Optical Instrument Design Courses - Sept. 2007
A series of three courses for Optical Instrument Design was started in 2007 by the Irvine Center for Applied Competitive Technologies. The center is partnered with the Advanced Technology & Education Park, an emerging campus of the South Orange County Community College District, and the Optical Society of Southern California, the local section of the Optical Society of America.
Lens Design, Optical System Design and Opto-Mechanical System Design are three sequential courses that offer hands-on training in the design of optical instruments. CACT's series of courses is unique because it provides practical education and design experience for students in the optics industry as well as students with different technical backgrounds.
It is rare to find a person skilled in both optical and optomechanical engineering, a growing demand of the industry, especially for small companies and start-ups in optics and photonics. The courses use state-of-the-art optical and mechanical design tools like Zemax and 3D SolidWorks.
The first course is an introductory hands-on lens design course which provides manual design, design code, and design philosophy. The second course covers advanced optical systems design and analysis. The third course covers opto-mechanical systems design and integrates the optics with mechanical systems. From this course series, students learn that optical instruments are the result of successful integration of optical and mechanical designs derived from given specifications.
These courses and the other optics and photonics courses at the Irvine CACT have been developed and implemented to fill the growing needs of local optics companies and companies using optics. The hands-on design series was presented to technology educators by CACT instructors Valentina Doushkina and Donn Silberman at the SPIE annual conference "Optics+Photonics" on August 28, 2007 in San Diego, CA.
NSF Designates Irvine CACT a Center of Excellence - Sept. 2006
The National Science Foundation has designated the Irvine Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (Irvine CACT) as one of twelve chosen for the National Center for Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC), a National Science Foundation Center of Excellence. The center is partnered with the Advanced Technology & Education Park (ATEP), an emerging campus of the South Orange County Community College District.
The prestigious designation was awarded to twelve centers across the U.S. that have committed to increasing the pool of well-trained technicians in optics and photonics by creating a secondary-topostsecondary "pipeline" of highly qualified and strongly motivated students. The twelve centers will receive grant funding for four years from the National Science Foundation to create one and two-year postsecondary programs devoted specifically to lasers, optics, and photonics technology as well as high demand technologies that are enabled by optics and photonics, such as biomedicine, manufacturing, information technology, and engineering.
Dr. Larry DeShazer, CACT's program director, has been working with the National Science Foundation for several years to earn the distinction. "It is an honor to be designated as a National Photonics Center by the National Science Foundation. To be named a Center of Excellence confirms the advances we have made in the optics technician training program at the Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) in Irvine, California."
CACT operates under a grant from the Economic & Workforce Development Division of the California Community Colleges office in partnership with the Advanced Technology & Education Park (ATEP) and receives leading edge equipment and support from many industry leaders such as Newport Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Zygo Corporation, Schott Glass, OptoSigma and IBM San Jose.
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