Train Additional Photonics Faculty Using OP-TEC's Hybrid Online Faculty Development Course

Excellent faculty is the key to a strong, high quality, photonics AAS degree program. Faculty members are the “first line” to the students; they recruit, teach, encourage and counsel students; they develop and control the labs; and they help grads to find their jobs. When faculty members are well-prepared and supported, photonics education programs are healthy and growing; when they are overburdened, poorly supported or approaching retirement, their programs suffer.

So, who teaches the Photonics courses when you aren’t available? Who can pick up additional teaching assignments when enrollments increase? One of the best ways you can assure the continued success of your photonics program is to develop another faculty member who is competent and prepared to teach the classes.

Additional photonics teachers may come from at least three sources.

• Recruiting other faculty members who are teaching related courses (electronics, instrumentation, manufacturing, etc.). This is how some of you entered the photonics field.
• Developing adjuncts from local photonics industries is another excellent source; they also may be able to enhance the relevance of the courses by sharing from their work experiences. And they may be able to assist in updating course content or in creating/teaching specialty courses.
• Training high school science and technology teachers for teaching dual-credit courses, and encouraging their students to consider photonics as a career.

OP-TEC recently completed its 2012 Employer Needs Assessment for Photonics Technicians. Although the results are still being analyzed, I can tell you that the demand for new photonics techs remains very strong. Most of you already know this because your recent grads are receiving multiple job offers. And the demand for colleges to provide photonics training for employed techs has produced an additional challenge that we all must address more aggressively in the next year.

From time to time you may receive a notice regarding OP-TEC's Hybrid, Online Faculty Development Courses in Photonics. In one-on-one conversations with photonics faculty, I have discussed the need to train additional faculty at your institutions and at nearby high schools. I would encourage you to consider promoting this option. As your Photonics program continues to grow you will need the flexibility of having other faculty and teachers who can step in and help you. And it doesn't have to cost a lot of $$ to do this.

OP-TEC will admit to these courses, without charge, additional faculty at your institution, potential industry adjuncts, and teachers at local high schools in your service area. They will be enrolled on a "first come-first served" basis; and we have made arrangements for more students to enroll in these courses. One course requirement is that course participants are asked to travel to an OP-TEC partner college to take a 3-day “capstone” lab experience. This past year Chrys Panayiotou, at Indian River State College, enrolled several faculty and teachers from his college and nearby high schools. To save them the cost of traveling to another college to attend the capstones, Chrys has provided the capstone experiences for his faculty and teachers in his labs. I would encourage you to consider a similar arrangement with OP-TEC.

All we ask at OP-TEC, is that the faculty/teachers are committed to completing the entire course, including the capstone experience.

OP-TEC’s next Hybrid, Online Faculty Development Offering, Fundamentals of Light and Lasers, is now available for qualified applicants. This course starts August 20, 2012! It is in an Open Entry/Open Exit format, so applicants can begin any time after this date, as long as they can complete it by May 15, 2013. Cost: No tuition or materials fees!

This hybrid, online course will cover OP-TEC's Course 1, Fundamentals of Light and Lasers. Each of the six modules contained within the course will be taught online with a high level of self-paced instruction combined with an interactive component facilitated by email exchanges and online discussions. Modules will cover topics that span a broad range of basic photonics concepts.

After the completion of the six modules, participants typically spend a 3-day period at an OP-TEC partner college where they have the opportunity to conduct all laboratory experiments included in the course and discuss with experienced instructors best practices for teaching the materials. The 3-day laboratory experience for the courses starting in August 2012 will be scheduled for June 2013 and will be arranged at dates that are mutually agreeable to the participants. But you can save the cost of your participant’s travel to attend this “capstone” experience if you are able to provide the lab experiences at your location, like Chrys is doing this year. If there is sufficient interest, I will ask Fred Seeber, who conducts the “capstone” at Camden County College, and Chrys Panayiotou to conduct a webinar that will provide guidance for all of you who want to conduct your own capstone.

Participants that successfully complete the OE/OE online course and a 3-day lab session will receive a certification of completion from OP-TEC. Participants will be responsible for travel, lodging, and meals for the 3-day lab sessions held at Partner Colleges in June 2013.

Visit http://www.op-tec.org/faculty for more information and to apply online!

Free Optics and Photonics Publications and Webinars

College faculty and high school teachers of optics, lasers and photonics have a need to “stay current” to new developments and applications in the field. Professional networks and attendance at conferences are certainly useful, but opportunities to attend these meetings are limited to the availability of your time and travel $$. Another way to do this, from your office or computer, is by receiving publication and attending webinars from free trade journals.

I have identified at least 12 free publications that contain the latest technical information and news. Some are general photonics pubs; others are publications in photonics applications, such as materials processing, telecommunications, bio optics, etc. If you want to receive any or all of these pubs, just click on the URLs provided by their titles. In it are the web site locations for you to sign up for the pubs. It's pretty easy, or I wouldn't be able to do it.

In many cases, you may select the digital (e-mailed) version, or have the hard copy mailed to you. I review all of these pubs; mostly I just receive the electronic versions; they're much quicker to review. But you may want to receive hard copies so that you can distribute them to your students. At least twice/year they will publish a Buyer's Guide. Once/year they publish a "directory".

Free publications from Pennwell: http://www.pennwell.com/index/Optoelectronics.html

BioOptics World : http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/bow.cgi?ADD

Industrial Laser Solution: http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/ils.cgi?ADD

Laser Focus World: http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/lfw.cgi?ADD

Lightwave: http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/lw.cgi?ADD

Vision Systems Design: http://www.omeda.com/vsd/

The website www.optoiq.com is powered by BioOptics World (from Pennwell) and has many good links and much information.

Free publications from Laurin Publishing:

BioPhotonics: http://www.photonics.com/Subscriptions/SubscriptionForm.aspx?SubBIO=1

Photonics Spectra: http://www.photonics.com/subscriptions/SubscriptionForm.aspx?SubPS=1

Photovoltaics World: http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/pvw.cgi

Solid State Technology: http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/sst.cgi

Free Digital and E-newsletters: http://www.photonics.com/MemberCenter/AccountDetails.aspx

LEDs Magazine: http://www.ledsmagazine.com/subscribe

Edmund Optics:

Electro Optics: http://www.electrooptics.com/subscribe/

The World-Wide Laser Industry Has Recovered Quickly

Despite a 30% dip in 2009, the world-wide laser industry recovered over 27% in 2010, to $6.37 billion; it is expected to grow over 12% in 2011 to $7.1 billion, according to the LFW Annual Laser Market Report.

As shown in the chart, 2/3 of the market is in the Communications and Materials Processing industries.

Diode lasers amount for 51% of the market and non-diode lasers account for 49%. One of the largest growth areas is fiber lasers, experiencing a 41% growth in 2010 and an even greater rate in 2011.

The demand for new laser technicians continued to outstrip the supply by over 4:1. Colleges report that 2010 grads received multiple job offers again in 2010. Job prospects for this year also look very good.

Reference: Overton, Gail, Anderson, Stephen G, Belforte, David A., & Hausken, Tom (2011). Skies may be clearing, but fog still lingers. Laser Focus World, January 2011, 40-42. http://www.qmags.com/2FE1161B162147DB111616AC3513143E462FF14B817.htm

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.

SCIENCE AND A SYMPHONY - Artistic Laser Light Show With an Orchestral Performance of “Oscillate”

Over 200 central Texas science teachers and other educators were invited guests at a March 20 multimedia concert by the Waco Symphony Orchestra. The event was one of many LaserFest celebrations being held this year throughout the country to commemorate the 50th year of the laser, which was invented in 1960. The purpose of the LaserFest celebrations is to call attention to the many ways that lasers have enhanced our daily lives—from laser printers and copiers to digital sound reproduction and fiber optics, to mention only a few of the applications that are now commonplace.
The WSO concert featured a new composition by Jon Barrett, a Baylor University graduate student. The composition, titled “Oscillate,” was performed in conjunction with a specially designed laser light show.
Barrett’s piece was a natural match for a laser light show. Barrett composed it as a musical reflection of what he called the “never-ending ballet of patterns, interconnected and interdependent with one another, large and small.” “Our cells are born from our parents’ cells,” he noted, “and through division give rise to more cells until finally dying. Our lungs respire through a pattern of inhalation and exhalation. Our heart pumps blood through our bodies, circulating oxygen to our cells. Electrical charges constantly course throughout our nervous systems, giving us control of our bodies and a sense of the world and, ultimately, the Cosmos.” “Oscillate,” which won Baylor’s 2009 Symphony Overture Competition, is also a study in the juxtaposition of opposites—loud and soft, high and low, light and dark, fast and slow, transparent and opaque textures, serious and comical tones, and art and popular musical styles.

The laser light show, which was custom-designed as a visual interpretation of Barrett’s music, was provided by Prismatic Magic, a nationally known laser light show company. Prismatic Magic’s president, Dr. Chris Volpe, is a physicist with a specialization in optics and lasers.

Prior to the concert, OP-TEC, Texas State Technical College, Baylor University, and the City of Waco jointly hosted the guest teachers at a reception in Baylor’s new science building.


Over 100 pictures of the laser light show, as well as a 10-minute audio-video recording of the performance, can be seen on the OP-TEC website, www.op-tec.org/lasershow.