Young Photonics Congress 2022 - program

The Young Photonics Congress is a scientific congress where the spotlight is on high school students presenting their research projects.

Discover the world of photonics with flash talks by ICFO researchers and research projects by young scientists!

program

march 11, 2022 – ICFO (CASTELLDEFELS)

09:30 – 10:00: Registration

10:00 – 11:00: Introduction and Flash talks

We will open the conference with a brief introduction to photonics and ICFO, followed by ICFO research projects explained in first person by ICFO scientists. All talks in this section will be in Catalan or Spanish.

11:00 – 12:45: Project presentations

This section will have the structure of a typical poster session of a scientific conference. All projects will be presented at the same time: attendees will be able to discover the different projects and ask questions to the authors in small conversation groups.

12:45 – 13:00: Closing remarks

Flash talks

Click on + for more information

GIANVITO LUCIVERO

Gianvito Lucivero is currently PROBIST fellow and Lecturer in Quantum Sensing.

He obtained his PhD at ICFO, demonstrating squeezed-light enhancement of atomic sensors. Between 2016 and 2019 he worked at Princeton University, where he contributed to the first detection of human biomagnetism in unshielded environment with optical magnetometers.

Marina Cunquero

Marina graduated in Microbiology in 2019 from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and continued her postgraduate studies at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. In 2016 she joined ICFO as lab technician and became fascinated about the broad spectrum of research possibilities that optical microscopy provides. She is currently pursuing her PhD in biophotonics at the Super-Resolution Light Microscopy and Nanoscopy group, led by Pablo Loza. Her research interests are a mixture of neuroscience and optics. She studies how neurons communicate in the eye in order to find new treatments for visual impairment.

María Paula Ayala

María Paula Ayala is an undergraduate student of Physics at Yachay Tech University (Ecuador). She has participated in projects related to Material Sciences and Computational Nanosciences. Currently, she is doing an internship in the Thermal Photonics Group led by Prof. Georgia Papadakis at ICFO, studying tunable thermal emission.

Roland Terborg

Roland obtained his degree in Physics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and did the PhD in Photonics at ICFO. He is currently working as an entrepreneur at the ICFO Launchpad, coordinating the scientific research and business development for a new spin-off project in the Life-Science sector.

PROJECTS

Click on + for more information (all abstracts are in English)

IS QUANTUM cryptography a safe way to transmit information?

MarÍa amores cintora

British School of Barcelona – Castelldefels (1 bat)

Supervisor: María Ángel Cintora

The aim of my project is to demonstrate how we can transmit a secure message using polarised light. I will use a laser, polarisers, a light intensity sensor, half-wave plates and a mirror.

Light diffraction (La difracció de la llum)

Èric Cornet Bonilla, Daniel Fernández Redondo, Jordi Sagrera Jorge

IES El Castell – Esparreguera (2 bat)

Supervisor: Montserrat Muñoz

To apply the scientific method in a laboratory with the most adequate materials
To know the scientific and historical bases on the nature of light
Do a theoretical study of the magnitudes that define waves and its properties
Explain the phenomenon of diffraction
Using the diffraction we have calculated the diameter of different sewing threads.
Next, we compare the measurement obtained by the experimental procedure with the real value.

DATA TRANSFER THROUGH LIGHT: LIFI PROTOTYPE WITH RGB LEDS (TRANSMISSIÓ DE DADES A TRAVÉS DE LA LLUM: PROTOTIP LIFI AMB LED RGB)

Erik Marín Martín

Escola Virolai – Barcelona (2 bat)

Supervisor: José Luis Touron

We live in the information society. Can we use existing infrastructures and technologies to cover this demand or use others when current ones have problems?

We have built a functional and economical prototype using VLC principles with LED RGB to be able to draw conclusions about this technology.

On fNIRS measuring techniques and the analyisis of real data as a learning procedure

Chico Paulics Bresler, Laia Xiao Planas Toro, Pau Rocabert

Supervisors: Umut Karadeniz, Marta Zanoletti, Turgut Durduran

The aims were to understand fNIRS using a Portalite, including cuff occlusion, and calf/prefrontal cortex activation. The results were an observed increase in HHb and a decrease in O2Hb for the cuff occlusion, the expected results were seen for the calf, no patterns were observed in the cortex.

Method of detection and analysis of the variability of a variable star (Mètode de detecció i anàlisis de la variabilidad d'una estrella variable)

Laia Cambra Chaler

Escola Virolai – Barcelona (2 bat)

Supervisor: Mailhyn Cafiero

The aim of this thesis is to observe a variable star in order to determine
its light curve and period. In order to do this, a series of images have been taken and pre-treated. The information obtained has led to some results that have allowed us to speculate on the reason for its variation.

Design and construction of a spectrometer (Disseny i construcció d'un espectròmetre)

Adrià Capdevila Zurita

La Salle Manlleu – Manlleu (2 bat)

Supervisor: David Corrons

This study was focused on designing and building a spectrometer made by low-cost and accessible components that measures in the visible region. It was compared with a commercial spectrometer doing three practices. The results confirm that it is possible to develop it with these features.

Searching for the particle: numerical calculation and quantum physics (Buscant la partícula: càlcul numèric i física quàntica)

Isabel Sitjà Castellarnau

La Salle Manlleu – Torelló (2 bat)

Supervisor: David Corrons

This research project presents the probability distribution of a particle which is in an infinite square well potential and another in a finite square well potential. It is resolved through the Schrödinger equation which is a differential equation. I have applied the Euler’s method using programming languages.

IS the light of speed right? (És la velocitat de la llum certa?)

Daniel López-Moya Casado

Col·legi Padre Damian – Barcelona (3 ESO)

Supervisor: Alex Muñoz

A study of the different methods used throughout history for measuring the speed of light to try and prove if the speed of light is indeed the value known as “c”. From practicals experiments like Fizeau’s to theoretical demonstrations using Maxwells constants. In my work, I analyze why these experiments don’t necessarily prove”c” as the speed of light due to a certain number of assumptions that have to be made to accommodate the results. I attempt at measuring the speed of light myself to learn the difficulties that come with the process and why the errors in previous results have to be overlooked, and I propose a method that could properly measure the speed of light.

Light properties: diffraction and interference (Propietats de la llum: difracció i interferències)

Jan López Bocache

Institut Pla de les Moreres – Vilanova del Camí (2 bat)

Supervisor: Jordi Fernández

My research is about the nature of light. In it I prove experimentally some properties of it like diffraction and interference. I also use these properties to measure the thickness of a human hair, the wavelenght of three colours and to analyze the spectres of different light sources using a spectrometer.

Diffraction and micrometric measurements (Difracció i mesures micromètriques)

Eloy Estopiñá Viloria, Deybid Silver Villanueva Rojas

INS Pompeu Fabra – Martorell (2 bat)

Supervisor: Carles Morera Taus

The purpose is to be able to show that with a laser and obstacles it’s possible to measure the width of the same, all this taking advantage of the phenomenon of diffraction that occurs. The whole process of experimentation can be carried out without the use of very specialized or complex instrumental.

Our future with metamaterials

Aileen Sangalli

The British School of Barcelona – Castelldefels (2 bat)

Supervisor: Adam Sierens

The main objective of my research is to understand the structure and properties of metamaterials and to explain/outline their (possible) applications. I mainly used information from the internet to complete the project. My results show the multiple impressive uses of metamaterials and their ability to manipulate light.

Wave-particle duality of light (La dualitat ona-partícula de la llum)

Olau Vinyals i roca

Institut Jaume Vicens Vives – Girona (2 bat)

Supervisor: Laura Vallejo

This poster presents (1) an experiment (in two versions) to check that light behaves as a wave, from which we calculated the wavelength of the emitted light; (2) an experiment to verify that light behaves as a particle; and (3) the design of an ideal experiment to check that each photon behaves both as a wave and as a particle at the same time.

analysing anisotropies of SNR Cassiopeia A

Helena Villares Santiago

Institut Pompeu Fabra – Martorell (1 bat)

Supervisor: Francisco Pérez García

This study aims to prove the anisotropies in core-collapse supernova explosions. X-Ray energy spectrum analysis of two different regions of SNR Cassiopeia A demonstrated that the explosion is not equal in all directions because the chemical elements have been found in different proportion.

Quantum computing (Computació Quàntica)

Pol Gonzalo Martí, Sam Grifoll Valcarcel, Abel Rodríguez Dominguez

Institut Sunsi Móra – Canet de Mar (2 bat)

Supervisor: Jaume Murgadas Valldosera

This work explains quantum computation from a point of view that can be understood by everyone, exposing its bases, what it consists, clarifying from the most basic to the most general concept and trying to give a small conclusion and a reflection about how this field of physics can change our world and its sciences in a permanent way. The world of quantum computing is evolving a lot and very fast, and people who don’t know what it is can receive wrong information about it. We have tried to explain all with clarity so it can be well understood.

Stellar spectroscopy: identification of the spectral type of a series of stars (Espectroscòpia estel·lar: identificació del tipus espectral d’un seguit d’estrelles)

Adrià Cantarero Carreras

Institut Pompeu Fabra – Martorell (2 bat)

Supervisor: Verònica Santamaria Domenech

This project focuses on the study of the properties of Arcturus, the Sun and Vega; using the spectrum of each one, obtained with our own observational data: collected by the DADOS spectrograph and edited with MaxIm DL programme and Python.

Light through the interferometer (La llum a través de l'interferòmetre)

Arnau sirvent villòria

Maristes Montserrat Lleida – Lleida (2 bat)

Supervisor: Xavier Pérez Garret

The aims of this study were to work with the Michelson – Morley interferometer and verify that it was possible to calculate the refractive index of glass, water, alcohol and the wavelength and the coherence length of a laser.
The methodology used was to do 3 experiments, collecting data and analysing it.
The outcome of this work is the result of my calculations compared to the real data, what drawn me to the following conclusions.

challenging classical physics with muons (Desafiando la física clásica con los muones)

Joel López Juncadella

Sagrada Família – Gavà (2 bat)

Supervisor: Daniel Parcerisas Brossa

In this research work, I studied the behavior of muons and alpha particles in certain cases with particle detectors. Experiments have been carried out to study these particles, such as the determination of the speed of a muon or of the absorption of the alpha particles.

If it is the weakest, why do we call it the Particle of God? (Si és la més feble, perquè l'anomenem partícula de déu?)

Aina Rodríguez Bueno

Sagrada Família – Gavà (2 bat)

Supervisor: Daniel Parcerisas Brossa

The Standard Model of Particle Physics is completed with the Higgs Field, as it gives particles mass. The goal of the project is to describe the field. I conducted a practical experiment with a particle detector called TimePix and different radioactive samples, to delve into nuclear physics.

Analysing light from Trappist-1b exoplanet

Miquel García Urbán, Xavier Garrido Aguilera

IES Pompeu Fabra – Martorell (1 bat)

Supervisor: Francisco Pérez García

A light curve analysis of Trappist-1b exoplanet obtained from Kepler space telescope using a python library called lightkurve give us a planet radius of 1.18 Earth radius and an orbital period of 1.51 days. Calculated distance to the parent star Trappist-1 was 0.115 astronomical units.

A computer that knows particles

Rubén Castaño Gómez

Sagrada Família – Gavà (2 bat)

Tutor: Daniel Parcerisas Brossa

This research work consists on programming an artificial intelligence, a convolutional neuronal network specifically, that will be able to analyse
an image obtained from a particles’ detector called Medipix and identify three different types of particles: Alpha, Gamma, Beta.

CERN and particle detectors (El CERN i els detectors de partícules)

Julia González Pons, Bruguers Miranzo López

Santo Angel – Gavà (2 bat)

Supervisor: Sonia Tarancón

In our project we experimented with the Medipix detector. We analyzed radioactive materials and objects with X-rays, concluding that the americium had relativistic alpha particles,the itrium a short disintegration span of time, the KNO3 relativistic beta particles and the Pb was an insulating material.

Illumination problem

Nicolás Atanes Santos

IES Navarro Villoslada – Pamplona

What do mathematicians think of light? How to illuminate a room without leaving gaps without lighting? Is mathematics a way to explain when a light bulb illuminates a room correctly? Discover the lighting problem, a nearly century-old mathematical problem posed by Nobel laureate in physics Roger Penrose, and even explained in Numberphile.

how close is quantum cryptography? (com de prop ens queda la criptografia quàntica?)

inés alonso

Institut Mediterrània – Castelldefels (2 bat)

Supervisor: Rosa Fernández Serra

Light has a lot of applications. How do we use it to exchange information? Looking for answers I came across quantum cryptography.
We have a goal: to encrypt messages.
How do we encrypt using quantum properties? Is it the same as classic encryption? At ICFO I was given the opportunity to perform the BB84 quantum protocol.

This activity is co-funded by the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) allocated to the Programa operatiu FEDER de Catalunya 2014-2020, with the support of the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca of the Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement of the Generalitat de Catalunya for emerging technology clusters devoted to the valorization and transfer of research results (QuantumCAT 001-P-001644 and GraphCAT 001-P-001702).