Birth And Evolution Of New Optics Degree Programs

BIRTH AND EVOLUTION OF NEW OPTICS DEGREE PROGRAMSBrij M. KhoranaCenter for Applied Optics Studies, and Department of Physics & Applied OpticsRose -Hulman Institute of TechnologyTerre Haute, Indiana 478031. INTRODUCTIONThis paper addresses the birth and evolution of new optics degree programs by using thedevelopment of optics undergraduate and M.S. degree programs at Rose -Hulman Institute ofTechnology (RHIT) as an example. It points out some unique steps that were taken in making thisprogram successful.2. BACKGROUND ABOUT RHIT's OPTICS PROGRAMSRose -Hulman Institute of Technology is a private engineering and science college. Currently1300 students are enrolled at RHIT, of which about 1250 are undergraduates and 50 are pursuingmasters degrees. Among the undergraduate students, about 1 in 10 are national merit scholars. For morethan 100 years, RHIT's mission has been to provide industrially- oriented education and research foryoung men. RHIT offers only B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering and sciences.The planning for RHIT's optics program was initiated in 1981, with the short -term goal: establishan Area Minor in Applied Optics at the undergraduate level; and the long -term goal: establish an M.S.(Applied Optics) degree program at the graduate level. The undergraduate program, the Area Minor inApplied Optics, was started in 1983. In 1985, the Indiana Corporation for Science and Technology(ICST) approved a proposal to provide partial support for establishing the Center for Applied OpticsStudies (CAOS) at RHIT. This paved the way for the M.S. (Applied Optics) degree program which wasstarted in the same year. During the period 1985 -1988, six Visiting Lilly Fellows servedas consultants.Partly because of their recommendations as well as our own evaluation, B.S. (Applied Optics) degreeprogram was also initiated in 1987. As of August 1988, 25 sophomores and 6 juniors were enrolled in theB.S. (Applied Optics) degree program, and 12 graduate students were enrolled in the M.S. (AppliedOptics) degree program. In addition, about 20 students, whose major was not Applied Optics, werepursuing the Area Minor in Applied Optics.3. THE VISITING LILLY FELLOW PROGRAMWe feel that the Visiting Lilly Fellow program played the single- most -important part in thedevelopment of our optics programs. This program provided support for two Fellows per year over athree -year period. Some of the Fellows represented academia, others represented industry. Each one ofthese Fellows spent about two days on our campus. Before their campus visit, they were provided withextensive information about our optics programs as well as about RHIT. During their campus visit, theymet with Applied Optics faculty /students and others, and had detailed discussions regarding our plansfor the future. After their visit they critiqued our programs through a written report. We used this inputto make changes and improvements in our programs.4. DEVELOPMENT OF OPTICS PROGRAMSIn developing our optics program we researched optics curricula and courses at other collegesand universities. Based on these findings, we developed our own detailed outlines for each one ofRHIT's optics courses. Resource materials for each of our optics courses were also identified. A masterlist of experiments for various optics lab courses was prepared. In preparing this master list,considerations such as coordination, overlap and sequence of experiments in different lab courses played