2024 Student Leadership
Events
2024 Student Leadership
21-26 Sep 2024 | Denver, CA, USA
Bringing together student leaders from around the world for an immersive training and networking experience in conjunction with Frontiers in Optics.
What is Student Leadership?
The Student Leadership Experience is a program that brings together 100 student members from around the world. This training occurs in conjunction with Optica's annual conference, Frontiers in Optics (FiO), and serves as a fantastic way for students to immerse themselves in an environment full of professional development and technical content, networking, and fun. Student attendees will hear from world-renowned lecturers who focus on topics such as:
-Which Path To Choose - The benefits of Academia and Industry
-Marketing Yourself Successfully - A discussion on highlighting yourself in a job interview and perfecting your resume
-Giving The Perfect Presentation
-Utilizing Science To Impact the Community
-Making The Most Out Of Your Optica Membership
-Leveraging Your Student Chapter To Maximize Impact
-Taking The Leap From Student to Early Career Professional - strategies and guidance from those who have recently made the leap
-And many, many more...
In addition, students experience an atmosphere for engaging one another to discuss their own career trajectories, challenges faced, and ideas for successfully overcoming those challenges.
Quick Links
Program Lecturers
Christina Willis
Director of External and Legislative Affairs, Infleqtion
Ahmet Turnali
Corning Inc
An Pan
Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ana Karen Reyes
Universidad Tecnologica de Tulancingo
Angeles Camacho Rosales
Coractive
Chiara Trovatello
Columbia University
Gavrielle Untracht
Technical University of Denmark
George Okyere Dwapanyin
University of St Andrews
Katarzyna Komolibus
Tyndall National Institute
Ritu Raj Singh
Netaji Subhas University of Technology
Alan Willner
2016 Optica President
Brian Vohnsen
Associate Professor in Optical Physics at the University College Dublin (UCD)
Schedule
Programming for Student Leadership exists in two parts:
Part 1: A "How to Attend a Conference" session hosted by Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC, which will prepare you with strategies for maximizing your Student Leadership and FiO experience. Three time slots are available to accomodate the internationally-diverse audience:
- Monday, 10:00 - 11:00 ET
- Thursday, 18:00 - 19:00 ET
- Friday, 14:00 - 15:00 ET
Part 2: A full-day of sessions. Attendees will not only hear from a variety of experts in the field, but they’ll have opportunities to network, collaborate, and enjoy themselves with a student activity in the evening!
Day 1
How to Attend a Conference
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
10:00 - 11:00 ET
*This is the first of three time slots provided to Student Leadership and Amplify attendees. This session will be held on Zoom and a link will be provided to you by 15 August.
Conferences can be overwhelming, with so many people and so many events happening simultaneously. What’s the best way to navigate a conference? In this workshop, participants will develop their own system for planning and optimizing their conference attendance. This ranges from how to draft and execute a conference schedule to how to plan for and practice self-care. Concepts include:
- Advance mapping and scouting of the conference center and surrounding area to be efficient in your movements and identify good places for meetings, coffees, and meals
- Business cards: to have or not to have and how to use them
- Planning personal meetings in advance
- Reviewing the conference schedule and building out a plan for talk, exhibit, and reception attendance (including where those are physically and cross-referencing with the mapping/scouting step)
- Identifying desired new connections (particularly authors/presenters that can be found at a conference) and how to meet famous people
- Identifying desired educational courses and professional development opportunities
- Scheduling in self-care: diet, exercise, and recovery
- Executing the planning:
- Navigating poster sessions
- Navigating receptions
- Navigating the exhibition
- Asking questions at presentations and meeting authors
- Serendipitous encounters
- Following up
Day 2
How to Attend a Conference
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
18:00 - 19:00 ET
*This is the second of three time slots provided to Student Leadership and Amplify attendees. This session will be held on Zoom and a link will be provided to you by 15 August.
Conferences can be overwhelming, with so many people and so many events happening simultaneously. What’s the best way to navigate a conference? In this workshop, participants will develop their own system for planning and optimizing their conference attendance. This ranges from how to draft and execute a conference schedule to how to plan for and practice self-care. Concepts include:
- Advance mapping and scouting of the conference center and surrounding area to be efficient in your movements and identify good places for meetings, coffees, and meals
- Business cards: to have or not to have and how to use them
- Planning personal meetings in advance
- Reviewing the conference schedule and building out a plan for talk, exhibit, and reception attendance (including where those are physically and cross-referencing with the mapping/scouting step)
- Identifying desired new connections (particularly authors/presenters that can be found at a conference) and how to meet famous people
- Identifying desired educational courses and professional development opportunities
- Scheduling in self-care: diet, exercise, and recovery
- Executing the planning:
- Navigating poster sessions
- Navigating receptions
- Navigating the exhibition
- Asking questions at presentations and meeting authors
- Serendipitous encounters
- Following up
Day 3
How to Attend a Conference
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
14:00 - 15:00 ET
*This is the third of three time slots provided to Student Leadership and Amplify attendees. This session will be held on Zoom and a link will be provided to you by 15 August.
Conferences can be overwhelming, with so many people and so many events happening simultaneously. What’s the best way to navigate a conference? In this workshop, participants will develop their own system for planning and optimizing their conference attendance. This ranges from how to draft and execute a conference schedule to how to plan for and practice self-care. Concepts include:
- Advance mapping and scouting of the conference center and surrounding area to be efficient in your movements and identify good places for meetings, coffees, and meals
- Business cards: to have or not to have and how to use them
- Planning personal meetings in advance
- Reviewing the conference schedule and building out a plan for talk, exhibit, and reception attendance (including where those are physically and cross-referencing with the mapping/scouting step)
- Identifying desired new connections (particularly authors/presenters that can be found at a conference) and how to meet famous people
- Identifying desired educational courses and professional development opportunities
- Scheduling in self-care: diet, exercise, and recovery
- Executing the planning:
- Navigating poster sessions
- Navigating receptions
- Navigating the exhibition
- Asking questions at presentations and meeting authors
- Serendipitous encounters
- Following up
Day 4
Colorado Convention Center
700 14th St, Denver, CO 80202
United States
*All times are in MT
07:30 - 08:30 Breakfast (Prefunction space / Terrace Level 1)
This will be a joint breakfast between attendees of Student Leadership and Amplify
08:30 - 09:00 Welcome remarks (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Elizabeth Nolan, Optica / Karl Mick, Optica
09:00 - 11:00 Sustainable Networking (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
Sustainability applied to networking is about treating professional support and assistance like a resource and creating more of it than you take. This workshop introduces how to use sustainable networking to create mutually beneficial professional relationships and to set and accomplish career goals. Through individual and group activities, participants will come away with personalized goals and a practical action plan for how to incorporate sustainable networking into their professional lives.
11:00 - 11:45 Break with group photo and ice breaker(Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
11:45 - 13:00 Workshop Sessions
Option 1
Presentation Design and Delivery (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
Option 2
Awareness about Inclusive Outreach Activities (Room 3B / Terrace Level 1)
Ana Karen Reyes, Universidad Tecnológica de Tulancingo
Plan an outreach activity for people with a different reality than yours, demonstrated through a small experience to increase your vision of blindness or visual impairment.
Option 3
How to Navigate Work-Life balance in Academia (Room 3C / Terrace Level 1)
Chiara Trovatello, Columbia University
Option 4
Write a great proposal by thinking like an engineer (Room 3D / Terrace Level 1)
Benjamin Cromey, BAE Systems, Inc.
Session one: get to know your teammates and pick a fun name for your "company"
Session two: your customer never tells you enough information (how to figure out the full scope of the problem)
Session three: determine your largest risks and key hardwareneeds (what is going to be expensive/drive performance?)
Session four: how will you prove it works? (Testing is almost always more expensive than you think!)
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch (Prefunction space / Terrace Level 1)
This will be a joint breakfast between attendees of Student Leadership and Amplify. In addition, you'll have the opportunity to meet some incredible members of the Optica Foundation Board of Directors.
14:00 - 15:00 Workshop Sessions
Option 1
Presentation Design and Delivery (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
Option 2
Crafting a Compelling Research Portfolio: Showcasing your Talent and Achievement (Room 3B / Terrace Level 1)
Ritu Raj Singh, Netaji Subhas University of Technology
This session will guide you through the process of building a captivating research portfolio using sites.google. You will learn how to effectively highlight your academic and professional accomplishments, present your work in a visually engaging manner, and strategically position yourself for career opportunities.
Option 3
Job Hunting 101 (Room 3C / Terrace Level 1)
Kasia Komolibus, Tyndall National Institute
Learn about different strategies to search for jobs, differences in academic versus industry CV and how to prepare for an interview. Session will also cover informational interviews and transferable skills gained during your PhD that can be leveraged to get a position in industry.
Option 4
Write a great proposal by thinking like an engineer (Room 3D /Terrace Level 1)
Benjamin Cromey, BAE Systems, Inc.
Session one: get to know your teammates and pick a fun name for your "company"
Session two: your customer never tells you enough information (how to figure out the full scope of the problem)
Session three: determine your largest risks and key hardwareneeds (what is going to be expensive/drive performance?)
Session four: how will you prove it works? (Testing is almost always more expensive than you think!)
15:15 -16:15 Value of Professional Societies to Your Career: Plant a Flag to be a Leader (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
2016 Optica President Alan E. Willner, USC
16:15 - 16:30 Optica offerings for emerging economies (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Brian Vohnsen, Associate Professor, UCD
16:30 - 16:45 Break (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
16:45 - 17:45 Workshop Sessions
Option 1
Presentation Design and Delivery (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Christina Willis, Virtuous Cycles LLC
Option 2
Communicating Complex Ideas Effectively (Room 3B / Terrace Level 1)
Ahmet Turnali, Corning
Learn the elements and methods of communicating complex ideas, and how to persuade and get broader influence.
Option 3
How to Leverage your Personal Brand for an Academic Career (Room 3C / Terrace Level 1)
An Pan, Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Leverage your unique skills, experiences, and passions to create a powerful personal brand that sets you apart in the academic world.
Option 4
Write a great proposal by thinking like an engineer (Room 3D /Terrace Level 1)
Benjamin Cromey, BAE Systems, Inc.
Session one: get to know your teammates and pick a fun name for your "company"
Session two: your customer never tells you enough information (how to figure out the full scope of the problem)
Session three: determine your largest risks and key hardware needs (what is going to be expensive/drive performance?)
Session four: how will you prove it works? (Testing is almost always more expensive than you think!)
18:00 - 18:15 Closing Remarks (Room 3A / Terrace Level 1)
Karl Mick, Optica
18:30 - 20:00 Dinner (Outdoor Terrace/ Terrace Level 1)
Day 5
Breakfast: Partner and Grow at Optica: Connecting Student Chapters and Technical Groups
7:30 – 8:30 MDT
Colorado Convention Center, Room 103
Join us for Partner and Grow at Optica, a round-table event for student chapter and technical group leaders to brainstorm potential avenues to collaborate and boost the activities of their communities. This interactive session will provide a platform for these leaders to discuss and forge collaborative relationships that benefit both parties. The interaction will additionally present an excellent way for student leaders to learn first-hand from technical group leaders how to continue serving with Optica after graduation, opening doors to additional roles within the Society.
