Capacity building requires that university students learn physics efficiently and effectively, and that pre-university physics teachers understand how to teach their students well. Over the past 20 years university education in physics has made major changes as a result of two related phenomena. First, through careful investigation of the teaching and learning of physics (Physics Education Research) we learned much about the difficulties that students have when learning physics and have...

To teach physics is to make connections between different physical theories, phenomenal experiences, and the minds of students. To do this effectively requires a broad range of interpersonal skills and, crucially, effectively developed pedagogic content knowledge - how this has been done will be the focus of the workshop. Experience and research have shown that to learn effectively is not simply to sit at the feet of someone who has suitable qualifications and listen to them restate their...

The integration of ICT in physics education has proved to be very effective to enable inquiry-based education and also to make links to more professional and industrial activities. Teachers and students are provided with powerful tools for a.o. data-acquisition with sensors and from videos, for analyzing data and modeling. This helps them to perform more realistic research-kinds of projects. In the EC-funded ESTABLISH project (see www.establish-fp7.eu) science teachers are prepared for...

Because of the accelerating pace of technological change - due in part to the information and computer revolution and the global spread of expertise and knowledge - and its unquestioned impact on economic development, science and technology have become even more important assets for diplomacy. Nearly every country has been convinced that it must engage on a world-class level in science and technology and become more innovative in this highly competitive and interconnected world. As a...

A major challenge in solar cell technology dwells in achieving an efficient absorption of photons with an effective carrier extraction. In all cases, light absorption considerations call for thicker modules while carrier transport would benefit from thinner ones. This dichotomy is a fundamental problem limiting the efficiencies of most photovoltaics. Light absorption in silicon cells, for example, is very weak, especially at the red side of the absorption band, requiring a thick active layer...

Chemical Analysis is facing nowadays rapidly changing requirements on performance. Resolution of sample components over a very wide range of concentration, analysis time, selectivity and specificity are expected to improve continuously. At the same time acquisition of samples for analysis is getting more difficult since samples are much smaller and must remain representative for a chemical, biological or environmental system in time and space. In addition, analysis methods must remain...

Microfluidics is about the manipulation of fluids at the micrometric scale. This technology is impacting established fields -physics, chemistry, biology- by offering new methodologies. The oil industry recently realized the full potentiality of this technology. I will show a few examples in which microfluidic technology has generated new knowledge in the domains of reservoir characterisation. I will also show examples of new microfludic devices that are simple, portable, accurate and fast,...

While being truly open access, the Open University provides a set of modules that can take students from a very basic level up to advanced concepts and techniques. It also allows mature students with some background in physics and/or maths to top up their knowledge in specific subject areas. Over many years, our aim has been to develop inspiring and effective learning materials specifically designed for study at a distance. Typically, much effort is invested in the creation of new materials,...

In the USA there have been multiple reports calling for renewed efforts to increase the number of young people choosing to pursue careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. Alongside there have also been numerous reports from the private sector outlining the kinds of knowledge, skills and habits of mind that are of value to employers seeking to recruit new graduates. Educators at all levels have a critical role to play in meeting these demands, chiefly through the learning...

Research Corporation for Science Advancement's Scialog program is designed to accelerate the work of 21st-century transformational science through funding research, intensive dialog and community building. Each multi-year initiative seeks to support highly innovative early career scientists in response to a complex research challenge that serves as a driver in contemporary science. The first initiative under this program is Scialog: Solar Energy Conversion, and it is focused on fundamental...

There are numerous challenges to be solved within clinical and preclinical medicine ranging from microbiology, surgery, oncology, anaesthesiology and intense care, all the way to pediatrics. The ongoing effort to develope new methods utilising optics and photonics has resulted in some promising results and in a translational process, also brought over to clinical early phase studies.

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices have a tremendous potential for improving the health of people in developing countries by providing immediate diagnosis in the field. The development of diagnostics for global health, however, presents unique and challenging design criteria. In this talk the speaker will discuss the current efforts, in conjunction with partners in industry, public health, and local governments, to develop new rapid diagnostic tests. Such tests span a variety of technologies, and...

Renewable energy use is growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the economy in Europe and world-wide. This and the dramatic oil price increases since 2005 have lead to a remarkable re-evaluation of the renewable energy sector by politics and financing institutions. Despite the fact that there are still discrepancies between the European Union and the USA how to deal with climate change, renewable energies will play an important role for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the...