OP-TEC Workshop on Optics and Photonics Education
Next Workshop Date: February 4-5, 2010
Next Workshop Location: Monroe Community College, Rochester, New York
Click here to register
Sponsors: New York Photonics, Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster and Monroe Community College
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.
Click here to download a workshop informational brochure!
The workshop flier (PDF file) includes all the workshop details and registration instructions.
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.
