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The International Commission for Optics (ICO) Education Committee

The ICO Education Committee has been established to facilitate improved international coordination and collaboration in optics and photonics education and training. An important goal of this Committee is to expand and organize these activities in the future. Since the beginning of 2003, the ICO Education Committee has been active in planning its activities for the future and appointing new members. The Committee for the term 2005-2008 consists of the following people:

Chair: Malgorzata Kujawinska
Members: Sergei Bagayev, Pierre Chavel, Philip Stahl; Ahmadou Wagué; and Maria L. Calvo, ex officio

In recent years, ICO education activities have focused on developing nations, particularly in Africa, Central America and South America. The scope of our activities includes education at all levels, from K-12 to technician and professional levels. We plan to continue and broaden these activities and describe several specific future programs below.

One future role for the ICO Education Committee is to provide information about optics and photonics education programs. ICO does not have the resources to produce an extensive list of education and training programs, but it can serve as a central initial contact and a web site index engine that to points to other lists of programs as well as specific programs at various institutions. As a starting point, both the Optical Society of America (OSA) [1> and the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) [2> have lists of degree programs in optics on their web sites. Another role for this committee is to provide references to standard optics and photonics educational standards and curricula in use at locations world-wide. For example, there are syllabi for technician level programs listed by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) in their STEP II program [3>. The ICO Education committee can survey, cross-reference and provide web links for optics and photonics educational syllabi, curricula, course materials, laboratory experiments and textbooks for various levels. At the technician level, ICO can help to unify, disseminate and standardize the work of CORD and other optics societies in setting skill standards for optics technicians.

Optics kits and other materials for laboratory experiments (particularly at the K-12 level) are available from commercial and professional organizations. While the lab manuals for some of these kits are available in English, Spanish and French, one future role for the ICO Education Committee is to facilitate their translation into other languages. In addition, the ICO can organize and coordinate the free or low cost distribution of these kits in developing nations. A final role for ICO Education is to provide a world wide forum for the discussion and dissemination of optics and photonics educational knowledge. This forum can be implemented via the ICO web site [4>, an email list server, or other electronic means.

The Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP) series of meetings was originated and has been sponsored by ICO for many years. Two ICO Education Committee Members presented a paper at the ETOP meeting held in Tucson, Arizona, USA in October 2003 to discuss future ICO education plans and provide an extensive set of references to many other web sites with additional information [5>. A set of vugraphs that were presented with this paper are available by clicking on the link below.

We invite discussion and comment from the optics and photonics community on near-term and long-term goals and activities of the ICO Education Committee.

References

  1. Optical Society of America (OSA).
  2. International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE).
  3. Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD).
  4. International Commission for Optics (ICO).
  5. A.A. Sawchuk and A.H. Guenther, "The Role of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) in Optics Training and Education," Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP) 2003 Conference Technical Digest, Tucson, AZ, paper EMB1, Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 2003.
  • Download the vugraphs presented in reference [5> above. (ETOP-final.pdf)

Prof. Malgorzata KUJAWINSKA
Warsaw University of Technology,
Mechatronics Department, 8 Chodkiewicza St.,
PL-02-525 Warsaw Poland,
e-mail: M.Kujawinska@mchtr.pw.edu.pl

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