Projects per year
Description
Ensuring physics is engaging, relatable, and understandable is critical in enabling future researchers in science. Teaching the optical properties of light and materials can be enhanced using practical demonstrations. We have developed a demonstration kit that can be used to prepare the principles of the interaction of polarized light with optically active, chiral liquids and birefringent polymers. At a relatively low cost, the kit can be built using mainly 3D printed parts and a few off-the-shelf electronic components, such as LEDs, stepper motors, Arduino microcontroller, and a webcam. The development of various modular frameworks for optical components has benefitted both research and teaching, providing easily reconfigurable demonstrations that can be both low-cost and easily portable. Here, we demonstrate an outreach and educational tool that utilizes magnetic relocatable mounts for the main optical components, allowing the setup to be easily reconfigured between measuring optical rotation and visualizing the effects of birefringence. We present several simple experiments demonstrating key physics topics such as wave propagation, refraction, polarization, and birefringence. Overall, the demonstration kit provides a sandbox for several activities focusing on learning wave propagation and polarization in physics. The setup has potential for use in other aspects of physics, with future work looking to improve and involve different areas such as spectroscopy, fluorescence, and quantum mechanics.
Date made available | 27 Jan 2025 |
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Publisher | University of Strathclyde |
Projects
- 2 Active
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DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Eadie, Fraser
Kallepalli, A. (Principal Investigator), Di Caprio, G. (Co-investigator) & Eadie, F. (Research Co-investigator)
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/10/24 → 1/04/28
Project: Research Studentship - Internally Allocated
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Spatial-temporal techniques for multi-dimensional imaging
Kallepalli, A. (Principal Investigator)
1/04/24 → 31/12/25
Project: Research Fellowship
Prizes
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Chancellor's Fellowship
Kallepalli, A. (Recipient), 1 Apr 2024
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2023-25)
Kallepalli, A. (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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Education and Training in Optics and Photonics 2025
Kallepalli, A. (Chair)
Sept 2024 → Jun 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organiser of major conference
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School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
Kallepalli, A. (Visiting researcher)
1 Apr 2024 → …Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution