The Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory participated in this year’s KNUST Research Week and Scientific Conference, highlighting the role of photonics and optics in solving local challenges through low-cost instrumentation and research collaborations.

At the exhibition, our students from the Department of Physics presented two projects developed under GPOL’s guidance. The first was a low-cost air quality monitoring system, designed to measure particulate matter (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10), temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and provide real-time data from this environmental analysis. The second project demonstrated a laser-based liquid level monitoring system, showing how optical methods can be applied to industrial and laboratory measurement tasks.

The lab also showcased its ongoing collaborative research with Dr. Akhil Kallepalli and Eddie Fraser from the University of Strathclyde, focused on adapting the OpenFlexure microscope for polarised light microscopy to enable early stage malaria detection in unstained samples, to tackle malaria, one of the major illnesses faced worldwide. This collaboration aims to create an affordable diagnostic tool that can support medical research and healthcare in low-resource areas.

The exhibition attracted interest from students, researchers, and industry visitors who engaged with the GPOL team about its training programmes and upcoming projects. Through such events, the Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory continues to provide research opportunities for students and create room for collaborations that strengthen optics and photonics capacity in Ghana and West Africa.