ORC summer student wins best project award

ORC summer student, Helen Rogers was recently awarded with the Rank Prize Fund for the best optoelectronics summer project student in the UK 2008.

An undergraduate student from St Andrews University, Helen joined the ORC for two months in the summer working under the supervision of Dr. James Gates and Prof. Peter Smith. Her project investigated various physical phenomena of UV writing to facilitate the fabrication of advanced planar lightwave circuits. The project was a great success and part of Helen’s work now forms the basis for an upcoming publication.

The rank prize organisation provides a bursary for several summer students each year. In addition the Optoelectronics Committee of the Rank Prize Funds also awards a prize of £500 to the best project. Helen was awarded her prize in St Andrews by Prof Wilson Sibbett, who is a committee member of the optoelectronic rank prize funds.

Helen says " The research involved working with a laser to fabricate and characterise waveguides and Bragg gratings in planar silica samples. The samples were designed to investigate parameters of the fabrication process, and to optimise the system for future manufacture of devices. The project was great as it allowed the opportunity of working with different equipment setups in a lab environment, and also first hand experience of working within a research group."