Vrije Hosts Photonics Show for High School Students

B-PHOT, the Brussels Photonics Team at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), is organizing its eighth VUB Science Show on Photonics to introduce 1500 students to science and engineering.

Students from 38 secondary schools attend hands-on workshops that involve topics such as solar energy (climaxing in a solar-boat race), laser-based spy systems, light painting and hologram production. Courtesy of B-PHOT.

A team of researchers from B-PHOT take the students for an interactive journey into the world of light technology. In half a day, multiple demonstrations teach them about light, photons, and lasers, from the manipulation of light to optical fibers for data communication or for medical imaging applications such as endoscopy. Students participate in onstage experiments and take quizzes to test their knowledge at the end of every demonstration.

This year the students can also test their knowledge during a science game on the VUB campus and take a visit to the Expérimentarium at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

The show aims to inspire future engineers to study photonics science and technology and perhaps invent new technologies, such as ultra-HD LED screens, 3D laser-projection systems, augmented and virtual reality headsets, self-driving cars, sustainable energy, humanoid robotics, and bioengineering and medical applications.