Student Activities for IYL
SPIE Student Chapters report on IYL activity grants.
The SPIE Student Chapter in Cameroon, one of 26 chapters across the globe that received SPIE activity grants to promote awareness of the International Year of Light (IYL) in 2015, organized four events last year to highlight the critical role that light-based technologies play in our lives.
SPIE, a founding partner of the IYL, awarded $60,000 in these IYL activity grants for 2015.
In Cameroon, SPIE Student Chapter members demonstrated optical phenomena to more than 300 young students at the Complexe Scolaire Sources I, II, III, IV and Messa Vallée (pictured below, right), the Cercle Bansoa cultural center, and the Bureau–Lumiere. They also set up a diffraction demonstration during a conference of the Cameroon Physical Society.
The African continent is said to be home to a rapidly growing photonics market, especially for telecommunications and energy, and there is a great need to enlist young people to consider a career where they can apply photonics technologies for medical, industrial, and agricultural applications.
The SPIE IYL activity grants were in addition to the optics education outreach grants that SPIE provides to non-profit organizations each year.
Find more information online about the other SPIE IYL Student Chapter activities grants.
- Have a question or comment about this article? Write to us at spieprofessional@spie.org.
- To receive a print copy of SPIE Professional, the SPIE member magazine, become an SPIE member.
