About Us

About Us


OP-TEC Staff

The National Center for Optics and Photonics Education, OP-TEC, is a consortium of two-year colleges, high schools, universities, national laboratories, industry partners, and professional societies funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.  The participating entities of OP-TEC have joined forces to create a secondary-to-postsecondary “pipeline” of highly qualified and strongly motivated students and to empowers high schools and community colleges to meet the urgent need for technicians in optics and photonics. 

Headquartered at CORD in Waco, Texas, OP-TEC serves secondary STEM programs and postsecondary programs devoted to lasers, optics, and photonics technology or technologies enabled by optics and photonics. In addition, OP-TEC provides support through curriculum, instructional materials, assessment, faculty development, recruiting, and support for institutional reform.  OP-TEC serves as a national clearinghouse for teaching materials; encourages more schools and colleges to offer programs, courses, and career information; and helps high school teachers and community and technical college faculty members develop programs and labs to teach technical content.

The Center has four goals:
 

(1) Serve as a national clearinghouse for optics and photonics education and training.
(2) Create, assemble, align, and distribute coordinated curriculum materials designed to support optics, laser, and photonics education in high schools, two-year colleges, and retraining of adult workers.
(3) Support established and new photonics education programs in high schools, community and technical colleges, universities, and professional societies.
(4) Provide education and training for administrators, counselors, high school teachers, and community college faculty members to prepare them to:     

(a) design new photonics technology programs that meet their local needs;     
(b) infuse photonics into programs in photonics-enabled technologies; and    
(c) teach optics, photonics, and lasers   using curriculum materials distributed by OP-TEC.

OP-TEC has established a national infrastructure for developing and supporting widely-disseminated educational programs in cutting-edge, high-demand technologies that require photonics. This infrastructure encompasses both the secondary and postsecondary levels and involves collaboration between educators and industry personnel.  OP-TEC is also bridging the gap in the participation of women and minorities in technology, breaking down geographical and socioeconomic barriers, and making the study of technology more widely accessible.  By providing career pathways in which students begin the pursuit of technical careers early and transition seamlessly into postsecondary programs, OP-TEC enables students to acquire the skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

Click here to read more about OP-TEC's management team and staff.

Click here to download an informational brochure about OP-TEC.

What is Photonics?  Click here to learn more!

 

OP-TEC News

August 2010

OP-TEC Announces Faculty Onlice Course - Fundamentals of Light and Lasers (08/09/10)

February 2010

OP-TEC Announces Faculty Development Online Course – Fundamentals of Light and Lasers (02/01/10)

December 2009

OP-TEC awards Central New Mexico Community College and Monroe Community College $15,000 matching grants to increaseenrollment throught "high school pipeline" efforts (12/14/09)

October 2009

Central Carolina Community College and OP-TEC Present Photonics Math Text Report at NCPN Conference (10/26/09)

September 2009

OP-TEC Releases New Photonics Industry Survey:  Photonics Technician Jobs in the United States – A 2009 Industry Survey of Current and Future Demand for Education and Training Programs (09/22/09)

August 2009

OP-TEC Announces Faculty Development Online Course – Fundamentals of Light and Lasers (08/14/09)

May 2009

OP-TEC Releases New Monographs on Summer Institutes and Outreach Activities to Build the High School Pipeline (05/29/09)

February 2009

OP-TEC Releases Skill Standards for Precision Optics Technicians (02/27/09)

News Archives