MQ Photonics wins the “Optics Visualized Contest 2010” award from the Optical Society of America
Staff and students of the MQ Photonics Research Centre entered an educational movie into the “Optics Visualized Contest 2010” which was held at a recent meeting of the Optical Society of America, in Karlsruhe, Germany. The movie was designed to teach complex photonic concepts in a simple, humorous and light hearted way so as to grab the attention and interest of the laymen audience.
The movie made the finale where the top 7 out of 30 entrants presented their optics visualizations to a crowd of several hundred people including two Nobel Laureates: Professor Ted Hansch and Professor Charles Towns. The competition was extremely tough, with several impressive animations visualizing fly-throughs of advanced photonic componentry as well as an LED based device which demonstrated how light behaves in a photonic crystal Mach-Zender interferometer under all conditions.
The Macquarie entry entitled “Phrame by Phrame Photonics”, was presented by Nemanja Jovanovic who initially directed the movie. “It was surreal to see the two Nobel Laureates staring at me as I presented the movie” said Nem. The movie was really well received, with the audience bursting into laughter half way through the movie and applauding and cheering wildly. The judges agreed with the audience and the “Phrame by Phrame Photonics” movie was judged the winner of the competition. Nemanja Jovanovic said after the award ceremony “I am extremely pleased to collect this prize as it reflects the recognition of the quality and uniqueness of the work we carried out”. The group were awarded a total of US$2000 for their efforts.
Here is their winning entry:
Any enquiries from the media should be directed to:
Mick Withford
Phone: (02) 9850 7.56
Email address: withford@science.mq.edu.au
Publish Date: 27 July 2010