Group Activities | Fundamental Quantum Physics Lab

^{Fundamental Quantum Physics Lab} _{Peter Engels}

Journal Club

Each week, in an attempt to reach out to as many interested students as possible, the Engels group, together with the Blume group, host a journal club in which members of both groups as well as other interested students gather to discuss an interesting publication in the field of AMO. These meetings serve to broaden the students’ scientific horizon and are lively events with stimulating discussions between experimentalists and theorists.

If you are interested in AMO physics and would like to join us at journal club in the future, please contact us at engels.coldatom.lab(at)gmail.com so we can add you to our email list! We meet every Thursday at 3 pm in the Band Room (12th floor of Webster).

Outreach

The Engels group is actively involved with the community through outreach and research presentations. Outreach efforts are mainly completed through the WSU OSA/SPIE Chapter and are aimed towards primary and secondary school aged students. Activities include building demos, writing curricula, physically assisting with the distribution of scientific knowledge by traveling to rural and local schools, and volunteering to help design, build and run a laser maze for the surrounding communities. Members of the Engels group volunteer at the Laser Maze each year on WSU Mom’s Weekend. This event has been running annually since 2015 and is always well attended.

Members of the Fundamental Quantum Physics (FQP) lab have also become active in departmental outreach both on campus and off. For the 2017 Solar Eclipse, members of the lab volunteered with the WSU College of Arts and Sciences to help students safely view the eclipse and serve as “local experts” on the science behind the event.

*Photo courtesy of Will Ferguson. The volunteers from the Physics & Astronomy department.*

*Graduate Student Maren Mossman MC-ing the event.*

*Postdoc Sean Mossman manning the pinhole viewing table.*

*Peter enjoying the eclipse and getting people excited about science!*

*Showing students that a Ritz cracker can be used as a pinhole viewer.*

In past years, the Engels Lab has hosted high school students at WSU to participate in lab tours and go to a physics demo show. We are looking to restart this program at the start of the 2017 academic school year.

Peter giving a lab tour to students from Colville High School.

The Engels Lab also gives lab tours to the general public. Most recently in the frame of the 40 year anniversary celebration of the Webster building. We continue to welcome groups of young students to the lab to learn about our research and how it applies to a deeper understanding in science. Over past years, well over 100 high school students have visited the lab. These tours are highly motivating events for high school students who often have seen only very simple setups of laboratories in school. These tours also allow members of the Engels group to practice presenting their research topics to the general public.

If you would like to schedule a lab tour for your students, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Engels about possible times. We would be more than happy to have you and your class visit and learn some ultra-cool science!

Photos taken by the WSU College of Arts and Sciences and downloaded from the CAS flickr.com account.

Conferences and Meetings

In addition to the above activities, the Engels group also presents their research at regional, national, and university-level conferences. These include the WSU Showcase, Wiley Research Exposition, the Northwest APS meeting, the March APS meeting, and DAMOP, along with others.