Photonics Program Sharpens Student’s Academic Plan

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Conor Delaney sure is glad his aunt read the newspaper on July 27, 2009, when it ran an article about the College of Lake County launching a Lasers, Photonics, and Optics program with ATE grant support.

The certificate program taught Delaney how to use his hands-on aptitude in cutting-edge science.

In 2009 Delaney had changed majors a couple times at Harper College, the community college near his home in Illinois. He had landed there after struggling with the pace and theoretical focus of courses at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. During a mechanical engineering internship in the summer after his freshman year at Milwaukee, he had found himself much more interested in the work going on in the machine shop than in checking designs at his desk.

"I knew that I didn't want to do something like sit in a cubicle and just design stuff that might work. I wanted to be the guy that builds those theoretical designs or tests [them]... and then if it's impossible tell them it's impossible, or even make it so it can be possible," he explained.

Delaney said he appreciated receiving the newspaper story and note from his aunt encouraging him to enroll in the new photonics program at the College of Lake County. "She knew that I'm a very hands-on kind of learner and that I need to actually be touching something to really learn how to do something, and that I can figure stuff out. I was always taking stuff apart and putting it back together, just kind of destroying some stuff," Delaney said.

The National Center for Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC) defines photonics as an enabling technology that involves generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy. Photonics involves the use of lasers, optics, fiber-optics, and electro-optical devices in energy, manufacturing, health care, telecommunications, defense, and other industries.

Steven L. Dulmes, chairman of the Laser, Photonics, and Optics Program at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, started the program with help from OP-TEC, a national ATE center. OP-TEC personnel advised Dulmes about the job opportunities for students who know how to use photonics technology and how to contact employers about their needs for photonics technicians. Dulmes also attended a summer curriculum workshop that OP-TEC offered to educators at no cost, thanks to funding from its ATE center grant.

Dulmes launched his photonics course and then received an ATE project grant to develop a 16-credit photonics certificate program. The certificate has been incorporated into a dual credit program of a technical high school located on the college campus. With a second ATE grant, Dulmes is developing an associate of applied science degree program for a regional photonics program with Indian Hills Community College.

As for Delaney, what he learned about lasers and other photonics devices in class and during an internship at Domino Amjet Inc. not only inspired him to pursue additional degrees, it is helping him pay for them.

Delaney is now a physics major in a University of Northern Iowa program that provides a stipend for him to use optical spectroscopy for nanoplate research. “It was kind of like I was sought out because of my background,” he said. He has co-authored papers for scientific journals and made presentations at academic conferences based on this undergraduate research.

“I’m not the greatest when it comes to theory, but when you put me in a lab environment, that’s when I feel like I really shine and am able come up with creative solutions on problems, and actually apply what I learn in classes,” Delaney explained.

Categories:
  • education
  • science
  • technology
From:
    ATE Impacts

Last Edited: September 22nd, 2022 at 3:30pm by Madeline Patton

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