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Published: Sept. 12, 2008, 9:53 p.m.

The OP-TEC Advanced Technological Education Center was launched in August 2006 with funding from the National Science Foundation.\nUnder the direction of Dan Hull, the Center engages a consortium of\ntwo-year colleges, high schools, universities, national laboratories,\nindustry partners, and professional societies. The participating\nentities have committed to join forces in creating a\nsecondary-to-postsecondary \u201cpipeline\u201d of highly qualified and strongly\nmotivated students and empowering community colleges to meet the urgent\nneed for technicians in optics and photonics.

OP-TEC serves two types of one- and two-year postsecondary programs:

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1. Those devoted to lasers, optics, and photonics technology; and
2. Those devoted to technologies that are enabled by optics and photonics.

\nOP-TEC\nis building support through curriculum, instructional materials,\nassessment, faculty development, recruiting, and support for\ninstitutional reform. OP-TEC will serve as a national clearinghouse for\nteaching materials; encourage more schools and colleges to offer\nprograms, courses, and career information; and help high school\nteachers and community and technical college faculty members develop\nprograms and labs to teach technical content.

The project has four goals:

1. Serve as a national resource center for optics and photonics education and training.
2. Create,\nassemble, align, and distribute coordinated curriculum materials\ndesigned to support optics, laser, and photonics education in high\nschools, two-year colleges, and retraining of adult workers.
3. Support\nestablished and new photonics education programs in high schools,\ncommunity and technical colleges, universities, and professional\nsocieties.
4. Provide education and training for\nadministrators, counselors, high school teachers, and community college\nfaculty members to prepare them to:

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• design new photonics technology programs that meet their local needs;
• infuse photonics into programs in photonics-enabled technologies; and
• teach optics, photonics, and lasers using curriculum materials distributed by OP-TEC.
  

\nOP-TEC\nis establishing a national infrastructure for developing and supporting\nwidely disseminated educational programs in cutting-edge, high-demand\ntechnologies that require photonics. That infrastructure encompasses\nboth the secondary and postsecondary levels and will involve\ncollaboration between educators and industry personnel.

Dan and\nhis team are doing excellent work. In July I had the chance to\ninterview him (on his birthday!) at the SAME-TEC 2008 Conference in\nAustin, TX.

You can get more information on the OP-TEC National Center located in Waco, TX here.