Students Complete First Semester of Optics Technician Training

Optics Technician Training was kicked off in the spring semester by the Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) at Irvine Valley College. It is a “hands on” training course in optical fabrication techniques, with an emphasis on the practical knowledge and skills used in fabricating precision optical components. This sixteen-week program was conducted in CACT’s optics fabrication workshop located in the college’s new Applied Technology Building. The workshop is well-equipped with fabrication machines donated by local manufacturing companies, and is supported by sixteen companies in Orange County.

The first class shaped, ground and polished glass test plates using the shop machinery. The final semester test of the students’ newly acquired skills was fabrication of a 1.5-inch glass cube having 90-degrees corners within 30 arc seconds. “Being able to produce this cube is a standard skill step towards becoming an Optician Apprentice,” said Brian Seaman, the course instructor. Brian Seaman has spent over 40 years in the optical fabrication industry rising from senior master optician, shop manager, manufacturing manager to president/general manager before retiring from J.L. Wood Optical Systems in 2000.

The Irvine CACT director, Dr. Larry DeShazer, is developing a training center with emphasis on photonics education. Photonics is a new discipline that replaces conventional electronics by using light to perform functions that once were the domain of electrons. The photonics industry grew out of the laser and optics industry. “Photonics offers faster, smaller, cheaper technologies to address critical problems in our increasingly impacted global society. Existing electronics technology is reaching its limit,” said Dr. DeShazer. The number of industries using photonics applications has increased, with virtually every major industry now using photonics. Some of the more familiar industries include healthcare, telecommunications, homeland security, military defense, and semiconductor manufacturing, where photonics is utilized from laser surgery to chemical sensors to semiconductor wafer fabrication. Photonics is a field that students can enter with a certificate or an associate degree, and is an excellent way to bring people into engineering and science fields.