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1.0INTRODUCTIONThe National Center for Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC), an organization of the University of Central Florida, is completing its ninth year of operation, funded by a grant from the Advanced Technological Education division of the U.S. National Science Foundation. www.op-tec.org The mission of OP-TEC is to increase the supply of well-educated photonics technicians by building and strengthening the capacity and quality of photonics education in U.S. two-year colleges. OP-TEC provides sub grants to colleges with well-established photonics technician programs. These “Partner Colleges” provide models for other colleges to emulate; faculty at the Partner Colleges also assist OP-TEC staff in providing technical assistance to other colleges. In the past two years OP-TEC has encouraged two Partner Colleges (Indian River State College FL, and Indian Hills Community College IA) to organize regional photonics clusters of colleges and employers’, and assisted them to apply and receive NSF/ATE grants to become Regional Centers for Optics and Photonics Education. The regional centers work closely with OP-TEC to complement its work with colleges in the U.S. The regional centers are responsible for assisting colleges with photonics programs in their region of the U.S. Each regional center is also responsible for curriculum, professional development and teaching materials for specific fields and applications of optics and photonics. The cooperative effort between the national and the regional centers has eliminated duplication of materials and services and greatly expanded the influence and quality of support to the colleges teaching optics and lasers. 2.0The Role of National and Regional Optics and Photonics CentersThe responsibilities, activities and accomplishments of OP-TEC are organized around five major goals:
3.0Cooperation and Collaboration Among Optics and Photonics Education CentersIn the last two years two NSF Regional Photonics Centers have been created to work cooperatively with OP-TEC in support of colleges with photonics programs.
These Regional Centers serve colleges within designated states in their region of the U.S. Each Center also specializes in education for one or two fields of photonics applications, such as fiber optics communication, manufacturing/materials processing and spectroscopy. OP-TEC specializes in the other applications such as biomedical equipment, defense/aerospace, energy production and environmental monitoring. Before the regional Centers were created, OP-TEC was responsible for accomplishing all the goals cited in the previous section 2.0. Today, the regional centers support Goal #1 by tailoring the Skill standards to the collective needs of employers in their region, and work with colleges to tailor their curricula accordingly. The regional centers support Goal 2 by developing teaching materials and providing technical assistance to create courses that are aligned to their designated technical specialty. The regional centers complement OP-TEC in supporting Goal 3 by encouraging colleges in their region to consider offering photonics technician education and by providing technical assistance to colleges that have committed to initiate teaching photonics courses. Regional centers complement OP-TEC in Goal 4 by providing training and professional development in the technical areas that they have committed to support. Regional center support for Goal 5 involves researching and dissemination information/training for emerging applications of optics and photonics in their committed areas. OP-TEC provides this service in other application areas such as biomedical equipment, defense/aerospace, energy production and environmental monitoring. This cooperation and support among the three centers has resulted in eliminating duplication of efforts and more intensive, higher quality support for photonics technician education in colleges throughout the U.S. OP-TEC is working with lead colleges in the western and northeastern U.S. to create regional clusters and apply for grants as additional regional centers. REFERENCES, “OP-TEC, National Photonics Skill Standards for Technicians, 3rd Edition,”
http://www.op-tec.org/skill.php Google Scholar
, “OP-TEC, Education and Training for Precision Optics Technicians,”
http://www.op-tec.org/precisionoptics.php Google Scholar
Hull, Darrell; Illich, Paul; Ruggiere, Paul,
“Industry Demand for Two-Year College Graduates in Optics and Photonics Technology,”
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“Fueling the Photonics Workforce,”
The Optical Society. Optics & Photonics News, 25
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(2014). Google Scholar
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“Transforming Electronics Engineering Technology by Infusing Photonics,”
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, “OP-TEC, Fundamentals of Light and Lasers,”
https://www.optecstore.org/products/fundamentals-of-light-and-lasers/ Google Scholar
, “OP-TEC, Laser Systems and Applications,”
https://www.optecstore.org/products/course2-laser-systems-and-applications/ Google Scholar
, “OP-TEC, Photonics Enabled Technology Modules,”
https://www.optecstore.org/product-category/laser-optics-and-photonics-series/pet-modules/ Google Scholar
, “OP-TEC, Quality Assurance of Precision Optics,”
https://www.optecstore.org/products/quality-assurance-of-precision-optics/ Google Scholar
, “OP-TEC, Metrology of Optical Systems,”
https:optecstore.org Google Scholar
, “OP-TEC, Photonics Systems Technician Curriculum Guide,”
https://www.optecstore.org/products/curriculum-guide/ Google Scholar
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