Discovery Place as well as the Palisades Elementary School. This constructive relationships                       

formed in this officer's term provides valuable connections through which numerous                     

collaboration and outreach possibilities are along the way. From this point along, the chapter’s                           

effort for promoting optics ideas around the great Charlotte region is shown.   

 

1. Details of planned activities for the future Here I suggest to repeat the activities that we’ve done this year. The major ones are                               

here: Chapter’s elections, annual meetings, and picnics, Science Trivia Night, Discovery Place,                       Educational Outreach, Science EXPO, speakers’ invitation. 1­2 sentence should be fine for each                         activity...  5. Financial information 

·   Beginning balance: $1,444.30 ·  Funds raised and expended (indicate amounts and source/destination): 

1. Chapter Activity Grant $1,300 2. Chapter’s meetings (4) and elections: promotion flyers, voting cards, snacks, and refreshments for chapter members, $269.78 3. Science Trivia Night: snacks and refreshments, small souvenirs for winners $276.24 4. Invited Speakers: Dr. Taylor, Dr. Hess, Dr. Shultz, $366.29 4. “Science on the Rocks”: transportation, food, and beverages for the participant members, $153.36 5. Educational Outreach: transportation, snacks, and refreshments for participant members, $134.37 6. Student workshop “What is the quality of light and why it matters?”: flyers, signs, consumable materials, snacks and beverages for participants and attendees, $206.80 7. Picnics: shelter reservation, transportation, food and beverages for attending chapter members, $364.17 8. End of year party: flyers, food, and beverages for participating chapter members, $230.84 9. Science EXPO: snacks and beverages for participants, $112.64 

·   Details of SPIE funding received: Chapter Activity Grant $1,300 (shown previously as raised funds) ·   Other sources (please specify): none 

Ending balance: $ 629.81  

Executive summary: 

1. 37% increase in membership from 20 people to 32 people  

2. 3 times more activities than previous year (2014­2015) 

3. 3 recognized award: 

a. 3rd place in chapter competition among the US in FiO 

b. Outstanding Graduate Student Organization award from the UNC Charlotte 

Graduate School 

c. Outreach recognition from Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC 

d. UNC Charlotte GPSG operational funding 

One drawback is that SPIE student chapter spent more of available combined budget                         

formed based on activity grant. Therefore, SPIE student chapter is looking for possibilities to                           

receive more funding from the SPIE organization so the SPIE chapter at UNC Charlotte can                             

continue to grow and to expand SPIE influence to the academic community.