Upcoming Events:

Make sure to sign up for our mailing list to stay updated on upcoming events ​here.​
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Past Events: 

Past Events (All recordings can be found below):
Spring 2021:
April
  • Journal Club (4pm PDT) - Friday, 4/9
    • ​Dr. Eli Levenson-Falk will be leading a discussion on a paper called “Stabilizing Rabi oscillations in a superconducting qubit using quantum feedback”. 
  • Industry Speaker Event with Sabrina Hong - 4/12
  • ​APS Communication and Negotiation Skills Seminar for Women (1-2pm) - Friday, 4/16
    • ​Are you interested in learning more about how to negotiate a graduate, postdoc, or professional position in academia, industry, or at a national lab? Or how to achieve personal goals and thrive in Physics, especially as a person from a disadvantaged background? Join SPS and Dr. Lauren Aycock at the APS Communication and Networking Skill Seminar for Women (all genders are welcome and encouraged to come)! Here is the article: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O-6_7VABMyPoJ-dwvBa5hPN0ngQplCX3LAUJbkF2vB4/edit
March
  • Graduate Student Workshop Part 1 - 3/3
  • Albert Einstein's Bday ​Baking Night - 3/14
  • Inclusion in STEM Workshop - Monday, 3/29
    • Hosted by Delilah Gates of Harvard Physics, this workshop aims to identify and deconstruct common barriers faced in STEM. With this, we will emphasize elements within successful STEM environments and offer accessible strategies to meaningfully build and honor inclusion. 
February
  • Research Showcase - 2/22 
    • If you ever wondered what types of undergraduate research goes on in our department, or struggled to find research opportunities, we present 5 different research groups in our department and discuss how to get involved with undergraduate research!
  • Journal Club  with Dr. Nicolas Moure - 2/26
    • We'll be discussing an article called "Experimental Realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell's Inequalities". It is an important paper of an experimental realization of EPR thought experiments that violates Bell's inequality; local hidden variables, as proposed by Einstein. 



Grad Student Panel - October 2021

Journal Club - Dr. Gene Bickers

Industry Event with Sabrina Hong

Journal Club - Dr. Eli Leveson-Falk 

Graduate Student Workshop - Part I

Journal Club - Dr. Moure 

Research Showcase - Spring 2021

Career Paths in Physics Panel - Fall 2020

Lab Tours!

Thanks to all the graduate students who lead the lab tours! We got an inside look at what type of research was going on in two of the USC physics labs accompanied with an insightful QA session. For more information on these labs and how to get involved, check out the Kresin Lab and the El-Naggar Lab websites!


Biophysics Week & Pi a Physicist

 In honor of Biophysics Week, SPS took tours through the USC Biophysics labs. A big thanks to Pavan Kalingas and Yamini Jangir for taking us around Dr. James Boedicker's and Dr. Moh El-Naggar's respective laboratories. Pavan showed us all of the tools and machines used throughout their lab, where current research is being done involving gene mutation in e. coli and other bacteria, and Yamini explained the tests being done on the Shewanella bacteria to study electrical transport along nanowires and taking us through the research facilities to meet the different teams.

For more information about these labs, check out the Boedicker Lab Website and NanoBio Lab Website.

And what better way to finish off Pi Day with then eating pies and throwing them at each other?

Dr. Bickers Birthday Dinner

A night out with our advisor Dr Bickers! Thanks to all of you for coming out, it was a great night!

The Force is Right

We had a blast playing The Force is Right with you everyone who volunteered to participate! If you missed out, stay tuned for our video of the ultimate physics guess-timation game where people had to quantify real-world phenomena using just their brains and a small whiteboard to compete for prizes!

Dippin Dots and Levitating Madness!

Thanks to everyone who came out to support SPS at our Dippin Dots and Demonstration Day fundraiser! It was fun getting to experiment with you guys, stay tuned for more events presented by SPS!

More to Explore:  "A Space Celebration with Bill Nye" + The Planetary Society Open House

We had a great time this past weekend attending the open house at the Planetary Society and the More to Explore Space Celebration. Hosted by Bill Nye, the event was a celebration honoring the past and looking toward a stellar future!

Those that went to the open house got the lucky opportunity to tour the Planety Society facilities, which included a look in their studio as well as a personal tour of Bill's own office! There were also a series of interesting panels from fiction and non-fiction authors, including Andy Weird (The Martian). Thanks to everyone that came out!​
Click here to see photos from the rest of the day!

SPS + SCout teach matter to Miramonte Elementary

SPS partnered with USC Science Outreach to bring a lesson on the phases of matter to the bright kids of Miramonte Elementary last Friday! The day ended with a bang when the students watched the liquid nitrogen inside of a soda bottle quickly transition from liquid to gas in a garbage can filled with ping pong balls. Watch the video to see the result! 

Platforum: Worldview

Had a fun and enlightening time discussing implications of space exploration and science in general at the Trojan Vision Platforum set last night! Thanks to Dr. Vahe Peroomian and Michael Qian from the USC Department of Physics and Astronomy for presenting physics as the compelling topic it is for what we hope to be one of many more collaborations between USC physics and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

NO2 Ice Lollies

Thanks to everyone that came out and bought a popsicle at the SPS liquid nitrogen ice pop demonstration, SPS appreciates all of the support. We had a blast getting to demonstrate the cooling ability of NO2 with you guys and we have more events like this in the works so keep your eyes out for our upcoming newsletters.

Welcome  BBQ

We had a blast getting to meet you guys at our BBQ the other afternoon. We have a ton of great events planned for the next few weeks so get ready!