Workshop: Inaugural Optics and Photonics Winter School and Workshop, College of Optical Sciences, Tucson AZ, January 5-20, 2016

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Optics and Photonics Winter School and Workshop at the College of Optical Sciences January 5-10, 2016Optics & photonics are important areas in which there is a growing national need for work-force development. A challenge is that many undergraduate schools are focused on traditional science and engineering curricula, to the extent that their students may not be fully aware of the opportunities for pursuing a career in optics & photonics. This grant will provide partial support for an inaugural Optics and Photonics Winter School and Workshop to be held at the College of Optical Sciences in Tucson, AZ from January 5-10, 2016. The winter school and workshop will be aimed at promoting, supporting, and strengthening optics & photonics education and research in the United States by engaging students and faculty at the undergraduate level. The inaugural Optics and Photonics Winter School and Workshop will be publically advertised. Participation will be by invitation only, but application is open to all interested parties. We plan to actively recruit approximately 10 faculty and 20 student participants for whom we can reimburse airfare, meals and lodging. Undergraduate participants will be recruited in part through nominations from invited faculty, but all undergraduate applicants will be considered for invitation and financial support, subject to the availability of funds. To cover these expenses we request partial support from the NSF in the amount of $15k. The expected impact of Optics and Photonics Winter School and Workshop falls in several areas. First and foremost, the event will promote and enhance optics and photonics education at the undergraduate level, thus encouraging more students to pursue a career in this area and making transparent the advantages of a graduate level education in an optics program. Secondly, the workshop provides PUI faculty and students with the opportunity to network with colleagues at similar undergraduate institutes, and with attendees from larger graduate schools and from the photonics industry. For faculty from primarily undergraduate institutes in particular, the cross-fertilization of optics pedagogy and approaches to successful research projects in the undergraduate environment will be extremely useful, especially for those who have fewer opportunities to network with the broader optical sciences community. As a result, PUI faculty and students will become more effective ambassadors for the field of optics in general, and better positioned to encourage the pursuit of graduate level optics & photonics education. This ultimately results in a stronger and more highly skilled workforce in optics and photonics to address the technological and scientific needs of our society.The goal of hosting the Optics and Photonics Winter School will be to give undergraduate students an overview of key and foundational areas of optics and photonics, and how they are intimately related to specific fields of research, in hopes of encouraging more undergraduate students to pursue a career in those fields. The workshop is aimed at faculty members from primarily undergraduate institutes as well as undergraduates attending the Winter School. The workshop will provide a forum for undergraduate students and faculty members to share and/or learn of research and educational activities in optical sciences taking place at undergraduate institutions.