FRCC hosts mobile photonics lab through Thursday
Apr. 23—A mobile lab visiting Front Range Community College through Thursday is providing visitors with an introduction to photonics with easy-to-understand, real-world applications.
The Thorlabs Mobile Photonics Lab Experience will be at FRCC's Center for Integrated Manufacturing at 1351 S. Sunset St. in Longmont from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday. Visitors, including members of the general public, can experience hands-on demonstrations of different photonics technologies.
Photonics is the study and manipulation of light. Applications range from an eye scan at the optometrist to fiber-optic internet.
Bill Warger, director of photonics education at Thorlabs, said the world is full of photonics technologies.
"You take your phone, for example, and you have your display, you have your camera, you might have face detection, you might have laser radar detection to measure distances, you might be connected to a watch that's measuring your pulse or blood oxygenation," Warger said. "And so we use these photonics technologies every day, but if you say the word photonics, a lot of people don't recognize or know what it is."
Thorlabs is a photonics company and industry partner of FRCC. The company created a mobile lab that travels across the country to high schools, colleges and different events to educate and expose people to photonics technologies.
The goal is to make photonics easy to understand and approachable.
"Basically, it's designed for someone who has no experience or no knowledge of photonics," said Noa Shaw, Thorlabs mobile lab operations specialist. "They can go through the lab and experience what photonics is all about and understand how it applies to daily life."
The lab showcases three technologies: biomedical optics and imaging; spectroscopy; and optical communications. A biomedical device in the lab can show the layers of skin on your finger or the layers of a phone screen when placed under the scope. Other setups demonstrate how light can change the volume on a speaker and how water can manipulate light.
The lab also has career resources, t-shirts and informational flyers.
"It's to show students that the industry wants them and hopefully to excite them about some of the things they can work on," said Amanda Meier, FRCC Optics Technology program director.
FRCC has certificate and degree programs in optics and photonics to help combat the shortage of technicians the industry faces.
"Companies are always coming to me looking for students to hire," Meier said.
She said the average entry salary for a photonics technician is around $50,000, and an experienced photonics technician can make $85,000 or higher.
"We're trying to create excitement about optics and photonics so that students see real-life examples of how the technology is used and then get excited about joining the field," Warger said.
The mobile lab will move to Boulder next week as part of a Thorlabs open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 1 at Hotel Boulderado, 2115 13th St. The open house will include games, discussions, giveaways and food and is open to the public.
