Science Development leads to new concepts, new tools and new techniques. It leads to a society development with new Truth. This Truth is shared by the Society which development is built on Knowledge, on rationality thinking and scientific behavior. This takes its origin in the experimental approach introduced by Ibn Al Haythem in optics at the Xth century. By the end of the last millennium, this approach-known as Active Learning in Physics- has been adopted in most developed countries in physics education programs. Active Learning in Optics and Photonics- ALOP- is extended actually to some developing countries through a UNESCO program. A French edition of ALOP takes place through many workshops over Morocco and Tunisia. It aims to build Truth on evidence and not on intuition or personal authority.

An optics and photonics post-graduate degree program is described that was organized, offered, and presented, at the Royal Military College of Canada between the years of 1976 to the present. While the author retired in 1998, one or more of the courses: Fundamentals of Photonics, Fourier Spectroscopy and Fourier Optics, Electro-Optical Systems, Radiation Heat Transfer, and/or Advanced Instrumentation, continued to be offered/given in the Division of Graduate Studies and Research. The most recent PhD thesis was completed this past year. The history, together with the problems and successes associated with the program at RMC are described. Recommendations are made.

Buried in the Land Forces Technical Staff Program, a one-year program within Applied Military Science, AMS, at the Royal Military College of Canada, is a set of 27 lectures in optics and photonics. The lectures, spread over 1½ months, are organized and presented to 22 participants each year, Captains and Majors, to give an appreciation of: thermal imagers, image intensifiers, laser designators, atmospheric characteristics, and many of the basic concepts associated with the detection, identification, and recognition, of targets. Discussion is provided of the difficulties associated with this program.

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) has an active photonics-related program. The thrusts of the program are coursework, extensive photonic educational laboratories, an SPIE student branch chapter, and a new Project-Based Learning Institute (PBLI) to promote joint projects with industry. This paper will describe our program for a multidisciplinary approach to photonics education at the undergraduate and master’s degree level.

This paper presents an innovative hands-on training program designed to create a pipeline of highly-skilled technical workers for today’s workforce economy. The 2+2+2 Pennsylvania Integrated Workforce Leadership Program in Electro-Optics prepares students for a career in this new high-tech field. With seamless transition from high school into college, the program offers the versatility of multiple entrance and exit pathways. After completion of each educational level, students can exit the program with various skill levels, including certificates, an associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree. Launched by Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in partnership with Lenape Vocational School (Lenape), the 2+2+2 educational pathway program was implemented to promote early training of high-school students. During the first level, students in their junior and/or senior year enroll in four Electro-Optics courses at Lenape. Upon completion of these courses and an Advanced Placement Equivalency course with an appropriate exam score, students can earn a certificate from Lenape for the 15+ credits, which also can be articulated into IUP’s associate degree program in Electro-Optics. During the second level, students can earn an associate’s degree in Electro-Optics, offered only at the IUP Northpointe Campus. After completion of the Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.), students are prepared to enter the workforce as senior technicians. During the third level, students who have completed the Associate of Science (A.S.) in Electro-Optics have the opportunity to matriculate at IUP’s Indiana Campus to earn a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Applied Physics with a track in Electro-Optics. Hence, the name 2+2+2 refers to getting started in high school, continuing the educational experience with an associate’s degree program, and optionally moving on to a bachelor’s degree. Consequently, students move from one educational level to the next with advanced credits toward the next degree. This program was made possible by two grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (PA DCED). The intent of the grant is to foster partnerships that will develop programs in high-tech fields, such as biotechnology/life sciences, information technology, opto-electronics, and advanced manufacturing and materials. Topics of discussion will include program development, curriculum development, course descriptions, course sequencing, outreach and recruitment efforts, and program challenges.

The Applied Physics program at Beijing University of Technology was designed to nurture innovative talent in modern applied physics, providing students both solid theoretical grounding and training for practical scientific research skills by offering 4-year BS degree. In order to fit in with the needs of the fast developing of our society, the education objectives and the program curriculum need to be correspondingly adjusted. This paper reviews the two revises of Applied Physics program, launched in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

We already know that in the purely technological frontier, photonics is going to play a leading role during this century riding on the shoulders of electronics-, bio- and nano-technologies. This talk will underscore that the fundamentals of photonics as has already been developed by classical optics, specifically, the Superposition Principle (SP) will play a profound role in bringing REALITY in physics while opening up many new paths to innovations by opening up new understandings behind SPSP. becomes manifest only when the detectors and the detectees are within each others range of interacting forces and can exchange energy allowed by the quantum restrictions to manifest the measurable transformations undergone by them. The deeper recognition of this fundamentally “local” SP will guide us overcome many conceptual bottlenecks, appreciate deeper realities hidden behind the current quantum formulation, remove the unnecessary non-causal interpretations of quantum mechanics, bridge classical and quantum optics and bring back conceptual freedoms for many new photonics innovations. One of the many specific examples is that the apparent spectrometric resolution limit δvδt <1 is not a fundamental principle of nature. I will show mathematical and experimental work to establish this assertion.

Optics scholars did not only discover optical phenomena and laws governing them. Some of them also invented impressive optical systems and instruments or offered us techniques to juggle with optical signals and rays. One typical example of the impressive optical systems is the camera obscura invented by Ibn Al-Haytham. For techniques enabling us to easily handle optical rays, one can mention Young’s method to handle rays put into play by refraction. Nine centuries before him, Ibn Sahl proposed an elegant method to manipulate refraction related rays. These three examples will be handled in this paper, together with a historical overview inviting the reader to be in the context of this fascinating works.

We present an introduction to the orbital angular momentum of light for use in optics instruction. This type of angular momentum is a new fundamental concept discovered fifteen years ago. It arises in optical beams with helical wave-fronts. We introduce it as part of a fundamental discussion of the momentum of light. We also present inexpensive demonstrations of transfer of linear and angular momentum of light using optical tweezers.

It is very important to understand the characteristics of gain saturation for homogeneously broadened laser medium. Assuming a Lorentzian lineshape function with a linewidth of ΔνH, we have derived the analytical functions of the gain coefficient under three different conditions: 1) a small and 2) a large signal incident on the medium respectively, and 3) a small signal accompanied by a large signal simultaneously incident on the medium. We have found that the bandwidth Δν of the gain coefficient is equal to the linewidth ΔνH for condition 1) and 3) while it is Δν = √1+I_ν1 / I_sΔν_H for condition 2). Here, I_ν1 and I_s are the intensity of the large signal and the saturation intensity at the center frequency ν₀, respectively. The reasons are also presented for such results. For condition 2), gain saturation effect is strongly dependent on the frequency of the large signal: the more the frequency deviates from the center frequency, the weaker the gain saturation effect. This results an increase of the bandwidth. For condition 3), the intensity of the large signal only changes the distribution of populations on the upper and lower energy levels. Hence, the shape of the gain coefficient does not change with the gain reduction of the small signal, thus, its bandwidth remains the same.

Research: Our objective is to discover, visualize, understand and some times gainfully emulate (to advance our technologies) the real physical processes behind diverse interactions that are at the root of incessant cosmic and biospheric evolutions. Our focus is on discovering actual realities in nature driven by cosmic logic rather than inventing the ones that are aesthetically pleasing to our human logic. Our responsibility is to facilitate continuous evolution in our epistemology of modeling natural phenomena simultaneously exploiting the current tools of reductionism and emergence-ism that are helping us to discover rules of interactions between stable but simple (some times irreducible) entities and between complex assemblies that emerge from simpler entities.

Education: Promote an educational philosophy that encourages the students to persistently enquire to visualize and understand the processes behind all interactions in nature while being conscious of their scientific epistemology. Everything that we “see” is nothing but a creative interpretation of the chain of transformations experienced by the sensor (or assemblies of sensors) that we use to observe nature. Science has so far formulated an array of working rules to model nature none of which can be declared as inviolable laws as yet. We have generated several “solved” jig-saw-puzzles which are not yet unifiable into one coherent puzzle to map the indivisible cosmic system.

Outreach: Organize local and international seminars and conferences disseminating (i) the results of research, and (ii) the evolving & effective model of research (scientific epistemology)

Economic wellbeing: Disseminate new technology innovation potentials to attract enhanced economic support through proper local channels.

Every year large sums of tax payers money are used to fund scientific research at various universities. The result is outstanding new discoveries which are published in scientific journals. However, more often than not, once the funding for these research programs end, the results of these new discoveries are buried deep within old issues of technical journals which are archived in university libraries and are consequently forgotten. Ideally, these scientific discoveries and technological advances generated at our academic institutions should lead to the creation of new jobs for our graduating students and emerging scientists and professionals. In this fashion the students who worked hard to produce these new discoveries and technological advances, can continue with their good work at companies that they helped launch and establish. This article explores some of the issues related to new business development activities at academic institutions. Included is a discussion of possible ways of helping graduating students create jobs for themselves, and for their fellow students, through creation of new companies which are based on the work that they did during their course of university studies.

The Photonics Technology Access Program [PTAP] provides academic researchers with pre-commercial photonic devices. Since one of the goals of PTAP is to promote teaching, the program has developed several approaches to expand teaching opportunities with the processes used to provide the devices.

The Photonics programs address the question of how to integrate scientific content, student encouragement, and parental support to engage minority high school students to experience success in areas of a national need. Historical data indicates African Americans do not take advanced mathematics and science courses, especially physics, in high school. Therefore, we propose using a variety of strategies for providing instruction in leadership, experimentation, research writing, communications and scientific presentation to work with students, families and teachers in promoting selection of and academic achievement in challenging science courses. Seventy-five African American students are participating in year-round Photonics programs at The Science House on NC State University’s Centennial Campus. Students from sixteen counties in North Carolina learn about fiber optics, communications and the properties of light.

In accordance with its mission, the Student Chapter of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in École Polytechnique de Montréal organises numerous outreach activities to trigger the interest of students 6-17 years of age in optics. In the last two years, these workshops have attracted over 450 students.

Optical image processing experiments can contribute to an understanding of optical diffraction and lens image formation. We are trying to discover a highly effective way of introducing lens imaging and related topics, light scattering, point sources, spatially coherent light, and image processing, in a laboratory-based holography-centered introductory optics course serving a mixture of physics, chemistry, and science education sophomores and juniors. As an early experiment in this course, a microscope slide bearing opaque stick-on letters forming a word such as PAL is back-lighted by a point source of laser light. The surround for the letter A is transparent, while the surround for the letters P and L is made translucent with Scotch MAGICTM tape. A 20-cm focal length converging lens forms a bright image of PAL on a screen, and also an image of the laser point source in a (transform) plane between the lens and the screen. Students are startled when they see that they can choose to pass only the image of the letter “A” or only the images of “P” and “L,” by very simple manipulations in the transform plane. The interpretation of these experiments is challenging for some students, and the experiments can lead to a significant amount of discussion. Useful explanatory ray diagrams will be presented. Many demonstrations of optical image processing require long focal length lenses and precise manipulation of somewhat complex passing/blocking filters. In contrast these experiments are easy to set up and easy to perform. Students can fabricate the required objects in a matter of minutes. The use of zero-order laser light helps students discover the essential simplicity of the ideas underlying image processing. The simultaneous presence of both scattered (spatially incoherent) and not scattered (spatially coherent) laser light is thought provoking. Current explorations to further develop these and other closely-related experiments will also be described.

The International Year of Astronomy (IYA) will be celebrated in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope for astronomical observation. The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Arizona, USA, is participating in a variety of international education activities to build awareness of the role of astronomy and optics in our modern technological society. We will outline our education plans specifically related to optics for the International Year of Astronomy. These plans include outreach activities that appeal to professional museum and classroom educators as well as the general public.

With the recent realignment of the Connecticut State Department of Education Core Science Curriculum Framework, light and vision were added to the science curriculum for 5th grade students and they will be tested on these concepts on the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) starting in 2008. In order to ready students for the test, our collaboration began with the development of a standards-based workshop to introduce optics concepts to fifth grade students in eastern Connecticut. After a successful initial workshop for students, it was apparent that more students would benefit from our lessons if their teachers were able to conduct the lessons in their own classrooms using authentic curriculum. We also found that the teachers were desperate for curriculum, knowledge and supplies to be able to teach the concepts. The result is a collection of lessons satisfying the needs of younger students and a professional development workshop for teachers in which hands-on lessons, scientific inquiry, and scientific literacy are combined to deepen the understanding and interest in the study of optics.

Abstract : In many countries the potential of optics as an exciting part of science is not fully exploited in high-school education. In addition, optics is often not taught in relation with daily experiences. With the motivation to expose the potential of doing otherwise to motivate students, we developed and implemented a two hour-long hands-on introduction to optics for high school students. We termed the program: The Day of Light. By attending the program, students learn basic concepts such as polarization, wavelength, color, stereoscopic vision, reflection and refraction in connection to everyday experiences based on applications of optics. The demonstration was fully organized and carried out by the ICFO Ph.D students who were members of the ICFO Optical Society of America (OSA) Student Chapter.

“Project LITE: Light Inquiry Through Experiments” is a science education project aimed at developing interactive hands-on and eyes-on curriculum, software and materials about light and optics. These are being developed for use in undergraduate astronomy courses, but they can also be used to advantage in physics, chemistry, Earth science and psychology courses throughout the K-12 and undergraduate curriculum.

Hands-On Optics (HOO) is a National Science Foundation funded program to bring optics education to traditionally underserved middle school students. We have developed six modules that teach students optics concepts through hands-on, inquiry-based activities. The modules have been used extensively in after-school and non-school settings such as in the Boys and Girls Clubs in South Tucson, Arizona and the Boys and Girls Club in Sells, Arizona on the Tohono O’odham reservation. We will describe these programs and the lessons learned in these settings. These modules also form the basis for a week-long optics camp that provides students with approximately 40 hours of instruction time in optics. We will provide an outline of the activities and concepts covered in the camp. These camps provide an ideal way to encourage interest in optics before career choices are developed.

Hands-On Optics (HOO) is a National Science Foundation funded program to bring optics education to underserved middle school students. We have developed the culminating module (Module 6) on laser communication. Students learn how lasers can be modulated to carry information. The main activity of this module is the construction of a low-cost laser communication system. The system can be built using parts readily available at a local electronics store for approximately US $60. The system can be used to transmit a person’s voice or music from sources such as an mp3 player or radio over a distance of 350 feet. We will provide detailed plans on how to build the system in this paper.

From 2004, the Center for Science Education and Training (CSET) participated to the European Union-funded educational network "Hands-on Science". The aim of the Romanian team was to transform teachers and students from end-users of educational aids to active designers and developers of instructional materials. Several science fields were identified, including photonics. The team at CSET is now focusing on: lasers and their applications, optical fiber communications, solar energy as a sustainable source, and the use of optical spectroscopy in physics and chemistry. CSET initiated an international collaboration with the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) in Boston, Mass., when the Center enrolled an experienced Romanian high school science teacher in a twelve-week “Introduction to Photonics” laboratory-based professional development course. The course was developed by NEBHE through an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program grant from National Science Foundation and is designed for high school and community college educators from both science and technology instructional areas. The paper reports the experience of this international participation which was made possible since the course is delivered via the Internet by Three Rivers Community College, Norwich, Conn. Its impact on photonics education in Romania and the USA is analyzed, as the participant teacher shares her experiences with teachers and faculty in the “Introduction to Photonics” course and with those enrolled into the Romanian “Hands-on-Science” program.

In 2005, Connecticut’s Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM) surveyed companies representing a cross section of the laser manufacturing industry in New England. A technician competency profile was created as a result of a detailed job skills survey and intensive personal interviews with company personnel. Three Rivers Community College subsequently developed a Laser Manufacturing Option to the Manufacturing Engineering Technology A.S. degree based on the competency profile, with new and revised courses featuring an emphasis on interdisciplinary skills and knowledge across several disciplines.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology CBST) provides a number of short to full-length courses on the subject of biophotonics. A middle school summer camp and various versions of multi-year high school courses are currently in progress. Two courses define a Biophotonics Option within the Photonics Technology Degree Program at the Central New Mexico Community College. CBST also collaborates with the Integrated Studies Honors Program (ISHP) at UC Davis to provide an introductory course to some of the top students in the freshman class. Advanced undergraduate and graduate courses are provided at UC Davis and sister institutions within CBST.

During the last 15 years most of the electronics engineering technology programs across the nation have experienced a constant decline in enrollment. Today’s high school students do not seem to consider a career in electronics engineering appealing enough to commit to a field of study in desperate need of new students. They still associate electronics programs with the electronics section of a department store; televisions, stereo systems, DVD and VCR players, and other disposable electronics. While the downward trend continues across the nation, Indian River Community College (IRCC) has been able not only to stop it but to reverse it by attracting a new generation of students. By introducing high school students to new and emerging technologies, their perception of established degrees has changed and their interest has been stimulated. Photonics is one of those technologies capturing students’ attention. IRCC, a partner college in the National Center for Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC), with the assistance of other colleges like Camden County College which already offers an Associate in Applied Science degree in Photonics, has created a Photonics specialization under the Electronics Engineering Technology program. The targeted marketing of this new specialization has led to an increase in enrollment of 50% in 2005, 80% in 2006, and for 2007 it is projected it to be over 100%. An interesting comparison can be made concerning enrollment at colleges with a full AAS program in photonics like Camden County College and IRCC which uses photonics as an enabling technology. This analysis could lead to a new approach in restructuring engineering technology degrees with the infusion of photonics throughout many technology fields. This presentation will discuss the plan of action that made possible this initiative at Indian River Community College and new program directions at Camden County College, Blackwood, New Jersey.

The Photonics Technology program at Niagara College was first launched in 2001. Since that time, in an attempt to meet the joint needs of industry and students, Niagara has developed the technology program into a cluster of four programs related to photonic technology. Niagara is also building relationships with universities to deliver photonic course material to physics undergrad students using Niagara College Photonics facilities and faculty to create an undergraduate specialization in lasers. This paper will review the development of the photonics cluster at Niagara College and present the current state of its evolution.

Teaching photonics is greatly enlivened by demonstrations of practical holography. One of the more impressive varieties of display holography is the portrait hologram. However, the large number of complicated, time-consuming steps required to produce traditional portrait holograms makes it an unlikely process for demonstration and practice in a classroom laboratory environment. This paper presents a process for producing simple portrait holograms using the Denisyuk single-beam (Deep Hologram) method and a single stereoptic pair of images, which can be performed, start-to-finish, in a standard 3-hour lab period. Possibilities for expansion of the technique to larger numbers of images, potentially approaching the quality of multiple-image, master hologram-transfer hologram traditional portrait holography, as well as strategies for multiple and single beam illumination are discussed.

A wave plate is a commonly used optical element in optical experiments. In this report, we have achieved measuring the phase retardations of a half-wave plate and a quarter-wave plate using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Besides, when we rotate the half-wave plate’s c-axis form the vertical to the horizontal directions, or vice versa, the phase retardations of the two orthogonally polarized beams are observed to be exchanged between 180° and -180°. In addition, we also predict the expected results by the Jones calculus theory in order to check the experimental results. This system can be applied to explore intuitively the birefringence characteristics of anisotropic materials in an optics teaching laboratory.

In the Physics degree in Spain the students have a mandatory course in Fundamentals of Optics as well as an Optics Laboratory course. With these two courses the students receive a general background of optics. There are also some optional courses on Optics in the last years of the degree. One of them is a course on Optical Image Processing and Holography. This course has 60 hours (equivalent to 6 credits of a total number of 300 credits in the Physics degree). Fifteen hours of the course correspond to the laboratory experiments. In this contribution we will describe the contents of this laboratory experiments and we will also discuss the influence of this laboratory in the background of a physicist. The laboratory works consist of three lab experiments about the following topics: Diffraction, Coherent Spatial Frequency Optical Filtering and Holography. Optical Image Processing and Holography course survey of students’ opinion is presented to analyze different pedagogical aspects.

In this report we demonstrated a method for measuring the beat length of a birefringent fiber. In this method the beat length is determined from the wavelength dependence of the phase difference between two orthogonally polarized modes at the output end of a sample fiber. In addition to the mode hopping of the laser diode’s optical wavelength due to the temperature variation, we have also observed the phase hopping of the output light polarization at the end face of the birefringent fiber. It is a simple and precise method to determine the birefringence magnitude of anisotropic materials in an optics laboratory course.

In this paper, the technical training for fabricating the laser diode and photodiode modules and also assembling the electronic drives for the both modules is described from a view point of student technical training to study fundamental technology of optical fiber telecommunications. First, the students assembled the both modules using small parts and adjusted the optic axis of laser light from a source with an accuracy of a few micrometers so that the laser light efficiently enters the core of an optical fiber cable. The characteristics of the modules such as the spatial intensity distribution of emitted laser light, the relationship between the input laser power and the output current of a photodiode were measured to evaluate the fabricated modules. Second, two electronic analogue circuits of the drives used for the modules were assembled to study about typical optronics devices such as laser diode and photodiode, the functions of the circuits in the drives and how they are used in combination with the optical fiber telecommunications technology. Lastly, the fabricated modules and the assembled drives were tested by transmitting the test image using an optical fiber cable.

The association of web technology with instrument automation and control has made possible the development of the so called Remote Laboratories or WebLabs – distributed environments that allow to access and control experiments remotely through the Internet – extending the interactivity in virtual learning environments to higher levels. In this work we describe the main characteristics of a WebLab developed for the remote measurement of an optical fiber’s attenuation coefficient, which is part of an ongoing project whose goal is to implement a photonics remote laboratory aimed to support activities in face-to-face and online courses on optical communications. Preliminary tests on the overall performance of the system have shown very promising results, strongly indicating its potential as a sound and reliable tool for photonics education.

We explore the temporal coherence characteristics of the output light of a SLD system with different optical feedback ratios by a Michelson interferometer, and we also observe the long-scan-range interference patterns with the one by one wave packets due to the Fabry-Perot modulation of the SLD device. We can obtain the effective cavity length of the SLD active layer and get more information of the temporal coherence length or spectral width from the long-scan-range interference patterns. This tunable light source system can provide more insights into the optical coherence or lasing phenomena often discussed in the optics course.

In this paper we describe a new family of teaching packages designed to offer a practical introduction for graduate students of Science and Engineering to the topic of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in fibre optics. The teaching packages described here provide students with the background theory before embarking on a series of practical experiments to demonstrate the operation and characterisation of WDM components and systems. The packages are designed in a modular format to allow the user to develop from the fundamentals of fibre optical components through to the concepts of WDM and dense WDM (DWDM) systems and onto advanced topics covering aspects of Bragg gratings. This paper examines the educational objectives, background theory, and typical results for these educational packages.

Abstract: This paper describes the design and implementation of an advanced photonics experiment aimed at the undergraduate students’ level. The experiment uses erbium-doped fiber to implement three functions through slight modifications of the setup. The functions are a broadband light source, a multi-wavelength optical amplifier, and a tunable fiber laser. As part of an Optical Communication Systems course, the experiment is targeted towards fourth year engineering students at the University of Toronto. The design of the experiment is especially attractive for large classes, where feasibility and cost effectiveness play a pivotal role. In addition the scope of the experiment was designed to illustrate a broad set of topics covered in the course, where students gain knowledge in: i) constructing a broadband source using the erbium-doped fiber amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and characterize its emission spectrum; ii) modifying the ASE source into a broadband multi-wavelength erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA); studying gain tilt and noise figure (NF) of the EDFA with respect to input and pump parameters; and finally, iv) transforming the EDFA into a tunable erbium doped fiber laser (EDFL). Through this series of experiments, students will (i) appreciate the versatility of an important optical gain medium; (ii) develop a deeper understanding of the salient features of optical gain including stimulated and spontaneous emission, principles of laser and amplifier action; (iii) learn, through hands on experience, to operate advanced optical components and test and measurement instruments which all form an integral part of the optical communication industry; and finally(iv) integrate the building blocks they have encountered in textbooks into operational optical devices.

New educational kit and methodological instructions are presented in the paper. Methodological approaches and the kit design are improved and extended on the base of 10 years experience of the use of previous version of equipment. Basic approaches are the following: modular structure of the equipment with multifunctional blocks which are easily replaced; simplicity and unity of training equipment; diversity of light sources; possibility to rearrange the equipment and techniques both for universities and for high school; modified optical schemes for some experiments. The set of equipment includes: compact desk holographic installation, Hartle device, focal monochromator on the base of holographic lens, optical bench, prisms, lenses, gratings, collimator, several light sources (laser, LEDs, lamp), etc. Methodological instructions provided with this set include the list of demonstrations and laboratory works as well as links between various experiments and phenomena. Methodological instructions give recommendations for more than 50 demonstrations and practical works in various domains: light diffraction, interference of light, holography, geometric optics, Fourier optics, polarization effects, optics of spectrums, fiber optics, as well as a combination of the effects.

We present new results of interference experiments for undergraduates that underscore the quantum nature of the light. The experiments use parametric down-conversion to generate pairs of correlated photons. The experiments involve one- and two-photon interference schemes that rely on first and second-order coherence effects. They can be used as a complement to teaching quantum mechanics or quantum optics.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach whereby students learn course content by actively and collaboratively solving real-world problems presented in a context similar to that in which the learning is to be applied. Research shows that PBL improves student learning and retention, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and the ability to skillfully apply knowledge to new situations – skills deemed critical to lifelong learning. Used extensively in medical education since the 1970’s, and widely adopted in other fields including business, law, and education, PBL is emerging as an alternative to traditional lecture-based courses in engineering and technology education. In today’s ever-changing global economy where photonics technicians are required to work productively in teams to solve complex problems across disciplines as well as cultures, PBL represents an exciting alternative to traditional lecture-based photonics education. In this paper we present the PHOTON PBL project, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education (NSF-ATE) project aimed at creating, in partnership with the photonics industry and university research labs from across the US, a comprehensive series of multimedia-based PBL instructional resource materials and offering faculty professional development in the use of PBL in photonics technology education. Quantitative and qualitative research will be conducted on the effectiveness of PBL in photonics technician education.

To create the Hands-On Optics program and its associated instructional materials, we needed to understand a number of basic optics misconceptions held by children (and adults) and how to address them through a proper educational approach. The activities have been built with an understanding of the naïve concepts many people have about light, color, and optical phenomena in general. Our own experience is that the concepts that children and adults have of light are often not that different from each other. This paper explores the most common misconceptions about light and color, according to educational research, and describes how they can be addressed in optics education programs. This understanding of misconceptions was useful as well in the professional development component of the program where educators were trained on the Hands-On Optics modules. The professional development work for the optics industry volunteers who worked with the educators was also based on research on how an optics professional can work more effectively in multi-cultural settings–an area with great applicability to industry volunteers working in the very different culture of science centers or after-school programs.

Abstract: Widespread physics education research has shown that most introductory physics students have difficulty learning essential optics concepts—even in the best of traditional courses, and that a well-designed active learning approach can remedy this. This active presentation will provide direct experience through audience participation with methods for promoting active involvement of students in the learning process. The focus will be on Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs)^1,2—a learning strategy for large (and small) lectures, including the use of special Optics Magic Tricks. Sample ILD materials and instructions on how to do the tricks will be distributed.

The Laser Teaching Center is a unique university-based educational environment primarily devoted to highly personalized active learning through the development of individual hands-on student projects broadly related to optics and lasers. The participants include local high school students and young undergraduates who are new to optics and research, and graduate students in an optics rotation course. We describe the history and facilities of the Center, its educational philosophy and methods, and the experience obtained in nine years of operation.

The ‘Mirage’ (Opti-Gone International) is a well-known optics demonstration (PIRA index number 6A20.35) that uses two opposed concave mirrors to project a real image of a small object into space. We studied image formation in the Mirage by standard 2x2 matrix methods and by exact ray tracing, with particular attention to additional real images that can be observed when the mirror separation is increased beyond one focal length. We find that the three readily observed secondary images correspond to 4, 6, or 8 reflections, respectively, contrary to previous reports.

The core educational program of the Stony Brook Laser Teaching Center is learning through the collaborative development of individualized projects. Many of these projects, especially with students new to research, are simple explorations or demonstrations of everyday devices or phenomena related to light, optics, or sound that have some creative component. Often the topic is suggested by something the student is just curious about or ‘invents,’ or by a chance observation or news article. This paper will describe a number of these ‘simple, creative’ projects, and relate the discovery process by which each came about and the results obtained.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST) has created various high school biophotonics research academies for both students and teachers from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. These academies engage diverse students for 10 hours to over 350 hours per year for multiple years with an emphasis on learning the basics of biophotonics and then conducting original, team-based research. We have developed three versions of the academy, one focused on biology and biophotonics, one on cancer and biophotonics, and a third on plants and biophotonics. A fourth emphasis on biomedical engineering and biophotonics is planned. We have conducted one of these academies for three years and have had very good student retention and science fair winners. As part of our program we also have a summer academy for training teachers. Challenges have arisen amongst the various levels of Academies, chief among them sustainability. In the future, more extensive evaluation, curriculum consolidation, and widespread dissemination are critical.

Nanophotonics has emerged as a new and important field of study, not only in research, but also in undergraduate optics and photonics education and training. Beyond the study of classical and quantum optics, it is important for students to learn about how the flow of light can be manipulated on a nanoscale level, and used in applications such as telecommunications, imaging, and medicine. This paper reports on our work to integrate basic nanophotonic concepts and topics into existing optics and optical electronics courses, as well as independent study projects, at the undergraduate level. Through classroom lectures, topical readings, computer modeling exercises, and laboratory experiments, students are introduced to nanophotonic concepts subsequent to a study of physical and geometrical optics. A compare and contrast methodology is employed to help students identify similarities and differences that exist in the optical behavior of bulk and nanostructured media. Training is further developed through engineering design and simulation exercises that use advanced, vector-diffraction-based, modeling software for simulating the performance of various materials and structures. To date, the addition of a nanophotonics component to the optics curriculum has proven successful, been enthusiastically received by students, and should serve as a basis for further course development efforts that emphasize the combined capabilities of nanotechnology and photonics.

Two-year program for Master’s studies on Biophotonics (Biomedical Optics) has been originally developed and carried out at University of Latvia since 1995. The Curriculum contains basic subjects like Fundamentals of Biomedical Optics, Medical Lightguides, Anatomy and Physiology, Lasers and Non-coherent Light Sources, Basic Physics, etc. Student laboratories, special English Terminology and Laboratory-Clinical Praxis are also involved as the training components, and Master project is the final step for the degree award. Life-long learning is supported by several E-courses and an extensive short course for medical laser users “Lasers and Bio-optics in Medicine”. Recently a new inter-university European Social Fund project was started to adapt the program accordingly to the Bologna Declaration guidelines.

The Optometry program in Schools and Colleges of Optometry leads to a Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree in north America and is usually a post-baccalaureate course of study of four years duration. Historically Optometry developed out of Physics and/or applied optics programs. Optics, and more specifically, geometric optics and it’s applications to the human eye plays a significant role in the education of an optometrist. In addition, optometrists are trained in physical optics as well as in radiometry/photometry. Considering the fact that most optometry students come to the program with a biological sciences background implies that educating these students require elucidation of “real-world” applications and clinical relevance to hold their interest. Even though the trend in optometric education in the past few years is to put more emphasis on biological sciences due to the increased scope of practice of the optometrist, optics still continues to play a major role in the training and career of an optometrist, especially with the advent of new technologies in treating low vision, measurement and correction of aberrations of the eye, etc.

Optics education is an essential ingredient in building modern science and technology. As the rate of technological change accelerates, continuing optics education becomes more important than other. This talk is an account of a successfully continuing professional-education course on optics and optical coatings in the Department of Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering, University of Rajshahi, - a scenario of optics education in Bangladesh. The foundation course on optics emphasizes in understanding of the basic principles of geometrical and physical optics through formal lectures and its practice through laboratory demonstrations. The Department of Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering usually do local fabrication/ assembling of optics laboratory teaching aids. Students and technical staffs under the guidance of a Faculty staff member do equipment fabrication and assembling. This article describes some of the project-type set ups for performing experiments on (i) wavelengths of various spectral lines determination (ii) determination of unknown solution concentration (iii) determination of thickness of thin optical coating as well as (iv) determination of various optical parameters such as refractive index, optical band gap through the measurement of transmission and reflection spectra.

We present a way to use a Research Laboratory for training students to learn about simple measurements. In most cases, doing research and training students imply conflicting requirements, for instance in a Research Laboratory everything is aligned, some equipment cannot be moved and so on; therefore research and training laboratories are separated. Sometimes however, there is the possibility of using a part or the complete research equipment by the students, without "consequences". As an example, here we describe the way we used a research set up of wave propagation through atmospheric turbulence, devoted to long lasting statistical measurements, to train students in making position measurements and experiments at different levels, starting from beginners up to advanced and PhD students.

We describe the activities of the Institute for Optical Sciences (IOS) at the University of Toronto towards the establishment of a Master’s Program in Optics. The IOS was formed as a collaboration between faculty members interested in optics from the four departments of Physics, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. One of its goals is to serve as unifying entity for graduate and undergraduate programs in optical sciences. The details of the proposed graduate program will be discussed. It will be set up in the form of a collaborative university program, where students must satisfy the requirements of one of the four home departments, as well as a set of IOS-specific requirements of the program. IOS-specific activities include attending the Distinguished Visiting Scientist Series, participation in a best-research-practice mini-course, where essential research skills are discussed, as well as participation in an annual internal conference. The benefits of this interdisciplinary program, for students, faculty and relevant industries are discussed. The students will benefit from a wider exposure and a more coherent curriculum. The IOS will also serve as local community within the campus to which students could belong and network. Faculty, on the other hand, will benefit from a reduced teaching load, as redundancies among the departments will be removed.

We seek methods of stimulating young school children to develop an interest in science and engineering through a natural curiosity for the reaction of light. Science learning now begins fully at middle school. Reading skills develop with activity at home and progress through the elementary school curriculum, and in a like manner, a curious interest in science also should begin at that stage of life. Within the ranks of educators, knowledge of optical science needs to be presented to elementary school students in an entertaining manner. One such program used by the authors is Doug Goodman's Optics Demonstrations With the Overhead Projector, co-published by and available from OSA (Optical Society of America) and SPIE-The International Society of Optical Engineering. These demonstrations have found their way into middle and high schools; however, as a special approach, the authors have presented selected Goodman demonstrations as a "Magic Show of Light" to elementary schools. Both students and faculty have found the show most entertaining! If optical knowledge is utilized to stimulate science learning in the coming generation at elementary school level, there's a good chance we can sow some fertile seeds of advancement for all future segments of the workforce. Students can enjoy what they are doing while building a foundation for contributing gainfully to society in any profession. We need to explore expanding exposure of the “Magic Show of Light” to elementary schools.

Teaching Optics to students without a technical background lends itself particularly well to activities-based methods. Restricting the discussion to a lecture format, even if demonstrations are included, misses the opportunity to have students directly investigate something which is, quite literally, right before their eyes. At Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, we have redeveloped a course, entitled “Light & Color,” to be activities-based. Using hardware purchased specifically for this purpose, we have developed a set of student activities which are integrated into the syllabus. This course has been taught twice under the new paradigm with encouraging results. The activities developed are described and discussed and their impact on student performance is presented.

A discovery based lab course in applied optics was developed and will be offered for the first time at Millersville University (MU) in the fall of 2007. The course will deal with fundamental optics and optical techniques in greater depth so that the student is abreast of the activities in the forefront of the field. The goal of the course is to provide hands-on experience and in-depth preparation of our students for graduate programs in optics or as a workforce for new emerging high-tech local industries. The new 300 level course will be required for BS physics majors, but will be open also to the full spectrum of science majors, who have the appropriate background. The optics course consists of four contact hours per week including a one-hour lecture and a three-hour lab. Students will learn applied optics through sequence of discovery based laboratory experiences. The guided but open-ended approach provides excellent practice for the academic model of science research. The lab experiments are chosen from a broad range of topics in optics and lasers, as the emphasis is on geometrical optics, geometrical aberrations in optical systems, wave optics, microscopy, spectroscopy, polarization, birefringence, laser generation, laser properties and applications, and optical standards. The starting budget of about $60,000 provided state-of-the-art lab equipment from Newport Co. and MICOS Co. The attraction of the course is shown by the active registration among physics, chemistry and biology majors.

Objectives: The present course is devoted to engineers, physicists, and techniques which require basic tools for applying in experiments, measurements and research with optical instruments.
Content: It is composed of the following topics: photodetectors, semiconductor devices, photomultiplier tubes, Faraday modulators, lock in amplifiers and automatic polarimeters. It begins with the definitions, classification and general characteristics of the photodetectors and its selection criteria for specific applications. There is included a section relative to different types of photodiodes and its differential characteristics, the photomultipliers are described showing its validity and application range. The different characteristics of Faraday cells which are widely employed as optical modulators are analyzed. Lock in amplifiers are shown and its applications in experimental arrangements.
Content: It is composed of the following topics: photodetectors, semiconductor devices, photomultiplier tubes, Faraday modulators, lock in amplifiers and automatic polarimeters. It begins with the definitions, classification and general characteristics of the photodetectors and its selection criteria for specific applications. There is included a section relative to different types of photodiodes and its differential characteristics, the photomultipliers are described showing its validity and application range. The different characteristics of Faraday cells which are widely employed as optical modulators are analyzed. Lock in amplifiers are shown and its applications in experimental arrangements.
Conclusion: this course could be given as a postgraduate course for Master in Science or Ph. D depending on the number and content of selected topics. It has been applied as an obligatory subject of the Optical Master in Science curriculum in the Superior Technical Institute (José Antonio Echeverría) of Havana, Cuba.

A two-week short course in optics and photonics was organized and presented at the Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON, from 1988 to 1995. It was designed for personnel in the Canadian Forces who were entering management positions that required some understanding of optics and photonics. The course attracted between 15 to 22 participants every year; individuals came from the ranks of Warrant Officer, through to L/Col, as well as civilian. Variations and improvements were made over the years. A history of events: the course, the personnel, the circumstances, the financing, some of the difficulties and successes, are presented. Much good will, trust, and integrity, were needed by all to bring it to fruition. Suggestions are given.

In many imaging systems the ultimate performance is determined by the focal plane array that converts photons into an electrical signal that can then be recorded. Such focal plane arrays are available that operate at wavelengths ranging from the X-ray to the radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. An explanation of the underlying physics of focal plane arrays, the practicalities of operating such devices, and the calibration of these arrays is, in general, not presented as part of a conventional undergraduate curriculum by any discipline. The Center for Imaging Science in the College of Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology has developed a sequence of classes to cover this subject matter for upper division undergraduates and graduate students. The material is covered over a full academic year that consists of three quarters at RIT. These classes has had very positive feedback from graduates who find that they acquire a very useful skill set that they use in their post-graduation positions at various companies and government laboratories.

A solid education in optical devices and optical communication systems must include an understanding of the basic building blocks of optical devices and networks as well as the interplay between them. Software vendors, such as Optiwave Systems Inc., provide free as well as for-purchase software tools that can be used in classroom and computer labs as an educational aid. This paper examines the role software simulation tools play in the education of students studying optical communication and related disciplines. The different techniques to employ photonic simulation software in classroom lectures, computer labs and graduate research are discussed.

Most modern communication systems are based on opto-electrical methods, wavelength division multiplex (WDM) being the most widespread. Likewise, the use of polymeric fibres (POF) as an optical transmission medium is expanding rapidly. Therefore, enabling students to understand how WDM and/or POF systems are designed and maintained is an important task of universities and vocational schools that offer education in photonics. In the current academic setting, theory is mostly being taught in the classroom, while students gain practical knowledge by performing lab experiments utilizing specialized teaching systems. In an ideal setting, students should perform such experiments with a high degree of autonomy. By applying the principles of augmented learning to photonics training, contemporary lab work can be brought closer to these ideal conditions. This paper introduces „OPTOTEACH“, a new teaching system for photonics lab work, designed by Harz University and successfully released on the German market by HarzOptics. OPTOTEACH is the first POF-WDM teaching system, specifically designed to cover a multitude of lab experiments in the field of optical communication technology. It is illustrated, how this lab system is supplemented by a newly developed optical teaching software - „OPTOSOFT“ - and how the combination of system and software creates a unique augmented learning environment. The paper details, how the didactic concept for the software was conceptualised and introduces the latest beta version. OPTOSOFT is specifically designed not only as an attachment to OPTOTEACH, it also allows students to rehearse various aspects of theoretical optics and experience a fully interactive and feature-rich self-learning environment. The paper further details the first experiences educators at Harz University have made working with the lab system as well as the teaching software. So far, the augmented learning concept was received mostly positive, although there is some potential for further optimisation concerning integration and pacing of various interactive modules.

The ray optics is the branch of optics in which all the wave effects are neglected: the light is considered as travelling along rays which can only change their direction by refraction or reflection. On one hand, a further simplifying approximation can be made if attention is restricted to rays travelling close to the optical axis and at small angles: the well-known linear or paraxial approximation introduced by Gauss. On the other hand, in order to take into account the geometrical aberrations, it is sometimes necessary to pay attention to marginal rays with the aid of a ray tracing procedure. This contribution describes a toolbox for the study of optical systems which implements both approaches. It has been developed in the framework of an educational project, but it is general enough to be useful in most of the cases.

An educational experience in numerical modeling for physics majors at Virginia Military Institute has been created as part of the undergraduate research learning paradigm. As part of the independent project course required of all physics majors at VMI, those joining the thin films research group are taught the various stages of numerical modeling applied to complex problems (such as optical limiting) as a precursor to experimental work. Students are introduced to a realistic method of research involving open-ended experiments by this exercise. By teaching students how to design, create, and test a complex numerical model, they gain insight into how an experiment is set up and executed as well as what results can be anticipated. We present an exercise in which undergraduate students use Mathcad in their modeling and calculations.

In this work we present a Virtual Holographic Laboratory for educational purposes. This project is edited on DVD support and it has been designed to be interactive: schemes, pictures, videos in order to clarify the theoretical description of the phenomena improving the understanding of its fundamental concepts. We believe that this project is helpful for undergraduate and graduate students in physics and engineering to obtain the solid knowledge about holography and to prepare for practical lessons on holography or partially substitute the lasts in the case of absence of appropriated technical base at a specific university level.

NEMO is the European "Network of Excellence on Micro-Optics". One of the objectives is to disseminate knowledge on micro-optics. Therefore NEMO plans to inform pupils about the crucial role of micro-optics This is done through the distribution of an educational kit to their physics/technology teachers. This kit has been realized through a cooperative action of different partners of the NEMO-network all over Europe. It contains a variety of replicated micro-optical refractive and diffractive components, and a semiconductor laser source. The kit is supplemented with a CD-ROM which explains the basic concepts and describes possible experiments and experimental setups. It contains also a computer tutorial which simulates the optical processes of image formation. It is hoped that this will encourage interest in optics and, more generally, in science as an area of future study and as a possible career choice. At the conference the realization and the lay out of the EduKit will be commented and a demonstration will be given.

Many Physics students opt for a master’s degree in Physics without plans for pursuing a doctorate in the future. These students typically wish to find jobs in industry after receiving the M.S. degree. The traditional Physics master’s degree program, with courses mirroring those of the first year of a program leading to a Ph.D., is not addressed to the needs of many of these students. On the other hand, offering broad and extensive training for a variety of careers in industry may place burdens on the resources of smaller graduate programs. In this presentation, we describe a new Optics-Photonics program and course sequences developed for a small graduate Physics department at a regional metropolitan university (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) which has successfully placed students in rewarding careers in industry that heavily utilize their Physics training.

The Photonics program addresses the question of how does one integrate scientific content, student encouragement, and parental support to engage minority high school students to experience success in areas of a national need? Historical data indicates that ethnically diverse students, (African Americans), do not take advanced mathematics and science, (physics), courses in high school. Therefore, we propose using a variety of strategies for providing instruction in leadership, experimentation, research writing, communication and scientific presentation to work with students, families and teachers in promoting success and academic achievement in challenging science courses. Seventy-five African American students are participating in a yearround Photonics (physics of light) program at NC State University. Students from fifteen counties in North Carolina learn about fiber optics, communications and the properties of light.

Our work concerns the study of the effect of the optical bistability and multistability in a laser saturable absorber of a Fabry Perot resonator with a homogenous widening. We theoretically studied the influence of the losses of the resonators on the optical bistability by examining mainly the cases where the losses of the resonator depend on the position of the emitted mode of a frequency and the losses of the resonator depend on the density of photons We examined the influence of the physical parameters of laser saturable absorber such as the coefficient of saturation and pumping of the medium active and absorbing on the density of the photons for each loss We showed the effect of the optical bistability and multistability then we analyzed the linear stability of the solutions obtained.

The design and fabrication of thin film temperature sensors for various applications is an important and well established field. In order to gain familiarity with the design and fabrication of such devices, students at the Virginia Military Institute create and test their own thin film temperature sensors using organic polymers. The sensor is created by depositing a conducting polymer onto a flexible substrate with electrical contacts deposited by thermal evaporation. The resistance of the polymer as a function of temperature establishes a relationship that is then used to determine unknown resistances.

No abstract available.

The nanotechnology field is currently undergoing an exciting period of discoveries. It is necessary to bring nanotechnology to physics students. However, there is a lack of nanotechnology experiments developed for the undergraduate labs. By coupling high peak power laser pulses to a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, supercontinuum generation and characterization are incorporated into nanotechnology education in undergraduate physics labs. Because of the fast advance and truly interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology, the supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber experiment gives physics undergraduate students an opportunity to work with high power lasers, to gain hands-on experience with state-of-art test and measurement equipment, and to access research projects in fiber optics, laser applications and nanotechnology.

Virtual Researcher On Call (VROC) is an educational initiative of Partners In Research and was created as an opportunity to connect current research and researchers with high school students in grades 9 to 12 throughout Canada. The concept was to use a web-based interface to optimize time requirements for this connection through the use of videoconferencing technology. In addition, this program was thought to match the opportunity for researchers to explain and showcase their work, interact with students who may potentially become the next generation of researchers and to increase the knowledge of the general public about the advances being made by Canadian Researchers and the benefits to the Canadian Society, and by extension to the world at large.

The presenters will describe a number of laboratory activities developed in collaboration with the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Delaware as part of their outreach program to help make math and science more authentic on the pre-college level. Lessons relating to electrical topics are often abstract and appropriate only for advanced students in math and science. We have devised lessons that rely on simple equipment. They promote skills that are included in National and State Standards. They emphasize the connections between math and science; they are appropriate for an algebra course, a physical science course, a PhysicsFirst course or a traditional physics course. Students benefit from seeing that what they learn in math and science courses can lead to cutting-edge work in areas such as passive wave imaging, photonics, wireless communication and high performance computing. The collaboration has been meaningful because it has motivated us to tailor our lessons to reflect what is happening in the research lab of our local university. Written materials for use in teacher training workshops will also be available.

This presentation will describe the issues associated with a design-based course in optical engineering. The original purpose of this course was to provide senior undergraduate and graduate students with a good foundation in free-space optics, including topics such as geometric aberrations, Gaussian beam theory, diffractive optics, interference filters and polarization. However in order to make the material more immediate and to help the students to integrate their knowledge, a design project component was introduced into the course several years ago. Over the succeeding years, the project component has become a more and more significant part of the course, so that it now forms the central component. Typical enrollment is 15-25 students. The class is typically 75% graduate students, with the remainder being senior undergraduates. 30% have previously taken an undergraduate optics class and around 30% are typically doing graduate/undergraduate research in photonics. A course in electromagnetic waves is a pre-requisite but for many of the students this is their first real ‘optics’ course. Therefore it is a significant challenge to present sufficient material that the students can do real work in their design projects without over-burdening them with new concepts. Most of the students (90%) attend McGill, with the remainder attending UQAM, Ecole Polytechnique or Concordia.

In schools, scientific education with an optical microscope is popularly used. However, scanning apparatus for the microscope is very expensive such that the price is several times higher than the microscope itself. In order to activate children’s interest in science, a low-price scanning and imaging function unit compatible to conventional optical microscopes used in schools was designed and manufactured using a personal computer (PC) used in all elementally and middle school education. The designing of imaging apparatus includes two choices: (i) using imaging device (reflection-type), or (ii) using photo-sensor and scanning device (transmission-type). In this paper, the latter method is adopted, considering the educational effect using “Lambert-Beer’s law”. This apparatus measures optical transmittance of modulated visible light with a photo-detector, and uses audio-input unit of PC as an A/D converter. Scanning unit with a pair of pulse motor drives was also used. Control software was built on Knoppix (an operating system based on freeware Linux), however it is very easy to rewrite to Windows application. By these reasons, this apparatus is low-price (less than microscope price) so that it is one of the best candidates for science education application in schools. As a biological specimen, a wing of spider wasp (Pompilidae) was used. Measured region was 10mm×10mm and the resolution was 100×100 pixels. The photograph of original specimen and the obtained image were shown in Figures (a) and (b), respectively. The obtained image showed a well-resolved detailed structure of the wing. Scanning was done by an external scanning apparatus. However, feeding of scanning pulses through printer port to stepping motor will be available based on the same method.

An educational experience in numerical modeling for physics majors at Virginia Military Institute has been created as part of the undergraduate research learning paradigm. As part of the independent project course required of all physics majors at VMI, those joining the thin films research group are taught the various stages of numerical modeling applied to complex problems (such as optical limiting) as a precursor to experimental work. Students are introduced to a realistic method of research involving open-ended experiments by this exercise. By teaching students how to design, create, and test a complex numerical model, they gain insight into how an experiment is set up and executed as well as what results can be anticipated. We present an exercise in which undergraduate students use MATHCAD in their modeling and calculations.

No abstract available.

In accordance with its mission, the Student Chapter of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in École Polytechnique de Montréal organises numerous outreach activities to trigger the interest of students with 6-17 year of age in optics. In the last two years, these workshops have attracted over 450 students.

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) is one of 23 campuses comprising the California State University, the nation's largest four-year comprehensive public undergraduate university system. Cal Poly has a photonics program, photonics student club, and photonics laboratory within the Electrical Engineering Department that dates back to 1985. This laboratory is dual-use for both teaching and as a photonics center of excellence for the newly established Project-Based Learning Institute (PBLI) (http://pbl.calpoly.edu/). Our photonic education program at Cal Poly emphasizes four main educational tools. A. Lecture Classes. B. Photonics Laboratory Classes C. Student Photonics Club, and D. PBLI Design Projects. In this paper, we will describe the above four aspects with emphasizing on our new initiatives for part B and D.

The aim of the present paper is to describe incorporation of basic industrial research results into current University study programs in Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering. The Laboratory of Optics and Fluids (LOF) of University Simon Bolivar (USB) leads a research program on applications of Photonics technology in the Petroleum Industry. More precisely, the main research subject at the (LOF) is development of optical procedures allowing determination of conditions of stability of oil-in-water emulsions. In several countries (for example, Canada and Venezuela) there exist important reservoirs of heavy crude oils, whose high viscosity impede their transportation through pipelines. Therefore, emulsions of heavy oils in water were developed in order to allow their commercialization. Though those emulsions are stable in current environmental conditions, high temperature or velocity gradients frequently provoke their coalescence. In typical experiments conducted at the (LOF) temperature gradients are induced in oil-water emulsions and in crude oil samples by irradiation with a CW laser beam. In crude oil samples the strong dependence of the liquid surface tension and refractive index on the local liquid temperature gives rise to long-range deformation of the liquid free surface. The latter cited thus behaves as an interferometrically smooth liquid mirror, which gives rise in turn to phase and intensity variations in the reflected light beam. In emulsion samples the inhomogeneous heating gives rise to thermoconvective flow, which is clearly observed as a moving speckle pattern in the reflected light beam. These are typical phenomena of self-interaction of a laser beam incident upon a material medium. In the present paper we discuss these optical phenomena, first studied in a basic research context, from an educational viewpoint.