Speaker
Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
No
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Prof. Erich Rohwer, egr@sun.ac.za Laser Research Institute
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
No
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)
Since its inception, the Stellenbosch laser student chapter (SLSC) has been active in promoting science through educational outreach to local communities in the form of interactive presentations on popular physics topics. The SLSC was founded in 2008 at Stellenbosch University (SU) and joined the Optical Society of America (OSA) in the same year. The chapter became affiliated with SPIE in 2010. Membership and participation is volunteer based.
Chapter activities are primarily funded by two organisations SPIE and OSA. Grants are available in varying amounts for various categories of activities including social, professional development, hosting of travelling lecturers, travel grants to attend international workshops and outreach activities.
The flagship event of the SLSC is the annual week long outreach road trip. This road trip endeavours to reach communities otherwise unreachable in a single day trip. There is a strong focus on reaching previously disadvantaged communities. Since 2011 the road trip has been department wide in that students from nuclear and theoretical physics branches are encouraged to participate.
We present an overview of activities to date and encourage other institutions to consider similar student chapters.
