LEOS chapter of the IEEE Calcutta Section was formed in October 2004 with 12 members. In the current year starting July 05, a membership increase drive inducted 5 more members to join the society. In addition, the free membership offer by LEOS was duly publicized and as a result 40 odd student members joined IEEE. A Student Branch of IEEE, Calcutta University (CU) was opened in 2006.
In the year 2005-06, a number of eminent researchers from India were invited by LEOS to deliver specialized lectures in Technical meetings. Prof. D. Datta, IIT- Kharagpur delivered a talk entitled “ Optical Access Network” on September 2, 05. A talk entitled “THz signal generation through optical parametric amplifiers” was given on November 24, 2005 by Prof. Tara Prasad Chattopadhyay of Visva Bharati University. Prof. B. P. Pal of IIT-Delhi, an LEOS Distinguished Lecturer spoke on “Photonic band gap Bragg fibers: A new platform for application specific optical fibers and components” on January 3, 2006. This event was jointly held with EDS Chapter and Prof. H. Iwai of Tokyo Institute of Technology, an EDS DL talked on “CMOS scaling and its manufacturing”. The last technical meeting was held on June 30, 2006, in which Prof. S K Lahiri, ex Deputy Director of IIT-Kharagpur gave his lecture entitled” IOSIMM: an integrated optical simulator”.
IEEE Calcutta section organized a two-day seminar entitled CALCON 05 at Hotel Peerless Inn during December 3-4, 2005. LEOS had the responsibility of arranging two lectures, the titles (speakers) were: Optical Networks (Prof. D. Datta, IIT-Kharagpur) and Silicon Photonics (Prof. P. K. Basu, INRAPHEL, CU, Chairman –LEOS).
The Chapter organized three special events for the students, researchers and young teachers of engineering institutions. The first was a one-day workshop entitled” Optical Communication Systems and Networking” held on September 30, 2005. The following topics with the names of speakers given within brackets were covered: Introduction and Overview (P. K. Basu), Optical sources (P. K. Basu), Optical fiber (Somenath Sarkar, Vice Chairman – LEOS, CU), Optical detectors and receivers (N. R. Das, Secretary-LEOS), Link, amplifiers and noise issues (P. K. Basu), WDM components (P. K. Saha, CU, Chairman, AP/MTT Chapter), SONET and networks (S. Sen, CU). CDs containing lecture notes and slides were distributed amongst participants.
The second event was a students’ lecture competition on the topic” Any recent discovery or breakthroughs in photonics/lightwave technology”. Six students were short listed and they talked on different topics like Popularity of Raman amplifiers in optical fiber technology (Somak Bhattacharyya, Winner), Discovery of efficient silicon light emitters (Rikmantra Basu, Runner-up), Optical Interconnects (Sankhadip Das), OXC and dense wavelength division multiplexing (Surjya Neogy), High speed silicon optical modulators (Dipankar De Sarkar, and Photonics: a boon for science (Subhadeep Mukhopadhyay). A panel of judges prepared the list of awardees. Prizes were given to two top contestants and certificates were given to all of them. The whole function was held on December 23, 05 at the Ionosphere Field Station of Calcutta University (CU), about 40 kms away from the city. A picnic and a social event were held after the contest. There were other amusement programs during the bus journeys.
The third and final special event was held on February 28, 2006, which is observed as the National Science Day, as Raman Effect was discovered on this day in 1928 in the University of Calcutta. The program was devoted to education of students in schools and colleges (B. Sc. Physics honors, first year). The inaugural function explained the meaning and objective of Science day. In the Question and Answer session that followed, Experts of CU gave answers to the scientific and other questions raised by participating students. A number of optical devices and systems were demonstrated and a few volunteers, who are student members of LEOS, explained the working principles to them. The equipment shown is He-Ne lasers, Semiconductor LEDs and Laser Diodes, Photodetectors, LCDs, a Voice link using optical fiber, Digital modulation of LEDs and a few other measuring instruments. Certificates were given to all participants. The feedback forms received from them indicated that the program was highly stimulating to them.

P. K. Basu
Chairman, LEOS
(Calcutta Section)