Media Arts and Technology

We are visiting the "Art of Science" exhibition in the library 1st Floor Gallery: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/exhibitions/art-science and follow with discussion with Prof Shuller on Nanophotonics: http://labs.cnsi.ucsb.edu/schuller/

I have uploaded some articles for a discussion on Thursday, Oct. 10th, following the Library visit and Shuller discussion. These are some of my favorites.

1. The Art of Scientific Imagination by Gerald Holton, Professor of Physics and History of Science Emeritus, Harvard.

2. Physics and Reality by Albert Einstein - a very visual description of what he considers to be the process of doing science and the goal of physics. Although written in 1936, it is still applicable to the method of doing science today. This article contains some of his most famous quotes.

Schuller starts with answering simple open ended questions and works equally with theory and experiments. The optical properties and refractivity index of inorganic/organic materials are subjects of his research. His workflow involves producing computational models and simulations, engineering physical things that match these models, then proving that the expected behavior does in fact happen. Schuller creates instruments to take measurements and also engineers applications for the results of his research.

Schuller states that the best way to build lasting knowledge is by learning techniques, doing them yourself, then teaching them to other people.

a) How do you gather data - through simulation and observation with custom engineered instruments

b) What kind of technology is used - high-permittivity semiconductor nanowires, antenna-based metamaterials, light emitters, photodetectors

c) Does the research make you design new technology - yes, many devices to sense inter-molecular interactions and optical properties of organic materials

d) How is your data analyzed - through computer simulation

e) How do you make assumptions based on the analysis - by matching observation to predictions made by simulation

f) How does the analysis result in discovery - if the simulation was a match to the observation

g) How do you represent the results - figures showing simulation and observational data

attached is a photo from the visit