Registration Fee: None.
The workshop is free of charge. Participants will be responsible for any travel, lodging or meals. Lunch will be provided both days of the workshop. .
Background:
Optics and photonics applications are rapidly transforming the way we work and live. Photonics, and its applications, involve the cutting-edge use of lasers, optics, fiber-optics and electro-optical devices. Photonics has many applications in manufacturing, medicine, communications, solid-state lighting, and other high-tech fields. Thus, it represents a broad, commercially viable area in which American employers require a steady supply of well-qualified technicians.
The demand for photonics technicians in the United States is great and that demand is growing faster than the pool of qualified candidates. Since most of the skills needed for photonics workers at the technician level are obtainable through AAS degree programs, community and technical colleges provide the optimum environment for significantly increasing the number of qualified personnel available to U.S. employers in technical fields. Two-year colleges must also partner with high schools to design photonics career pathways to lead students through well planned secondary course sequences and into articulated two-year postsecondary programs. The creation of this secondary-to postsecondary “pipeline” of students is critical to the success of producing enough qualified technicians to meet industry needs.
In an effort to support and promote the inclusion of optics and photonics applications in secondary and postsecondary programs, OP-TEC, the National Center for Optics and Photonics Education, offers a free two-day Workshop on Optics and Photonics Education.
Purpose of the Workshop:
- To inform participants about career opportunities and the growing need for optics and photonics technicians and the secondary and postsecondary programs options to prepare them.
- To explain the opportunities for participants to create new secondary-to-postsecondary programs in photonics and/or to infuse optics and photonics instruction into existing technical programs and courses in math, science and technologies enabled by photonics.
- To inform participants of the OP-TEC curriculum materials and services available for planning and implementing photonics education at their institutions.
Who Should Attend?
Community & Technical Colleges – learn how to create new AAS programs in photonics or to infuse photonics into existing technical programs!
Secondary Science & Math Coordinators – learn how to enhance existing science and math courses!
CTE & Tech Prep Directors – learn about adding dual-credit courses!
Counselors – learn about career opportunities for your students!
Attendees will Receive:
The National Photonics Skill Standards for
Technicians, Third Edition (CORD, 2008)
Includes a detailed catalog of the knowledge and skills required by employers in photonics-enabled fields (e.g., communication, lighting and illumination, imaging and remote sensing, medicine, manufacturing, and optoelectronics), along with course outlines and supporting information.
Mathematics for Photonics Technicians
(CORD, 2003)
Supplementary math resource designed to help postsecondary students acquire the skills in algebra, geometry, and trigonometry necessary for success in associate degree programs in optics and related technologies.
Course 1: Fundamentals of Light and Lasers
(CORD, 2003)
Comprehensive study of photonics including: nature and properties of light, optical handling and
positioning, laser safety, basic geometrical optics, basic physical optics and principles of lasers.
Course 2: Elements of Photonics
(CORD, 2005)
Includes specific photonics systems and applies the principles presented in Course I. The last three modules in Course 2 can be replaced with those in the Photonics Enabled Technology (PET) series to customize this course.
PET Series - Modules in Photonics Enabled
Technologies
Sixteen stand-alone modules to prepare students for careers in specific photonics enabled technologies. Modules cover the diverse fields of manufacturing, biomedicine, environmental monitoring, optoelectronics and forensic science and homeland security.
Program Planning Guides
Program Planning Guides are manuals for community/technical college faculty and administrators to enable them to determine whether and how to include photonics education in existing programs. Guides are available for infusing photonics education into manufacturing technology, biomedical application, homeland security, optoelectronics, telecommunications and electronics engineering technology.
Registration Instructions:
Registration instructions will be posted here as soon as the next workshop is scheduled. If you would like to receive updates on workshop offerings, please e-mail us!
|
