SPIE STUDENT CHAPTER OF MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY

SPIE Student Chapter Leadership Workshop at Optics&Photonics 2006

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Our first SPIE activity started a little doubtful due to tight security at the airport which was due to a heightened security level after the incident in London. Even though I looked like a Russian terrorist with all my photographic gear, I successfully managed to board the plane and made it to San-Diego in time.
The first evening's activities were just a short walk along harbor coast and a short adaptation to different weather and a difference in time zones. However, it was a good time to take some nice scenic photos.

All the next day was devoted to workshops. We started at 8am with a short breakfast, listened a short intro from Dirk and had a short introduction to most Chapter members. However, our new Chapter did not receive a word as well as did not receive an invitation for Sunday's Student Chapter Reception so that freed my time for a nice trip to Sea World.
Despite the great weather, the events all day were held in a small air conditioned room. This made me a little bit concerned about the organizer's incompatibility with good weather :) They definitely should appreciate good weather, shouldn't they? Also, this made me a little bit nervous about the possibility of photographing two aircraft carriers, staying in a local harbor.

After the intro part of the workshop, we had a session where some SPIE chapters presented their ideas of popularization of optics education and of their chapters among locals. Some interesting ideas were advertised and can be in principle adapted for our purposes.
Some really useful thoughts were planned right before lunch time, but unfortunately were not presented. So, after an interesting but outdated talk about successful career we went to the lunch. Fortunately it was outside the building, but was interrupted by taking a set of group photos.

   The welcome speech of the new SPIE president was nothing but a simple formal intro, however interesting enough and well organized.
   Short competition activity after the welcome speech was interesting, but not formalized enough and required about twice more time than our hosts anticipated. However, it was one of the most exciting part of the day.
   The short discussion about communication improvement in the end of day was simply the discussion between several spammers about improvements of their work. Should I care, if SPIE sends more or less pictures in their newsletters when all of them are blocked by my mail program for security reasons?!. Can't they just make a good target-related hierarchy news webpage, where each can find exactly what he or she needs? This will free a lot of wasted time reading through a lot of useless info before tracking down the one desired line!
   The day ended with a short walk in the downtown area with several members of other chapters, although most people decided to have another get together later in the evening.
   Sunday was totally devoted to Sea World. I arrived there just at opening and left after all the night shows. It was a very productive and interesting trip. I managed to see all the shows, rode all the rides and also visited all the sea exhibits.

   Monday through Wednesday were used as real conference working days. I had a poster of our Chapter, presented a poster about my research, visited a ceremony for SPIE scholarship recipients, a dinner for SPIE members, and finally came to a special event by Perkin Elmer. This company organized special dinner for its customers to present new accessories for their spectrophotometers and to hear about clients needs. Unfortunately, it was just a meeting of 3 clients, but we had a good time and discussed many issues about spectroscopic equipment.
   Thursday was used to see different animals in the San-Diego zoo. Unlike at Sea World, I skipped all the shows and just visited each animal. Special respect was paid to Pandas, where I stopped two times.
   Friday was the day to fly back. And unfortunately, it was a morning without wireless internet in our hotel. So, after realizing that I cannot read nor send any emails, I checked out from the hotel and went to a harbor. There I took a two-hour boat tour around the naval base and bay. In spite of one of the aircraft carriers having left base only a couple days before, I was near lucky because a new carrier had come into the harbor only two hours previous to my tour. I wish I were in harbor at that moment to see how the carrier came in. However, I saw not only 2 carriers and several more staying battleships, but also several different destroyers and cruisers, coming to their base through the bay.
   After a trip I walked around the harbor for nearly an hour, I went back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and take a bus to the airport. So, with my flight back, this activity was over.

Nikolay Makarov