Expanding Photonics Education in the International Year of Light

The year 2015 has been proclaimed the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies by the United Nations General Assembly. This global initiative will highlight the importance of light and optical technologies in promoting sustainable development and providing solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. Baker College has introduced an exciting, new program in Photonics and Laser Technology in fall 2013 with support from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF ATE) program. The program is now completing its second year and graduating a first group of well-prepared photonics technicians ready for employment in the growing photonics industry in the state and across the US. The second year marked the successful completion of the program curriculum and further development of the Optics and Photonics Laboratory. Outreach activities included summer programs for high school and middle school students. The paper describes the outcomes of the two year project in relation to the objectives of the NSF ATE grant. Challenges and lessons learned along the way are discussed, together with plans for sustainability and future expansion of the program. Introduction Although the term photonics remains largely unknown to the general public, it is now expected that the 21 century will depend as much on photonics as the 20 century depended on electronics. To name just a few, photonics technologies are essential to smartphones, laptops, the Internet, medical devices, lighting and many other applications. Photonics is also used in various manufacturing industries, oil exploration, aviation and aerospace, energy generation and agriculture. Photonics technologies have a major impact on the world economy with a current global market of $360 billion, estimated to grow to $720 billion by 2020. In recognition of the huge importance of light-based technologies to society and daily life the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the year 2015 to be the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL). This provides the opportunity to reach and educate people on a global scale about photonics, as well as ensure that international policymakers and stakeholders are made aware of the problem-solving potential of light technology. Throughout 2015 there will be coordinated activities on a national, regional and international level showcasing the central role of photonics in sustainable development. Events taking place in the United States and many other countries can be found on the website of IYL 2015. The Obama Administration has also recognized the strategic importance of photonics technologies in boosting the US economy, creating jobs, and enhancing national security as well as solving other challenges. In October 2014 the Administration announced the creation of an Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute, supported by a $200 million public and private investment award. The Institute will be led by the Department of Defense and is expected to comprise the largest Federal investment to date. The Institute will bring together companies, universities and other academic and training institutions, and Federal agencies to develop an ‘end-to-end photonics ecosystem’ in the US. It will serve as a regional hub bridging the gap between applied research and product development and ultimately ensuring that the United States remains a world leader in photonics and light-based technologies. P ge 26714.2 A well prepared workforce is vital to the success of the growing photonics industry and the numerous fields where photonics is applied. OP-TEC, one of the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Centers, has conducted studies that show an unmet need particularly for photonics technicians to work in the industry, a need projected to increase in the coming years. Currently there are only about 30 colleges and universities throughout the United States that offer two-year photonics programs, and the number of graduates from these programs is insufficient. OP-TEC is actively working to alleviate this by supporting more colleges to introduce two-year photonics programs. Baker College has started such a program in fall 2013, leveraging a project grant from the National Science Foundation ATE program. Our photonics program is unique in the state. Part of its mission is to raise awareness of photonics as an important advanced technology for the state and the entire country, and of the benefits and rewards of a career in photonics. The Photonics Education and Training NSF ATE Project at Baker College The path from a new program idea to the implementation of the new photonics and laser technology program at Baker College has been described in a paper given at the 2014 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. The present paper describes the evolution of the photonics program and of the NSF ATE project in the second year. Program successes as well as challenges and opportunities are discussed. The second year activities have continued to focus on the achievement of the five objectives of the grant project. These are: a) create and implement a new Associate of Applied Science Photonics and Laser Technology (AAS PLT) program; b) fully equip an Optics and Photonics Laboratory for education and training; c) train faculty to teach core courses in the AAS PLT program; d) perform outreach activities to local high schools to promote the new program; e) educate 30 or more students or workers by the end of the project. Objective a) has been fully met by the end of year two in the grant project. The program has now been offered for a full two academic years, and all the program curriculum was developed and taught at least once. The Photonics and Laser Technology program shares foundation courses in electronics with the Electronic Technology program offered at our institution. That can make it attractive to graduates of the latter program who are able to obtain a second major in Photonics in only one additional year. This actually took place at our College where two graduates of the Electronics program signed up for the Photonics major. Due to this circumstance, some of the core Photonics courses had to be developed and deployed ahead of schedule, before the main cohort of students was ready to take them. These courses were pilot tested and adjustments were made where necessary before offering them for the second time. The other four objectives are in progress and on track to be completed by the end of the grant project at the end of December 2015. Objective b) centers on the Optics and Photonics Laboratory. Laboratory equipment was acquired in stages, to allow for the delivery of the core courses in their respective sequence. Most of the equipment was purchased by the College from its own funds and with help from the NSF grant. The laboratory has also benefitted from generous equipment donations from several companies and from Mi-Light, the Michigan Photonics Cluster. Mi-Light has also supported the new photonics program with student scholarships. P ge 26714.3 A major area of focus of the photonics industry in the state are lasers and their applications in manufacturing. The emphasis on lasers is reflected in the program name and in the program curriculum. Lasers are presented in the introductory photonics course, taught in depth in the Laser Fundamentals and Laser Systems courses, and are also heavily featured in the Photonics Applications course. The Optics and Photonics Laboratory supports this emphasis by including several types of lasers: HeNe, carbon dioxide, fiber, diode, Nd:YAG and Argon ion. Test and measurement equipment include detectors, power and energy meters, beam profilers, spectrometers, and high speed oscilloscopes. Miscellaneous optical components, optical breadboards and tables, and various laser safety glasses complete the equipment list. Future acquisitions planned include one or more tunable light sources and an interferometer. Objective c) refers to training faculty to teach courses in the program. Faculty members have received training primarily through the self-paced online courses offered by OP-TEC. The courses are offered in a flexible format. The lecture portion is conducted online through a classroom management system, followed by hands-on laboratory experiments at the end of the course. This has worked very well for three instructors from Baker College, allowing them to be well prepared to teach the program photonics courses. Objective d) focuses on outreach activities. The number of outreach activities promoting photonics increased during the second year of the grant. We continued to offer the week-long summer camps to a group of high school students and a group of middle school students in July 2014. The high school group was taught a 3-hour optics and photonics module as part of the “Explore Engineering and Technology” Camp. Nineteen students participated in the high school camp. The middle school camp was titled “Robotics and Photonics”. A larger emphasis was placed on photonics this time, with two 3-hour modules of optics and photonics introductory topics taught to participants. Twenty-one students from nine different middle schools participated in the camp. Both high school and middle school modules were conducted in the Optics and Photonics Laboratory and contained numerous hands-on activities. The middle school group particularly enjoyed the activities, with both groups reporting positive experiences in surveys administered at the end of the camps. Fig. 1. Experimenting with light in the “Robotics and Photonics” middle school summer camp 2014. P ge 26714.4 In addition to the summer camps, several STEM day events took place during the year which included photonics presentations and activities in the lab. The International Year of Light 2015 is an auspicious time to introduce the field of photonics to K-12 students, teachers