LILLINGTON - Second-year students in Central Carolina Community College's Laser and Photonics Technology program recently experienced firsthand learning of photonics applications on a field trip to Charlotte.

The students toured the Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's campus. Scott Williams, Research Operations Manager, who is an advisor to the CCCC LPT program, conducted the tour. Mr. Williams showed the students various research labs, pointing out and discussing some advanced photonics applications.

The students also toured Synoptics, a division of Northrop Grumman. Synoptics is one of the few manufacturers in the world of crystals used in solid-state lasers. Dr. Kevin Stevens, Director of Research & Development at Synoptics, who also is an advisor to the CCCC LPT program, conducted the tour. Dr. Stevens toured the students through all of the processes used to make the special crystals, explaining all of the science and technology used in each process. The students came away from the tour excited to actually see laser crystal rods made that they had studied in classroom lectures and labs.

Students on the tour were Angela Humphries, from Chatham County; Katie Hall, Nishal Patel, Jeremiah Roberts, Joshua Roberts, and Nathanael Turley, all from Harnett County; Thomas Martin, from Moore County, and David Pope, from Wake County. Also on the tour were CCCC Laser and Photonics Technology Lead Instructor Gary Beasley, and Dr. Chrys Panayiotou, from Indian Rivers State College.

During the tours, students were able to observe some of the latest technology in the laser and photonics industry. In addition, students were able to get answers to some very difficult technical questions that arose during the tours -- making for a great learning experience.

Central Carolina Community College has a laser club and student chapter of SPIE (the international society for optics and photonics) in its Photonics curriculum. The field trip was funded through the club, student chapter, and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Laser and Fiber Optics Grant (LASER-TEC), which CCCC participates as a Co-Principal Investigator. The LASER-TEC Grant supports preparing more students for the fast growing fields of lasers and fiber optics technology. Dr. Chrys Panayiotou, from Indian Rivers State College, is the Principal Investigator of LASER-TEC. Photonics is the study of the use of light, such as lasers, for industrial and other purposes.

To learn more about Central Carolina Community College's Laser & Photonics Technology program, contact Beasley at (910) 814-8828 or by email at gbeasley@cccc.edu. To learn more about SPIE, visit spie.org. To learn more about LASER-TEC, visit www.laser-tec.org.