Looking at the Future of Science: The Global Young Scientists Summit
In January, Przemyslaw Falak attended the Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS) in Singapore. This annual summit, initiated in 2013, serves as a nexus for young researchers and distinguished scientists from a range of scientific fields such as chemistry, physics, medicine, mathematics, computer science, and engineering.
Przemyslaw Falak, a post-graduate researcher based at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, was honoured to be among the students selected to attend, ranging from undergraduates to post-doctorates. The selection process involved nominations from the candidates’ universities and shortlisting by the GYSS Committee, highlighting the exceptional nature of the participants.
Throughout the four-day summit, participants engaged in lectures, plenary sessions and panel discussions, gaining valuable insights from luminaries like Klaus von Klitzing, who received the Nobel Laureate in Physics 1985, and Leslie Valiant, recipient of the Turing Award in 2010. Informal small group sessions provided a unique opportunity to speak with these distinguished speakers.
Reflecting on the experience, Przemyslaw Falak said: “Being in the presence of Nobel Prize laureates was a motivational experience. It was fascinating to learn that many of them achieved their successful research through luck—the experiments they intended had different outcomes than expected. This motivated them to find out why it had happened.”
The summit also provided a platform for participants to showcase their research through short oral talks and poster sessions. Przemyslaw Falak contributed to the poster session, presenting the summary of his research on ‘Engineered Chaos for Sensing.’ His work, focused on developing unique spectral patterns, addresses the current challenges posed by bulky and expensive dispersive spectrometers and wavemeters. Describing his research, he explained: “My poster provided a theory to develop unique spectral patterns. Despite their seemingly random appearance, these patterns are highly deterministic and unique.”
He added: “Historical approaches to this have been hindered by the instability of the system. Instead, we have used flat fibre with laser-inscribed scatters to capture the scattered light, resulting in a stable and deterministic speckle patterns.”
Beyond the summit itself, participants were invited to visit renowned universities in Singapore, such as Nanyang Technological University. They were able to explore their cutting-edge facilities and engage with academics.
Watch the Summit in action here on YouTube.