The Nicolaus Copernicus University SPIE chapter and Nicolaus Copernicus University OSA Chapter would like to invite everyone to participate in national contest to design optical tools supporting education and development for partially sighted children. The idea is to complete a cheap set of optical toys for visual stimulation and teaching aids that can be used in preschools and schools.
Its objective is to draw attention to problems faced by partially sighted children, such as the lack of simple and inexpensive devices to stimulate visual concentration through the change of light intensity or color. It is important in the rehabilitation of partially blind children, as it teaches them perceptiveness, concentration and visual and physical co-ordination.

Enter the open contest. 

10 000 PLN in prizes.

Participants must submit their designs by July 31, 2011. There is no entry fee. Complete information is available on the web:
http://sztuka-widzenia.fizyka.umk.pl

Learn how the European access centre "ACTMOST" can facilitate your industrial product innovations through micro-photonic technology support, services and trainings - free of charge.

ACTMOST is a consortium of 14 high-tech research laboratories from 6 European members states that have joined to become a unique "one-stop-shop" solutions provider for micro-photonic technologies. ACTMOST will provide European companies with timely, cost-effective, and investment-free access to professional, cutting-edge micro-photonic technologies and knowledge to support the development of new products.

ACTMOST will organize its first workshop for Industry on December 3rd 2010 in Brussels, Belgium. During a half day program you will learn more about the different opportunities and added value that ACTMOST can provide to your company. This workshop is FREE and is open to all European companies interested in product innovation with micro-photonics.

Workshop poster (PDF)

ACTMOST promo materials (PDF)
ACTMOST - materiały promocyjne (PDF)

More information at: www.actmost.eu

We have a great pleasure to announce a lecture of prof. Román Castañeda, University of Colombia, entitled:

Point sources and rays in the phase-space:
Novel tools for optical field modelling

on June 14, 2010, at 16.15 (room 111, Physics Building, 75 Koszykowa Str. in Warsaw).

Abstract:
Modelling and simulations of optical fields in any state of spatial coherence are restricted because of the complexity of their mathematical representation. The use of novel concepts, in the framework of the phase-space representation of the field (sometimes called Wigner Optics), as the spatial coherence wavelets and the marginal power spectrum allows a better understanding of the phenomena and the developing of efficient algorithms for numerical calculations. Such concepts provide a description of the field as emitted by sets of radiant and virtual point sources, distributed on separate layers that can be brought together on a plane in the ordinary space. Dual point sources appears at the positions where radiant and virtual point sources coincide. Each set of sources determine a ray-map for the propagation of the field between specific planes in space. Any point source and its pencil of rays can be accessed individually, which makes the model very useful for optical design. 

Moreover, we would like to inform, that prof. Román Castañeda will give a regular set of lectures on

"The optics of the scalar spatial coherence wavelets".

Lectures will be given daily, starting from June 9 until June 30 (detailed schedule can be found here)