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Experiments in Optics and Photonics Engineering Education at Penn State

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Conference

ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023

Location

State College,, Pennsylvania

Publication Date

March 30, 2023

Start Date

March 30, 2023

End Date

April 12, 2023

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--45079

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/45079

Download Count

63

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Paper Authors

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Andrew ONeill Pennsylvania State University Electrical Engineering Department Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-9476-6300

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Laurel (aka Andrew) is a graduate student in electrical engineering with a dual focus on engineering education and environmental sensing. Laurel is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Past research has included detection of fertilizers in water using deep UV Raman spectroscopy, and measurement of the temperature of the water column using variations in the Raman spectrum

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Tim Kane Pennsylvania State University

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TMOTHY J. KANE, Ph.D is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State. His educational research interests include enhancing engineering education, collaborative learning, and increasing student involvement.

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Abstract

During the fall semester of 2022 an experimental first-year seminar on applied optics was taught for the first time at The Pennsylvania State University. The ongoing goals of the course are to recruit students to electrical engineering and to retain them while steering students towards a specialization in optics and photonics. This was attempted through hands-on experiments demonstrating basic concepts in optics, and tours of laboratories on campus that demonstrate the wide range of applications of electrical and optical engineering. Experiments included aligning fiber optics, building telescopes, building pinhole cameras, experiments with fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission spectroscopy, and demonstrations of polarization. The following semester a senior level experiment based course on applied spectroscopy was offered as well. While the audience for the two courses differ, the goals are much the same to recruit and retain students in optics and photonics. The effectiveness of course presentation in each case is evaluated based on student response and feedback. The two courses’ materials will be compared and improvements will be discussed.

ONeill, A., & Kane, T. (2023, March), Experiments in Optics and Photonics Engineering Education at Penn State Paper presented at ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023, State College,, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--45079

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