Solar Cell Imaging: A Gateway for Visualization and Learning in STEM Disciplines

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The project is developing, validating, and disseminating a series of educational modules based on a "tool box" of solar cell imaging techniques with the aim of teaching undergraduates the concepts and methods of core and advanced STEM subjects. These topics include optics; infrared physics, image capture, processing, and analysis; thermography; heat transfer; semiconductor devices and technology; metallography and materials science; statistics and signal processing. By using a battery of imaging techniques to study diverse physical effects in similar-type samples, students are gaining an appreciation of how seemingly unrelated phenomena are connected, and how different measurement techniques can be used to corroborate, complement, or supplement the limitations of other techniques. Data on student learning outcomes are being collected and analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the modules. The project is elevating imaging, both optical and thermal, to a more prominent place in undergraduate education, and is facilitating students' learning core STEM subjects by providing visualization of optical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal effects in semiconductor energy conversion. This works exploits and leverages the advent of low-cost but powerful imaging technology to teach core concepts in science and engineering. This innovative project is preparing students for the ever-expanding, and increasingly important, applications of imaging in quality control, process automation, biomedical fields such as diagnostics imaging, materials science, electronics manufacturing, homeland security, biorecognition, infrastructure inspection, remote sensing, gas detection, and energy efficiency.