2.1

Foundational support and grants

From its establishment in 2012, PRPI has counted with the active support of the Ana G. Mendez System University System, the UMET University Chancellor, and the Dean of Environmental Affairs. This active support has been fundamental in the growth of the institute and in obtaining the support of Puerto Rican institutions. As previously mentioned, PRIDCO and the PR Science Trust provided foundational support for the PR Photonics Institute. PRIDCO provided the funds (matched by UMET) for the personnel (two faculty and one technician) responsible for research, teaching, curriculum development, and the general operation of the institute. PRIDCO funds have also paid for stipends for students who have been instrumental in developing our outreach program. The PR Science Trust provided for laboratory infrastructure (laboratory equipment) for our academic and research programs. This equipment has also been used to showcase PRPI’s capabilities for schools visiting our facilities.

In 2014, PRPI was the recipient of an Education Outreach Grant from the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). This grant allowed us to buy equipment and supplies PRPI has used to setup demonstrations in optics and photonics for our outreach program. These include the development of a laser fountain (coupling of a laser to a stream of water to show the principles of total internal reflection and fiber optics), a balloon popping setup (used to teach about the nature of color and energy in light), the development of a laser pattern generator (Capstone Project with senior electrical and mechanical engineering students from Universidad del Turabo, our sister institution), a laser set and green laser OEM module (for the balloon popping setup and for general light demos) and other consumables. These demonstrations have been used with different populations and have been a building block for our outreach program.

In both 2014 and 2015 PRPI was also the recipient of OP-TEC Student Recruitment grants. These grants have allowed us to hire as half-time recruiter Mr. Rubén A. Gordillo, MBA, adjunct professor from the School of Business. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing a marketing plan and outreach program. We have been able to leverage this grant by having, at different times, an intern from the School of Business’ Marketing Program (supervised by Prof. Gordillo), an intern from the Juvempleo program (see below), and a student paid by our PRIDCO grant. These students received training in the principles of optics and photonics and in each of the demos we wanted to show, and they gave us feedback on how to better present this information to our different audiences. Additionally, the 2014 SPIE grant allowed us to acquire additional material we needed for our outreach and recruitment efforts.

2.2

Local and national professional societies

We have also reached to the Optical Society of America (OSA) for help in our outreach and educational program. OSA donated in 2014 a demo optics kit that we have been actively using since then. In 2015 we additional bought two more optics kits from them. In addition to the SPIE Education Outreach Grant, we have also received 100 copies of each of four posters prepared by them for IYL: “IYL: What is light?”, “Light as a wave”, “Light as a particle”, and “Light as a ray”. We have given away these posters to teachers and parents at some of our activities, and will continue to do so. We also have SPIE and OSA posters prominently displayed in our labs.

In 2015 we also partnered with the Puerto Rico Manufacturer’s Association and gave a 3-hour workshop for college students (in San Juan) and 1.5 hour workshops for junior and senior students at vocational high schools (held in C3Tec museum in Caguas).

2.3

State and non-profit organizations

In addition to PRIDCO, the PR Science Trust, and the PR House of representatives, we partnered with several organizations in order to expand the reach of our programs. These were:

2.4

Educational institutions

Cooperation between UMET and other institutions has also helped us spread the word about our work and our programs. We have collaborated with:

2.5

Private companies

We are thankful for the different kinds of support private companies have given PRPI. In particular:

3.1

Activities for K-12 students

Both demonstrations and hands-on experiments have been developed for K-12 students. Depending on the type of presentation, size of the group, and available time, we do a different combination of these with or without an accompanying visual (PowerPoint) presentation. We can divide these activities into:

Figure 1.

Light presentation at the University of Puerto Rico Summer Camp (Rio Piedras Campus) for K-8th grades. Picture shows elementary students watching Tania Ortiz from the Puerto Rico Photonics Institute. (June 11th, 2015)

3.2

Workshops for K-12 in-service teachers

We have partnered with several federal and state programs in order to reach K-12 teachers. The first of these is the Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) Program in Puerto Rico. Through this program we gave three workshops in 2014 and 2015 to 600+ teachers (mostly mathematics and science from middle- and high-school). The first was a daylong workshop, and the other two were three-day (weekend) workshops where we were invited as presenters and plenary speakers.

Figure 2.

A view of the PRPI Teachers Workshop at the Puerto Rico Math-Science Partnerships Congress, 22 November 2014, in Fajardo, PR.

In 2015 and 2016 we partnered with two state-funded initiatives developed by the School of Environmental Affairs at UMET. The first was the CMECT program (Teacher Competences for Education in Earth Sciences) with 20 participants and the second the TICI (Curricular Integration through Research in Environmental Topics) with 17 participants. Both were two-day hands-on workshops, and for the second workshop we managed to give each student a Light Blox kit (from OSA) and a Galileoscope (developed for the International Year of Astronomy 2009). Funds for these projects were provided by the Puerto Rico Council of Education through the No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB-14-15).

3.3

Outreach activities for the general public

We have also partnered with other public and private organization to offer events for the general public. Most of the time, these events have also included K-12 and College students. Some of these events are:

3.4

Video Development

During 2015, and as part of our outreach commitment for the IYL, we developed two videos explaining the importance of light, optics, and photonics in our daily life and some of its applications. The first video was developed and produced by students from the School of Business and the School of Social Sciences at UMET. As the background for these students was not in science, the production was a process of them learning about the specific phenomenon to be presented and then determining an appropriate way to make that presentation. The second video is a professional production by the environment and science production company Geoambiente, and subsidized by a grant from the PRST and support from UMET. Both videos are in Spanish and available from our YouTube website (search for Puerto Rico Photonics Institute).

3.5

Research projects with an outreach and educational component

With the help of undergraduate students, we also had two research projects that we have now integrated to our outreach efforts. The first of these is a web-based educational tool developed by undergraduate students of Computer Science at Universidad Metropolitana. It analytically and graphically studies the behavior of electromagnetic waves as they propagate through space and through an interface between two dielectric media. The animated simulation allows users to manipulate model parameters and acquire an intuitive understanding of how electromagnetic p- and s-waves propagate in a homogeneous medium and are modified as they are refracted and reflected at the material interface. Some interesting particular cases that can be modelled are: normal incidence, critical angle, Brewster angle, and absorptive/amplifying media. We are now working on a second version that incorporates a 3-D view of the waves and shows the behavior in negative-index materials. This program is being used in our Technical Certificate Program in Optics and Photonics and in our undergraduate optics courses, and is available through our website or directly at http://prphotonics.org/software/.

The second is a laser pattern generator that projects Lissajous figures on the ceiling or on a screen. The development was carried out by three undergraduate engineering students, two from the University of Turabo (working in their Capstone Project) and a third from the University of Puerto Rico. We have presented this generator at several of our outreach events with students and teachers. We also had plans to build in association with the PR Museum of Art an improved version that would allow the user to project self-generated art and sketched messages. Unfortunately, the design and safety requirements demanded an investment beyond what we (or the PRMoA) had available at that moment.

3.6

Publicity in social and written media, radio, and TV

Starting in 2014, we developed our own website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. These have been instrumental in promoting PRPI and the IYL events. For the IYL we also had the opportunity to announce our programs through:

We also developed a 30-second promo that was shown in several movie theatres as part of our recruitment strategy for our academic program.

3.7

Special populations: Veterans and TAA participants

We have partnered with the Transition Services Officer of the Soldier for Life-Transition Assistance Program (SFL-TAP; Directorate of Human Resources USAG) from Fort Buchanan, the largest military base in Puerto Rico. This partnership started with our participation at the Earth Day events at Ft. Buchanan and has resulted in presentations of our certificate program to veterans transitioning to civilian life (those happened last year, no events of this type have been scheduled this year). We also attended a two-day Hiring Fair for Veterans and their families at Ft. Buchanan on November 4th and 5th, 2015 and another one on June 23rd, 2016.

3.8

Other IYL activities developed in Puerto Rico

We would be remiss not to mention many other efforts organized by universities and organizations in Puerto Rico to commemorate the IYL. These include:

4.1

Workshop and Symposium

With the support of the Puerto Rico Science, Research and Technology Trust, PRPI organized a workshop, followed by a symposium on November 5th, 2015 at the main campus of Universidad Metropolitana in Cupey, PR (Muñiz Souffront Auditorium). The morning workshop, entitled “Discovering Light and Exploring Optics through the Galileoscope”, introduced participants to the basic concepts of optics and photonics through the use of the Optical Society of America’s (OSA) Optics Suitcase and LightBlox kits and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy Galileoscope. Each participant built his or her own Galileoscope telescope while learning along the way concepts of lens systems, focusing, imaging and image formation. At the end of the workshop, each participant took home one Galileoscope and other material we distributed. This workshop was opened to the general public and we had 37 participants, including high-school and college students and teachers, technicians and professionals, and general public.

In the afternoon we had a symposium titled “Photonics, Medicine, and the Environment” with two keynote presentations: Dr. Heidy Sierra, Research Fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, New York; and Dr. Bahaa Saleh, Dean of CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida. In addition, we had two invited speakers from the industry and the academia in Puerto Rico: Roberto Alzaga, Manufacturing R&D Technologies, from Medtronic, Inc; and Dr. Samuel Hernández, Director of The Center for Chemical Sensors Development of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Four hours of Continuing Education credit were given to the participants who so desired for each session (morning or afternoon).

4.2

PRPI laboratory inauguration, Open House, and launch of our 1-year certificate

On the morning of November 6^th, 2015, we had the official inauguration of our labs and our first Open House, as well as the launch of our first academic program, a one-year certificate in “Photonics and Lasers Technical Specialist”, which had been recently approved by the Puerto Rico Council of Education. We had presentations, educational activities and demos, and tours of our labs.

4.3

Concert of Light by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra

On the evening of November 7^th, 2015 the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra presented the Concert of Light at the Center for Performing Arts in San Juan (Pablo Casals Symphony Hall). This presentation featured the science photography and commentary by renowned Puerto Rican astronomer and science communicator, Dr. José Francisco Salgado, providing a multimedia experience in an innovative pairing of science and art. The visual representation of Dr. Salgado was accompanied by the orchestral suite The Planets op. 32 by Gustav Holst. The program also had the soloist Benito Díaz interpreting Strauss’ second concert for trumpet and orchestra and the piece Borealis by the composer John Estacio, also with the visual representation of Dr. Salgado.

This combination of science and symphony has been presented in more than 100 concerts and has reached a combined audience of more than 250,000 people in concert halls and educational institutions spanning 45 cities in 15 countries. Some of the orchestras that have presented these works include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino and the Chicago Sinfonietta.

5.1

Significance of our outreach program

Since 2006, Puerto Rico has experienced economic upheavals that have severely impacted the local workforce, with an unemployment level that currently reaches 15% and a workforce that has fallen by nearly 400,000. Through our New Horizons initiative, the Puerto Rico Photonics Institute is helping to address this situation by providing training in the new and fast-growing fields of lasers, optics, and photonics; by having participants in our program acquire skills applicable to a wide range of fields where photonics is an enabling technology; and by providing those participants with work experience to prepare them for careers as optics technicians. Furthermore, local state plans are already focused in expanding the industry base to include those related to lasers and photonics. In order to be able to achieve this goal, we have developed a very strong marketing and recruiting campaign allowing us to reach out to:

5.2

Results

To date we have been able to reach an audience of more than 9,500 including almost 3,000 K-12 students that have visited our labs and more than 700 teachers through our workshops. The map below summarizes the locations of the schools that have visited our labs (red), the schools we have visited (yellow), the workshops we have given (dark blue), visits to veterans (green), other outreach events (orange), and the place of origin of the teachers that have attended our workshops (shaded, from almost every municipality in Puerto Rico).

Figure 3.

Summary of municipalities impacted by different activities of our outreach program.

5.3

Challenges

The Photonics STEM field in Puerto Rico is affected by three main broadening participation (BP) challenges. First, the current economic situation in Puerto Rico prevents many prospective students from pursuing an education since they cannot pay for it (or for what the student aid programs cannot cover) themselves and are unwilling to commit to any student loan. Second, the cultural and language barrier prevents many from even considering applying to graduate school at a university in the continental US. Third, the challenge faced by the photonics industry worldwide that is growing at a faster pace than the number of professionals being trained in the field. Since we started our outreach program in 2014, we have adapted to these particular socio-economic situations by:

We are also in the process of learning how to best translate our outreach program into an effective recruiting program that will bring students into our academic programs. On the other hand, the relatively small number of students that have registered in our first and (soon-to-begin) second cohorts have made it more manageable to develop and polish our courses. We look forward to continue developing alliances that will enable us to further our development as a Photonics Institute.