Curriculum development for Optical Engineering at the College of Optical Sciences

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Curriculum development for Optical
Engineeringat the College of Optical Sciences
Professor Jim Burge jburge_at_optics.arizona.edu 520-
621-8182

• Status of growth in our curriculum this year
• A new initiative MS in Optical Engineering
• outline of program development
• request for assistance

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Classes in Optomechanical Engineering offered
2008-2009 (www.optics.arizona.edu/optomech)

• Fall semester
• OPTI 421/521 Introductory Optomechanical
  Engineering
• Mechanical issues with optical systems
• Fundamentals of mechanics for optical engineers
• Concepts for mounting optical components
• OPTI 421L/521L Introductory Optomechanical
  Laboratory
• Hands-on experience with optomechanical concepts
• Experience with tools of the trade
• Spring semester
• OPTI 423/523 Optomechanical Design and Analysis
• Development and analysis of real optomechanical
  designs
• with Modeling, drawings, and finite element
  analysis using SolidWorks
• OPTI 423L/523L Optomechanical Engineering
  Laboratory
• Hands-on experience to learn the limits of tools
  of the trade
• Each student has a hardware project

Please consider donating optomechanical hardware!
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Optomechanical Engineering at the University of
Arizona

• Goal Become recognized as the premier national
  institute in applied optomechanical engineering
• Growth areas
• Expanding the curriculum
• Attracting the nations best and brightest
  students in precision mechanics
• Increasing ties with industry through contract
  work
• Attracting continuing funding NSF, DoD,
• We still need your help!

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Classes in Practical Optics offered 2008-2009

• Fall Semester OPTI696D (Matt Dubin)
• Practical Optical Systems
• Students perform literature search to study some
  optical system
• Then we supply them with a system that they
  disassemble, evaluate, and explain to the class
• Please donate interesting optical systems
  (working or not)
• Spring Semester OPTI696C (Chunyu Zhao)
• Practical Optics in Action
• Weekly seminars or field trips to local
  companies
• Allows students to see first-hand how
  professional engineering skills are applied

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OPTI524 Optical Systems Engineering (Matt Dubin)

• Goals of class
• Provide learning experiences that help students
  learn to apply knowledge of optics to engineering
  problems
• Highly interactive
• Includes many important engineering professional
  skills
• Engineering design as a systematic process
• Balancing cost, performance, risk, schedule
• Introductory program management
• Teach by example using case studies
• We hope to teach this as Distance Learning next
  year

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Master of Science

• We currently offer MS in Optical Sciences
• MS students take a subset of PhD courses.
• We have excellent courses, providing a unique
  opportunity for MS students
• These courses were not designed for a 2-year
  curriculum
• Engineering skills are not emphasized in our
  current program. Most faculty guidance is driven
  by research, not engineering.
• The current MS program is not broken! It
  continues to work for many students.
• We believe that we can broaden the program,
  attracting a wider range of students, and better
  preparing them for work in industry.

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New Initiative Master of Science in Optical
Engineering

• On the drawing board
• 2-year program
• Emphasizes development of skills and capabilities
• Offer all key classes via Distance Learning
• Lab classes offered via DL 1-week workshops
• MS report based on a capstone engineering project
  
• Many open questions and we want your help

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MSOE Proposed Curriculum (DRAFT!)

• Year 1 Fundamentals (for all MS students)
• Geometrical Optics
• Mathematics (Fourier, linear systems, ..)
• Radiometry and imaging
• Optical Modeling (Matlab, Lens design software,
• Physical Optics I II (EM, propagation,
  interferometry, physics of devices)
• hands-on labs that coincide with core topics
• Year 2 Specialization
• Courses Engineering Capstone, coupled with
  Optical Systems Engineering course
• Optical Systems
• Optical Communications
• Optomechanical Engineering
• Optical Testing
• ???

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MSOE issues Need for funding

• Utilize existing classes and resources as
  possible, but we need some new courses and
  laboratory facilities
• To do this right, we need seed funding
• 800k for 3 FTEs lab equipment for first year
• MSOE Core requires 2-3 new courses 1st year
  labs
• Program coordinator, guiding MS capstone projects
• 300k for 2 FTEs lab equipment for second year
• Self-sustaining beyond this
• Assumptions
• First year, ramp up, develop courses, not many
  students
• Second year and beyond 20 local 30 DL students
  per class
• Lab classes and capstone cover costs by fees
• We may be able to bootstrap this with internal
  resources, but we are pursuing outside funding.
• We are pursuing government funding. IA advocacy
  is valuable!

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Issues MSOE capstone projects

• These could come from industry, may be able to
  complement the BS capstone
• Independent projects vs. team projects ???

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MSOE Issues 4 1

• We are investigating a 41 program that would
  enable motivated BS students to take advanced
  courses as undergrads and to get the MSOE in 1
  additional year.
• We see no fundamental roadblock here, but some
  logistical difficulties

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MSOE issues Project experience

• Currently, most students get practical experience
  by joining faculty-sponsored research groups and
  work 20 hours/week.
• These students are expensive, costing us
  gt50k/year!
• This model does not fit well with 2-year MS
  students.
• Students who come with their own funding or who
  are awarded scholarships should be provided
  alternate opportunities
• Semester-long rotations where they join
  engineering groups and act as interns

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MSOE issues Whats in a name?

• We can offer all of this within the existing MS
  Optical Sciences.
• The MSOE as proposed will be much more rigorous
  and should be differentiated.
• We can work with the University and the State to
  offer the degree with a new title, but this may
  take 2 years.

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Issue Curriculum

• We want to cover all of the fundamentals in Year
  1. It is always difficult to choose priorities.
• We hope to provide a path for students to shift
  from MSOE to PhD program without taking redundant
  courses
• We want our areas of specialization to directly
  reflect the needs of industry, not just our own
  interests.

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Proposal MSOE steering committee

• We propose IA involvement in the form of a
  steering committee that will have direct input to
  the MSOE program and curriculum development.
• The steering committee would also advise and
  assist with the pursuit of funding
• Please consider signing up!
• Further discussion at 900 Wednesday