College of Optics & Photonics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cLight has revolutionized the way we do everything from communicating, to listening to music, to treating cancer and other deadly diseases,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cWe are proactive in engaging students at the earliest possible levels because their lives are going to be increasingly impacted by photonics.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why CREOL, the college\u2019s Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers, <\/em>is sponsoring the photo contest that will reward a K-12 student with $100 for the best picture that shows how light touches our lives.<\/p>\nThe contest began in April. Submissions so far have ranged from the lights of London as seen from the London Eye to the sun shrouded by early morning fog.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause 2015 has been designated as the International Year of Light we thought it would be great to get kids to consider how light touches our lives every day,\u201d said Mike McKee, associate director for the college\u2019s undergraduate programs, who organized the contest.<\/p>\n
The contest is also a great way for students to learn about the possibilities that photonics represents for the future. CREOL is recognized worldwide for its photonics and laser research, and in 2013 it started its undergraduate program under McKee\u2019s leadership. McKee is a former high school and middle school science teacher who has served as the state director of the Florida Science Olympiad since 1998.<\/p>\n
Ideas such as the photo competition help engage students as young as kindergarten in recognizing the role that light and photonics plays in our daily lives. There\u2019s still plenty of time to enter the contest and McKee said he hopes more students will submit pictures.<\/p>\n
Photos can be uploaded at\u00a0 http:\/\/www.creol.ucf.edu\/Academics\/Outreach\/IYLPhotoContest.aspx<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting children excited about light and its potential to solve some of the world\u2019s biggest challenges is the reason behind a UCF-sponsored photo contest that concludes May 30. The study of light, also referred to as optics and photonics, is critical for the future, said Bahaa Saleh, dean of the College of Optics & Photonics. \u201cLight has revolutionized the way…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":66494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,23],"tags":[981,1112,10218,202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-66490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-research","tag-college-of-optics-and-photonics","tag-creol","tag-mike-mckee","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Photo Contest Introduces K-12 Students to Beauty, Power of Light | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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