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Photonics Days at the University of Jena 

From 17–19 Sep­tember 2019, a group of MAOT stu­dents at­tend­ed the Pho­tonics Days in Je­na. This unique con­fer­ence net­worked all areas of pho­tonics and al­lowed the stu­dents to meet with repre­senta­tives from lead­ing com­panies, gain in­sights into ad­vanced pho­tonics re­search and attend en­light­ening talks by distin­guished guests from the field of optics.

Wide Range of Activities and Events

A wide range of activi­ties and events al­lowed the stu­dents to focus on their specif­ic are­as of inter­est. On the first day, the Makeathon tasked partic­ipants with devel­oping solu­tions to ques­tions from the field of pho­tonics. The sec­ond day fea­tured talks by re­nowned fig­ures in the pho­tonics world such as Pro­fessor Mi­chael Kaschke, CEO of the ZEISS Group, and Pro­fessor Gér­ard Mour­ou, recipi­ent of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Phys­ics. On the third and final day, a careers fair pro­vided an oppor­tunity to meet with com­pany repre­senta­tives and people work­ing in the stu­dents’ areas of inter­est.

What Students Say About It

A few reac­tions from the stu­dents:

Launora (2nd semes­ter): “Very well-organised event with an excel­lent bal­ance of infor­mation, inter­action and prac­tice.”

Yaxin (2nd semes­ter): “The Makeathon was fasci­nating and chal­leng­ing, not only in terms of solv­ing the task and pre­sent­ing our solu­tion, but also when it came to shar­ing out the work effi­ciently and com­muni­cating with the other group mem­bers. It’s very inter­esting to meet people from differ­ent pho­tonics back­grounds.”

Sacha (4th semes­ter): “Go­ing to this event for the first time with no expec­ta­tions, I could not have been more sur­prised by the quality of the activi­ties and how well it was organ­ised. This is a unique oppor­tunity for a stu­dent like me to meet other stu­dents, pro­fessors and people em­ployed in var­ious pho­tonics fields. One part of this enrich­ing expe­rience will stay with me in partic­ular – the fasci­nating talk by Gér­ard Mour­ou, the 2018 Nobel Laure­ate in Phys­ics.”

Text: Sacha Madaer, Elite Graduate Program "Advanced Optical Technologies"