CCCC laser-photonics – the future is now
April 18, 2008

LILLINGTON – Lasers are “one of the greatest inventions of all times,” according to Gary Beasley, lead instructor for Central Carolina Community College's Laser and Photonics Technology program.

The word “laser,” coined in the 1950s, stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Lasers use the principles of photonics, the science of controlling light energy, to create a highly directional, coherent, monochromatic, intense light source. Because of their unique characteristics, lasers are the workhorses for the highly specialized uses of light in modern medicine, telecommunications, construction, defense, and a host of other areas.

“If someone waved a wand and eliminated lasers, it would be like going back to the dark ages,” Beasley said. “Everyone uses lasers every day without being aware of it. Without them, we wouldn't have such things as high-speed Internet and cell phones. Every industry is expanding and changing ways they do things because of lasers: medicine, telecommunications, construction, surveying, security, etc. Our military weapons, submarines and airplanes depend on them.”

Community colleges train the technicians that work in this field, but there are only about 15 laser-photonics technician-training programs at community colleges in the United States. CCCC is one of about 10 that offer training on high-powered lasers. All the programs turn out a total of about 200 graduates a year. According to Dan Hull, director of the National Center for Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC), each year an additional 1,800 laser-photonics technicians are needed in the United States.

“We've got a long way to go to train the number of technicians we need,” Hull said. “If we don't train them, our companies won't have the talent they need to be globally competitive. We could lose the economic battle.”

Hull added American workers deserve the good jobs in the laser-photonics field.

“We need five technicians for every engineer in the field,” he said. “These are good jobs with good pay and our people deserve them. I don't want to see these jobs go overseas.”

The need is so critical that OP-TEC, a consortium of two-year colleges, high schools, universities, national laboratories, industry partners, and professional societies, is working to have secondary schools prepare students with the skills to enter post-secondary education in optics, photonics, and lasers. It is also working to empower community and technical colleges to develop and implement these programs. OP-TEC is funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program.

To help accomplish these goals, OP-TEC is presenting three days of workshops, sponsored by Central Carolina C.C., at the college's Harnett County Campus in Lillington.

The Workshop on Optics & Lasers for Secondary Education on April 23 is designed for secondary school career technical education/tech prep directors, counselors, and science and math coordinators. It will inform participants about lasers and photonics, the growing need for technicians, and how the high schools can prepare their students for post-secondary programs.

The Workshop on Optics and Photonics Education on April 24-25 is designed for community and technical college faculty and administration. It will inform them of the career opportunities for their students and encourage them to start optics, laser and photonics education programs to help meet the urgent need for technicians.

To register for the workshops, go online to www/op-tech.org, or call (254) 741-8338, ext. 394. More information on, and registration for, the workshops is also available at Central Carolina's home page, www.cccc.edu.

Back in the mid-1980s, Dr. Marvin Joyner, then-president of the college, saw the potential of the industrial application of lasers and photonics. He asked then-electronics instructor Steve Lympany to develop a laser curriculum. The first students enrolled in 1987.

Lympany is now chairman of Engineering Technologies, which includes laser-photonics, and the college's program is still the only one of its kind in North Carolina. It is also one of the most highly regarded and successful Laser and Photonics Technology associate degree programs in the nation, according to OP-TEC.

“Central Carolina Community College has an excellent program,” Hull said. “Its graduates are getting jobs all over the country. It has pilot-tested materials for us. At one time, Beasley said that 60 percent of its students were dropping out in the first semester because of low math skills. We developed a math study supplement he uses and the percent lost has gone down to nearly zero. We're showcasing that result around the country.”

Most of Central Carolina's laser-photonics students have jobs lined up before they graduate, at starting salaries ranging from $34,000-$50,000. The Laser Defense Manufacturing Division of Northrop Grumman Corp. visits the college annually to recruit laser-photonics technicians. Northrop-Grumman is the world's largest producer of lasers and third-largest defense contractor,\

“The company comes because of the quality of the students,” said Renee Uschold, the Division's Human Resources representative.

For more information about the college's Laser-Photonics Technology programs, contact Beasley at (910) 893-9101, ext. 8828, or by email at <gbeasley@cccc.edu>.