Restoring Declining AAS Programs Using Emerging Technologies

In the last several years many colleges across our country have experienced a decline in enrollment and graduates from their technician education programs. Five colleges have experienced this in photonics-related programs. As OP-TEC attempts to build national capacity for preparing photonics techs we have concentrated on these declining programs--and we are experiencing very rewarding results in every case. The declining, or recently closed programs often have valuable labs and equipment that newly developing programs might take 3-5 years to accumulate.

But the declining programs frequently have some "baggage" that has to be eliminated. This may be in the form of some outdated curricula, courses, lab equipment, inactive employer advisory committees--and faculty. Eliminating this "baggage" is not easy for technical deans and department chairs; it takes an understanding of emerging technologies and their implications on technician careers. It also requires that the administrators have the courage and institutional support to make some very difficult changes.

Over the last 3-4 years this restoration process that has been successfully achieved at Tri-County Technical College, in Pendleton SC. TCTC was one of OP-TEC's original Partner Colleges, when we began the Center over four years ago. But TCTC had to drop out for several years until they could re-establish their focus in photonics education.

The background, strategies, process, curricula and results of TCTC’s restoration is documented in an OP-TEC Monograph entitled “Restoring a Declining Photonics Program at Tri-County Technical College.” The monograph can be read or downloaded, without cost from OP-TEC’s web site, by clicking the monograph title above.

This is a relatively brief monograph, but it shows the causes, the restoration process and the results. Of particular interest is the Lessons Learned section, which emphasizes the following success factors:
• Persistence
• Having the right people in right position
• New curriculum strategies
• Technical assistance, mentoring and partnerships with other photonics colleges.

Eugene Grant, Dean of Industrial & Engineering Technology, Tri-County Technical College, is to be congratulated for his efforts in restoring Photonics Education at TCTC.

Dan Hull

Some Great Visual Resources for Your Science and Photonics Facilities

Do you need some posters to decorate the walls of your classrooms, labs and halls? Two of the photonics professional societies, SPIE and the Optical Society of America (OSA), have created some excellent posters that they provide to K-12 schools and colleges, free for the asking. These posters will not only add color and class to your facilities, they provide interesting education and career information about optics and lasers. To view and request copies of these posters, you will need to visit their web sites.

The SPIE web site is http://www.spie.org/ but you can go directly to the page that shows the posters by visiting www.spie.org/x31474.xml. There are many posters shown that you may want. SPIE will send them to you rolled up in a tube. We have had them mounted on foam board for a few dollars. Then they can be hung on walls or positioned on tables, unframed or framed. Some of the ones that I found particularly interesting are:

• Introduction to Popular Applications of Optics & Lasers (new) — This poster shows novel applications that everyone can recognize, but may not know that they were enabled by optics and/or lasers. I think it is particularly useful for elementary and middle school students—and their parents.

• Future of Lasers: Illuminating the Future (new) — This is a futuristic look at new laser applications in healthcare, energy, manufacturing and communications. I think it makes a great addition in either high schools or colleges.

• Invent Your Future (new) — This is my favorite! It explores & encourages photonics careers in science and technology. I think it is particularly appropriate for middle and high schools. We have this one mounted in the entrance of OP-TEC. Others are mounted throughout our Center.

• Posters that relate to photonics applications in other fields include:
 Lithography
 Remote Sensing
 Metamaterials
 Biophotonics
 Sensors
 Nanotechnology
 Energy

The OSA web site is

http://www.osa.org/ but you can go directly to the page that shows posters & other educational materials by visiting http://www.osa.org/Foundation/Youth_Education/Classroom_Materials/default.aspx.

There are two OSA Poster Series:

• Optical Phenomena Posters (four, 11” x 34” — request the set)
 Lasers
 Fiber Optics
 Biomedical Optics
 Spectroscopy

• Make waves—Discover Science Series (new, four, 11” x 34” — request the set)
 Acoustics
 Cross Polarization
 Echolocation
 Lasers

These posters will also be sent to you rolled in a tube; and they are best displayed if they are mounted on foam board. They are printed in five languages, so specify if you want yours in English. We have six of these posters displayed in the OP-TEC office.

Educational Pamphlets to accompany OSA posters: OSA has also developed very high quality educational pamphlets to support the posters described above. These 8.5" x 11", 4-8 page documents contain scientific explanations of the phenomena/equipment, experiments and career profiles of photonics scientists, engineers and technicians. They are available as printable PDFs that you can download from the web site.

Other free educational resources: OSA & SPIE also have several CDs and digital explorations, described in their web sites, that are useful for introducing photonics and careers to young people.

One example that particularly impresses me is Lighten Up! Discovering the Science of Light. This 36 page color booklet, developed through a collaborative effort between OSA Foundation and the Girl Scouts of America, is an exciting educational resource guide for girls, ages 11-15. You can request copies from OSA and GSA, or you can download a PDF and print your own copies.

Someone once said, “The best things in life are free.” I’m not sure they were referring to educational materials in lasers and optics, but the saying sure fits for these resources.

Dan Hull

Helping Graduating Photonics Technicians Find the Right Job and Be Successful

Recent reports from our photonics colleges reveal that graduates are having no problem getting job offers, even in these slow economic times. The survey we conducted last year indicates that in 2010, employers will need an additional 1200 photonics techs; and the demand will continue at this level for at least several more years. We remain in a “seller’s market” for photonics techs.

But even with the many job opportunities available to them, graduating techs need to approach their job search armed with wise advice and guidance. They’ve worked hard for this opportunity and they deserve to get off to a good start. And there’s no one better to provide this advice to them than photonics techs that went through the process a few years ago. Last year, OP-TEC established the Photonics Alumni Council for Technicians (PACT). College faculty proposed alumni for membership and sixteen outstanding graduates were selected for the first council of PACT. But the selected alumni didn’t just want to be recognized for their success, they wanted to “give something back”; they wanted to help other techs that were just beginning their career; and they wanted them to benefit from their own experiences—good and bad. So they provided significant input to the preparation of a pamphlet entitled “How to Search for and Find Your First Job.” This four-page publication addresses the following topics:

• “Money isn’t everything”, but it helps. (Explains other employer benefits that are also important.)
• Where do you want to live? Where would you be willing to live?
• What kind of work do you want to do?
• Have you prepared a resume?
• What do you hope will happen in the interview?

Shortly after the first pamphlet was published, the PACT set out to develop a second one entitled, “How to Make Your First Year on the Job a Success."

It included the following topics:

• You haven’t learned everything when you graduate.
• Your mother doesn’t work here, so learn how to survive on your own.
• You’re personally responsible for the quality and timeliness of your work.
• Your value as an employee will depend on your soft skills as much as your technical expertise.
• When possible, volunteer to represent your employer in community or charitable events.

Employers who have reviewed the pamphlets have enthusiastically recommended that all future techs and new hires have copies of these materials. You can review them also, by clicking here.

OP-TEC is providing limited copies of these pamphlets to any college—or employer—that requests them. And we can provide a print-ready copy to colleges that want to customize the pamphlets with their institutional identification. We’re not trying to sell them; we just want them to be used.

This year the PACT is considering the preparation of additional pamphlet(s) that could be used to help high school students consider a career as a photonics technician.

What a great way for these recent grads to “give back” to the photonics field—and to help young people that could greatly benefit from their advice.

What if there were no lasers today?

When you hear the word, “laser” what are you reminded of? Luke Skywalker? Star Wars? High-tech wars between spacecraft?

Well, those concepts make good movies and TV shows, but they don’t make very good sense - in a practical way. In the last 40+ years, we have created a wide range of lasers (some whose output you can’t even see) and we’ve learned how to control them and use them to make our life better and to do things we’ve never been able to do with any other device - incredible breakthroughs in medicine, communications, manufacturing, entertainment and lots more. Unless we happen to be involved in the development of some application of the laser we probably don’t even know they are being used - right before our eyes!

Lasers now come in a variety of configurations and output wavelengths (colors), in continuous and pulsed beams, and at high and low power levels. We can often find a “laser solution” to a particular problem by selecting a laser with an output that suits our needs best. The unique properties of lasers that make them useful are:

• Monochromatic - Most lasers emit a beam of light at a very pure color (or wavelength). This means that the beam will be selectively transmitted, absorbed or reflected when other beams of light are not affected the same way.


• Collimated - A laser ray can be made to remain a very narrow beam that will travel long distances without spreading out much. A laser beam can be sent all the way to the moon and spread so little that it still makes a powerful spot when it hits something.


• A powerful Source of Heat that can be directed and pin pointed to an exact spot where it may melt or vaporize the target material, and yet leave the surrounding material unaffected.
  
• Coherent - Because laser light is much better organized than ordinary light, lasers have the same “information-carrying” properties that radio waves have, except the laser is working at much, much higher frequencies. This allows huge amounts of information, and many, many channels to be sent over a laser beam. Sometimes the laser beam is sent in the air; and sometimes it is “piped” in tiny plastic or glass strands called “fiber optics”.

So what are some common uses of lasers that we use every day? Here are a few:

Supermarket Checkout Systems
A low-power laser beam is scanned across the “bar codes” that are attached to products we buy. When we check out at a superstore, we just place the product with its bar code face down on the window of the scanner, the laser beam sweeps across the bar code and the reflected laser beam is read as a code that identifies the product. This uses the collimated and monochromatic characteristics of the laser.

LASIK Eye Surgery
LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is a surgical procedure that uses a laser to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness, and/or astigmatism. In LASIK, a thin flap in the cornea is created using a femtosecond laser. The surgeon folds back the flap, and then removes some corneal tissue underneath using an excimer laser. The flap is then laid back in place, covering the area where the corneal tissue was removed. With nearsighted people, the goal of LASIK is to flatten the too-steep cornea; with farsighted people, a steeper cornea is desired. LASIK can also correct astigmatism by smoothing an irregular cornea into a more normal shape. This application uses the collimated, monochromatic and heat properties of the laser. (Unfortunately, laser pioneers are too old to be considered good candidates for LASIK.)

Laser Printers & Copiers
The physical phenomenon at work in a laser printer is static electricity, the same energy that makes clothes in the dryer stick together. A laser printer uses this phenomenon as a sort of "temporary glue" to hold toner on a photoconductive drum. The laser "writes" the print information on a photoconductive revolving drum, which then transfers it to a sheet of paper. This uses the collimated and heat properties of the laser. The information is then sealed to the paper with heat from a fuser, producing a very high-resolution copy.
(From www.howstuffworks.com/laserprinter.htm )

There are more laser applications to talk about (internet, displays, entertainment, pointers, and defense/homeland security equipment); but, those will have to wait until there’s another blog posting.

Questions or comments? Post your comments here or e-mail me!

What’s our capacity for producing photonics techs? What's the need?

This past summer, we attempted to locate all of the two-year colleges that offered education and training on photonics, lasers and/or optics. We examined compilations from a variety of sources, scanned the Internet and asked other colleges. We identified 28 colleges and attempted to contact them. The 26 colleges we reached are:

Camden County College, Central NM CC, Central Carolina CC, Heald College, Idaho State Univ (2 yr) Indian Hills CC, Indian River SC, Indiana Univ/Penn (2yr), Irvine Valley/CACT, Kauai CC, Linn St CC, Maui CC, Monroe CC, Queensborough CC, Pima CC, San Jose CC, Springfield TCC, Stevens Inst of Tech, Three Rivers CC, Univ No Cal (2 yr), Valencia CC, Vincennes Univ (2 yr), Texas State TC, Tri-County TC, Wallace CC, Wash St Univ (2 yr)

Twenty-four of these colleges provided us information on current enrollment and recent completers. Some of the colleges offered complete AAS programs in Laser/Electro-Optics or Photonics; others offered some photonics courses in their electronics core, or as elective courses in other technical specialties; and others offered courses for retraining or upgrading. In total, the 24 colleges had about 700 students enrolled and estimated about 280 completers each year. This is not enough! In 2003, we conducted a needs assessment of employers to determine how many new photonics techs they needed each year. The projected need through 2008 is about 1800 new techs/year. Only 280 new techs available when 1800 are needed is quite a gap! One of OP-TEC’s main goals is to close that gap.

Here’s how we are working on this goal:

• About 1/3 of the techs (500-600 teach year) are needed in R&D, for OEMs or in field service - they require a full AAS in laser/electro-optics or photonics.
• About 2/3 of the techs (1000-1200) are needed to operate and maintain photonics equipment that is being used in another field where photonics is an enabling technology.
• About 1/3 of the techs are already working and need retraining in photonics.

OP-TEC has a developed a plan and curriculum for colleges to serve each of these populations. We will also conduct a new needs assessment later this year to update the data from the 2003 study. It’s possible that our information about colleges that offer photonics education and training is incomplete. If your college has offerings, and you are not in the list shown above, please contact us so that we can add your data to our records.