High school research projects

Discover how ICFO can help you with your project:
there are many opportunities waiting for you!

At ICFO, we use photons to better understand our world and to generate new technologies to improve our society. If you want to do the same, you can start from these photonics-related projects that we have selected for you.

We also provide you with a selection of links to bright ideas that may inspire you to create new projects.

If you have already your idea, but you need to clarify some doubts, we can put you in contact with some photonics experts that can answer your questions.

Please let us know how it went: share your project on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #ICFOoutreach or show us the result at the Young Photonics Congress organized by ICFO.

photonics projects

bright ideas

Photonics experts

Summer STAGES

photonics projects

bright ideas

Photonics experts

Summer STAGES

photonics projects

Here you can find a selection of hands-on activities related to different aspects of optics and photonics.

Each activity takes place at ICFO, it lasts approximately 2 hours and it is open to small groups of up to 3 students.

You can come here to experiment with us and learn some technique or experiment that can be the basis of an original and creative research project. We hope you’ll come back and show us what you did at the Young Photonics Congress.

You can choose among these projects:

BUILD ONE OF THE MOST SENSITIVE INSTRUMENTS

The Michelson interferometer was designed more than one hundred years ago to find the answer to one fundamental question of physics: is the space completely empty or filled with ether? More recently, in 2015, they used this same kind of interferometer to observe gravitational waves for the first time. In this activity, you can build a Michelson interferometer with your own hands.

COMMUNICATE SECURELY THANKS TO QUANTUM PHYSICS

The counter-intuitive properties of quantum physics allow us to develop interesting applications, like ultra-secure communications. In this activity, you’ll learn some basic concepts about quantum physics and you will learn the simplest way to send a secret message thanks to quantum physics (BB84 protocol) through a practical activity with laser and polarizers.

Look for the "cryptography" tag in the calendar

TINKER WITH GRAPHENE

Graphene is an amazing material. This 2D material has a one-atom thick carbon structure that is 200 times stronger than steel, but is at the same time transparent and very light, presenting extraordinary electrical and thermal properties. All these characteristics in just one material make graphene a very promising tool for the development of new technologies.
In this activity, you can make some graphene and then observe it with the microscope.

Look for the "graphene" tag in the calendar

SLITS, DIFFRACTION AND INTERFERENCE

Diffraction patterns reveal information about the microscopic structure of the materials that light traversed, with important scientific and technological applications. With this activity, you will be able to observe the diffraction patterns created by different structures and measure the size of a very small object, such as the diameter of a hair.

Look for the "diffraction" tag in the calendar

UNLOCK THE INFORMATION IN COLORS

There is a lot of information in the color composition of a light source: scientists all around the world use it for different purposes and applications, from food safety to understanding the chemical composition of the farthest objects in the Universe. In this activity, you will build your own spectrometer to compare different light sources.

SCHLIEREN CAMERA

A Schlieren camera allows us to see changes in the refraction index that are impossible to see with our bare eyes. In this project you can learn how to build one and see the invisible.

Look for the "Schlieren Camera" in the calendar

OPTICAL FIBERS

Optical fibers are at the core of the internet as we know it now: if we hadn’t these channels to transport light from one corner to the other of our planet, we wouldn’t be able to exchange information so rapidly. With this activity you can learn how to put light into a fiber.

MEDICAL PHOTONICS

Medical photonics is the basis of many technologies that doctors employ every day to diagnose and plays a growing role in various medical techniques and practices, including non-invasive diagnostics, advanced imaging and therapies. In this activity you will be able to explore and experiment with light and your body and work with models that have properties similar to those of biological tissues.

Look for the "Medical photonics" in the calendar

If you have in mind some other photonics-related project or you can’t find a suitable date in the calendar, just contact us!

bright IDEAS

Do you want to research light and its properties, but you don’t know where to start from?
Here you’ll find some resources to inspire you for your next project.

Posters from the past editions of the Young Photonics Congress organized by ICFO.

Instructions to build photonics-based devices, developed within the Phablabs 4.0 project.

100 Educational Activities about Light and Photonics

Experiments of the Kit Fotònic per a l’aula, that can be borrowed from the Cesire or the Servei Educatiu del Gironès

The Physics of laser

Instructions to build a spectroscope with a DVD and other materials easy to find. It has to be fixed to a mobile phone to obtain the images: https://publiclab.org/wiki/foldable-spec
This spectroscope is associated to the Spectral Workbench web platform (https://spectralworkbench.org/) where you can upload your photos shot with your mobile phone and obtain a plot of the light spectrum.
This spectroscope is part of a crowdsourcing project that also developed a more precise spectrometer. Here are the instructions to build it: https://publiclab.org/wiki/desktop-spectrometry-kit-3-0.

Photonics experts

If your research project is related to one of the topics that we research here at ICFO, we can put you in contact with one of our researchers.

Summer stages

Students can have the possibility of a summer stage at ICFO by applying to one of these programs:

CiMs-CELLEX

Joves i Ciència

BIYSC

RELATED PROGRAMS

photonics in 5 minutes!

Engaging talks and informal conversations with the people working in cutting-edge research.

Young Photonics Congress 2024

march 15, 2024 deadline for project submissions: january 29, 2024Are you a high school student who likes science and technology and would you like to meet and share your work with other people like you? ICFO is giving you a great opportunity: join the next Young...

Young Photonics Congress

A scientific meeting point for young students ICFO annually organizes the Young Photonics Congress, a meeting point for young students that makes them live the experience of a scientific congress where the spotlight is on them. Students can explain their work to other...

Books and stories

Creating publications for different audiences ICFO reaches out to all ages through books and other publications that aim at immersing readers in the fascinating world of photonics. FROM THE BIG BANG TO LASER EXPLORERS IN SPACE lluminado and Lucilda is a series...

Contests

Science through other disciplines ICFO creates multidisciplinary contests that encourage participants to get inmersed in the fascinating world of science and photonics through literature, music and the audiovisual arts. Light on the Waves integrates science,...

Exhibitions

Informative panels, posters and interactive installations to bring science and photonics closer to society ICFO creates exhibitions in different formats about Photonics and its applications, conceived and designed to capture attention, raise interest and increase the...

Magic Shows for Light Explorers

Learning about photonics in a magical way Light, its nature and its properties are as amazing as they are useful. In our daily life, the things we do, the objects we use, how we generate and harness energy, the way we communicate and how we take care of our health,...

ICFO in fairs and other big events

ICFO participates in science and technology fairs, congresses and other events organized by other organizations with the aim of expanding the reach of our outreach efforts. We create hand-on activities, workshops and intearctive stands and give talks that bring a...

Challenges to leveraging innovation

ICFO organizes photonics challenges to promote the opportunities that photonics pose to innovation ICFO creates challenges that give participants the chance to use their own creativity to design, build and test solutions that integrate photonics. These projects are...

Workshops: putting photonics to work

Hands on activities customized for target audiences ICFO creates workshops around different STEM topics underlying photonics for different age groups. These hands on activities enable participants to learn about photonics in fun ways. They vary in content and format...