Activities

Activities
SPS holds activities on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. Once a month is a fun, relaxed activity and the other is an educational activity like a guest speaker or a tour of different businesses or labs, or a business meeting. Some of our activities during the 2009-2010 school year included:
• Lab Tours
• USU’s Tokamak Laboratory
• Thermo Fisher Scientific (industrial lab)
• Guest Speakers
• Prof. Shane Larson, USU, talked about various astronomy research projects
• Dr. Kevin Kirkham, Ophir-Spiricon, talked about industrial laser applications
• Dr. Tim Doyle, USU, talked about the advantages and disadvantages of industrial and academic careers
• Dale Hooper, amateur radio astronomer, talked about assembling a backyard radio antenna
• Prof. Eric Held, USU, talked about the status of laser fusion research here and at ITER
• Prof. David Peak, USU, talked about undergraduate research opportunities in the department and elsewhere
• Interaction with Alumni
• Matt Bishop interacted with students discussing employment opportunities at NAVAIR in California
• Dominic Speer, Wasatch Photonics, interacted with students discussing life as an industrial scientist
• SPS members write a column, “SPS Update,” describing chapter activities for the semiannual Physics Department Newsletter (distributed to over 500 friends of the Department)
• Parties
• Year opening social and demo show (150 students attended)
• Halloween pizza party including viewing the Big Bang Theory Halloween show
• Donuts and laser chess competition
• Potluck party
• Saturday light bulb kit assembly group activity and food
• Saturday laser maze assembly group activity and food (2)
• Outreach
• Weekly outreach business meetings
• Demo shows and star parties at local elementary-, middle-, and high-schools
• Staffed hands-on laser-related activities, especially the laser mazes, at Science Unwrapped, “Light Years: The 50th Anniversary of LASER” (350 attended)
• Staffed hands-on activities at Physics Day at Lagoon Amusement Park (7000 attended); assembled and distributed 30 optics and waves kits to junior and senior high teachers
• A-Day on the Quad
• Celebration of Children and Families demo show and star party
• Student Research and Scholarship
• Regular research business meetings
• Establishing a radio telescope observatory on campus
• Zone 15 meeting in Pocatello in April; 14 members attended, 2 gave oral presentations, 6 gave posters
• Other professional society meetings: 10 members gave 16 presentations
• Members applied for 10 national SPS scholarships and awards