Yes, sure.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia

Hello, my name is Vipin Tiwari. I'm a postdoctoral researcher at Yumi University, Sweden. Before that I was a. Or postdoctoral researcher at University of Tartu.

Alright, so you’ve been a postdoc at Yumi University in Sweden,

Estonia, where I worked on Incurrent. Digital holography and computational imaging. No, actually my research work mainly focused on the polarizers and optics and digital holography.

Professor, when you’re teaching an introductory physics class, what’s one foundational concept you especially enjoy explaining to new students, and how do you approach making it accessible?

I would start. It's like a blended teaching, so I will. Start to. I start my lecture with the lecture. With a short video so that. In student can gain some interest. In that particular topic.

Okay, so you use a short video at the start to spark interest—makes sense.

Then I will explain. The outline of the Architecture 2 students. Yes, so in my post doc in Estonia I was demonstrating or teaching the course on polarization optics. So before starting my last lecture, I showed them one video. There I showed like in normal imaging we can't see. Information. In particular scene. But when we use some polarizers and filters, we can see that information easily. So I demonstrated the importance of polarization. In imaging.

Professor, I noticed your 2026 Optics Letters paper on “Wide-field polarization-assisted anisotropic mapping for edge enhancement using real-time linear Mueller matrix holography.” How have you used insights from that research to design or enrich your undergraduate teaching?

Yes, actually this work focus on it can be separated into two parts. 1 is the well known. Polarization imaging techniques, that is, molar matrix polarimetry. And the another one is the. Optical anisotropy. So I can design. One core Or I can explain the fundamental concept that comes from the optical anisotropy. Why it is important? Why? What are the uses of? This concept in. Yeah, Optics. And the other one, the Muller battery, solar battery which is very famous imaging techniques in optics. So. I can explain. That that also to students so that they can understand the relation between this technique and the application of this technique OK, so of. Let me, uh. Understand your question a bit.

Yes, actually this work focus on it can be separated into two parts. 1 is the well known. Polarization imaging techniques, that is, molar matrix polarimetry. And the another one is the. Optical anisotropy. So I can design. One core Or I can explain the fundamental concept that comes from the optical anisotropy. Why it is important? Why? What are the uses of? This concept in. Yeah, Optics. And the other one, the Muller battery, solar battery which is very famous imaging techniques in optics.

Alright, so you’re breaking it into optical anisotropy fundamentals and the application of Mueller matrix polarimetry—clear structure. Can you walk me through a specific moment when you had to simplify one of these advanced concepts for students who were struggling, and how you did it?

OK, so of. Let me, uh. Understand your question a bit. Can you please repeat your question?

Yeah, that's fine—take your time. I was asking if you could share an example of a time when you realized students were struggling with a specific aspect of, say, Mueller matrix polarimetry, and how you broke it down or explained it differently so they could grasp it.

Of course. What I was asking is: can you walk me through a specific time when you needed to make an advanced concept—like something from your research on Mueller matrix polarimetry—easier for students who were having trouble? How did you break it down for them?

OK, so Muller matrix polarimetric basically the. To understand the change in polarization. When light passes through 1 sample. So theory. It is fine, but experimentally it is difficult to explain the student how to calculate those neural metrics. So before that I would like to explain them the concept of Stokes. Parameters. Why they are important and how they are measured. So. If I explain the Stokes parameter to them, they will easily understand the concept of Euler matrix and how it is important. And how it is connected to Stokes parameters?

So. I would approach in that way. So I would explain. 1st The state of polar. How many state of polarization are there?

Given your experience in polarization optics and digital holography, where do you see the most fundable research directions over the next three years?

Okay, so you'd start by explaining the possible states of polarization to set the foundation. Once you've established that, how would you connect this to a research proposal that could attract external funding—can you give an example of a concrete research idea and the type of grant or industry partnership you'd target?

Actually, uh. Molar matrix polarometry is very uh. Well established, but it is also very trending research topic. Uh, nowadays researchers from all across the world, they are using this molar matrix polarimetry. For the biomedical applications. For example, they are. For example, let's say we have two biological sample, one TCU and one is 1 is normal and another one is impacted from some disease.

So you’re highlighting biomedical applications—using Mueller matrix polarimetry to differentiate between healthy and diseased tissue. If you were pitching this as a grant proposal, what’s one concrete innovation or outcome that would make your lab stand out to a funding body?

So polar matrix polarimetry allow us. A non destructive techniques so that we can differentiate. Between ejecting. Yes. I can or I can design. A compact molar matrix polarimeter.

Okay, moving to a different area—when you’re teaching a large undergraduate class, say a hundred students, and you can’t rely on slides, how would you design an interactive session that gets everyone actually engaging with the material rather than just listening passively?

Because they one of the imitation of Millennium matrix polarimeter is that. We need a number many number of measurements. For example this. Read your question again. Could you repeat your question again?

Right, so you were saying one limitation is the number of measurements needed with a Mueller matrix polarimeter. Just to repeat my question: when you’re teaching a large undergraduate class and you can’t rely on slides, how would you design an interactive session that gets everyone actually engaging with the material rather than just listening passively?

OK, so. Talking with this. Specific position point of view, so I will use some online learning platform. Uh, to the student. And I will share the materials online, for example some book or some. Lecture some demonstration. To that student so that. They can, uh. Go through that material and understand what is going on. By themselves in advance and then when they come to class they have some proper understanding or basic understanding and we can discuss. Then I will separate those student in different groups. And I will assign them some project or some. Basic fundamental, uh. Problem to. To sort out. And in this way I would approach this web problem.

Right, so thinking beyond teaching and research—accreditation cycles can be pretty demanding. Let's say you joined our department and found the outcome assessment data was inconsistent across courses. How would you approach fixing that?

Uh, what do you mean by this? Outcome assessment data?

Sure. When we talk about outcome assessment data, we're referring to the evidence a department collects to show students are actually meeting the learning objectives set for each course—like exam results, lab performance, project outcomes, and so on. So, if you found that kind of data was inconsistent or incomplete across different physics courses, how would you go about bringing it up to standard?

First I will talk about. My colleagues or seniors in my department? That what are the standards for this outcome assessment criteria? Then I will try in my. Best capacity. To normalize that in that next. Semester or something like that. So, uh. Hello, are you there?

Alright, Professor, let’s look at a scenario involving professional integrity. Imagine a colleague asks you to co-author a research paper, but as you review the draft, you notice some of the data looks questionable—maybe inconsistent or possibly manipulated. However, this colleague is also influential in your department and has supported your work in the past. How would you handle this situation?

Well, although that colleague is a very important and like directly connected to my department. But I can't compromise the research ethics or integrability. So I will approach him personally and I will. Ask politely or in a gentle manner like can you explain your data and how you. How you recorded or? Handle this data in your paper so. I will prefer the discussion with him in person.

Well, although that colleague is a very important and like directly connected to my department. But I can't compromise the research ethics or integrability. So I will approach him personally and I will. Ask politely or in a gentle manner like can you explain your data and how you. How you recorded or?

Okay, turning to industry connections for a moment—given your background in polarization optics and digital holography, do you have any established relationships with companies or research institutes that could lead to internships or placement opportunities for students here at VIT University?

You said you’d approach your colleague directly and ask for clarification about the data handling—that’s a principled stance. Shifting back to industry alignment for a moment: Professor, can you provide an example of how you have guided undergraduate or postgraduate students in a laboratory setting to achieve innovative outcomes in semiconductor device physics research?

Well, I don't have experience in semiconductor device in particular, but I have demonstrated the course on digital holography and polarization optics to. Students and laboratory demonstration as well.

Okay, so you haven’t worked in semiconductor device physics directly, but you have led labs and demonstrations in digital holography and polarization optics. Can you give a concrete example of how you helped a student move from understanding fundamental concepts to actually designing or building something innovative in your lab sessions?

So, uh, first I used to give some demonstration by myself. I used to explain each and everything like. Yes, OK. So. In basics of optical imaging laboratory course. One of the experiment was about the telescope and optical microscope. Then student asked like how? How we can demonstrate the optical telescope in laboratory? Because it's a very. Giant instrument and it is used in observatory.

Alright, now let’s talk about some core areas for this role. In theoretical physics,

So I explained to them that it is. Possible to? Build a laboratory model of the telescope in laboratory using some language. If. Could you please repeat your question? I couldn't uh. Listen it properly. Could you please repeat your quest?

Sure, here’s the question again: In theoretical physics, suppose you’re asked to help a student design a simple but novel experiment or simulation to test a counterintuitive principle—how would you guide them through that process?

OK, so I don't have much experience of teaching this. Theoretical physics part.

Thanks for being upfront about that, Professor. Let’s switch to machine learning—imagine you’re working with a student who wants to use supervised learning to classify polarization states from optical images. What would be your first steps to guide them in collecting and preparing a suitable dataset?

But I can show some simulation using some. Well, I will prefer uh. I will advise them to start from the openly accessible UH. Uh, data, which is which is a. Available in. Platforms such as GitHub.

So, you’d suggest starting with open-access datasets from places like GitHub. When the dataset isn’t exactly suited to the experiment—say, the polarization images aren’t labeled or are noisy—how would you help the student modify or curate the data to make it useful for their supervised machine learning project?

So. We'll ask them to download the Open Access data from there. Then I.

You were saying you’d have them download the open-access data—can you finish your thought on how you’d help them process or adapt that data for their machine learning project?

Yeah, sure. So. So once they download the data I will uh. I will help them to. In data processing, for example, the data augmentation and if the data is too noisy. We can refine them using some noise cultivation.

Algorithms used in MATLAB or some other programming software. So in that. We can optimize the data according to our experiment. At least it will work. Or the learning profile.

Right, so you’d support them in data augmentation and noise reduction to clean up the dataset. Moving to quantum computation—imagine a student is struggling to understand the difference between quantum superposition and entanglement during a seminar. How would you clarify that distinction for them in a way that sticks?

Alright, so you’d use algorithms in MATLAB or similar tools to optimize the data for your experiment or learning profile. Now, thinking about industry experience—have you ever been involved in a consultancy project or worked with an external partner where your physics expertise directly influenced a real-world solution?

Yes. So in my post-op position we have developed one. Endoscopic method that is called scope. Which stands for supervisory and Co relative optical endoscopy. So there we have developed one. Technique to. Improve the resolution of conventional endoscopic systems.

Then we contacted one one of the leading. A company in endoscopy that is called. Call Storch from Germany. So we have collaborated with them and they were interested in our work. Yes. So my first question is like. What if I selected what would be the weightage of research and teaching in this position?

Alright, we're wrapping up. Is there anything you'd like to ask about the role or the team?

You mentioned your collaboration with Karl Storz, which is impressive. To your question—the Assistant Professor role here is balanced, but there is a strong emphasis on teaching and student mentorship alongside research. You'll be expected to contribute to classroom teaching, labs, and guiding student projects, with research and publications remaining an important part of the role. Do you have another question about the position or the team?

Uh, my second question would be like if I join there so. What? What would be the? Possibility means internal funding possibility so. That I can start my because my research is mainly focused on the experimental work. So how can I start or establish my lab there? So is there any internal funding available?