–I co-built the photonics spaces with Dr. Ed Deveney and Dr. Elif Demirbas. We negotiated state-ofthe-art equipment in characterization of integrated photonics circuits. One of the grants was obtained by Dr. Deveney – before the arrival of Dr. Demirbas and I – with the State of Massachusetts and in connectionwith the federal initiative AIM Photonics and its educational branch led by MIT, AIM Photonics Academy. While a postdoc at MIT, I participated in the development of the Labs for Education & Application Prototypes (LEAP) at MIT. One of my activities as a new faculty member is to help setting up these spaces to create the LEAP at BSU. During the academic year we also prepared an application with the State of Massachusetts as well as requesting half a million dollars to compliment our capabilities extending the equipment towards longer (midIR) wavelengths. Other equipment and media reports had come with these grants. – Samuel Serna
OUR TEAM
The Chirp team is a close-knit and talented group with a shared vision of delivering consistently excellent results, as well as ensuring that the workplace is a fun, inclusive and challenging space for all of our members.
Samuel Felipe Serna Otálvaro
– Physics Engineer – Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Sede Medellín.
– PhD in Science – Photonics – Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay.
– Post- doc Centre for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies Université Paris-Saclay.
– Post- doc MIT.
My efforts to engage in new pedagogical approaches stems partly from my review evaluations from students, colleagues and my department mentors, so I have continued working with the Office of Teaching and Learning.
I continued to work with the student partner Jacob Biello, but this time in the virtual environment. This was extremely useful to adapt and design new material for my PHYS181 class. This forced change into online platform had made me think in greater depth about my teaching philosophy, which continues to evolve with experience.
In the lower-division courses populated mostly by students satisfying core requirements, I want the students to leave my courses with greater knowledge about the importance of mathematical reasoning and some basics of physics in their daily lives. In the upper-level courses, my goal is to consolidate my final project based approach as a way to get physicists and engineers to work on interesting projects that go beyond the lecture and contributes to all the class. These projects use the material and software from the photonics labs and with the department and university support.
As part of the project of the IBM initiative for the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, and after the contact from Dean Porter-Utley, I have had Lead Engineer Rosie Lickorish to give an invited talk to my Math Physics students from Spring 2021. The Vessel is planned to arrive in Spring 2022 to Plymouth MA, and we have been invited to participate in some data analysis.
