1.

INTRODUCTION

Short educational programs (SEP) are an excellent opportunity to deep knowledge in the professional area as well as advance communicative skills. Positive effort from the education in an international medium is shown in many publications, e.g. [1]. These programs are oriented on best practices of leading world universities and provide considerable learning outcomes by means of high quality of the education. Besides, SEPs sharpen each participant’s ability to succeed in a rapidly changing world [2].

The reasons students seek SEP are numerous, and grow constantly [3]. Examples of students’ motivation to enter a SEP are in its practical convenience: allowance to keep tightly scheduled degree plans and job responsibilities; lack of willing to study abroad for a long time.

In most cases SEP are devoted to broadening cross-cultural and communicative links between countries, universities and students. Meantime, rare professional SEPs in R&D exist as well. The latter are more complex due to necessity to adopt each time the content and educational technologies to a certain students’ group.

As pointed in [3] within higher education, the definition of SEPs is variable. They could be year-long, semester, two-month module and less. The most effective SEPs last a month and could involve lectures, discussions, readings, interactive problem-solving, or laboratory works.

Short-term programs at ITMO University offer an opportunity to dive right into area of interest or related area and connect with an international group of peers, adding some serious rocket fuel to education, research and career opportunities [4].

In this paper four-weeks SEPs in Optical Design & Engineering are described including Introduction into optical engineering, Introduction into applied and computer optics, Optical system design, Image modeling and processing, Design of optical devices and components.

2.

OVERVIEW OF THE SHORT EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMS

The proposed SEPs are purposed firstly for international students. In this relation effective learning time distribution is one of the main issues. Here, on the one hand SEP has to provide a considerable load of practical studies, on the other hand the contact studies have to be squeezed due to lodging and financial circumstances. Such a way SEPs consist of two parts – online training (2-3 weeks) and contact studies at ITMO University (1-2 weeks). The online training module is devoted to theory studies and knowledge assessment, while the contact studies module is directed on practical tasks and projects.

SEPs are realized at Department of Applied and Computer Optics [5], ITMO University in collaboration with Students’ research laboratory for optical engineering [6]. Several different summer camps provide material for the students with different background and different individual learning paths.

Introduction into optical engineering

This SEP includes lectures and labs devoted to basics of optical engineering. Key modules:

List of projects:

Introduction into applied and computer optics

This SEP includes lectures and labs on basics of applied and computer optics, it discusses the role of optical design software on each stage of optical engineering including the stage of choosing the principal scheme up to the image processing. Key modules:

List of projects:

Optical system design

This SEP incorporates a list of 13 topics for optical system design. It includes some basic theory and practical skills of using special optical design software, and also an experience that can be applied for developing a wide range of optical instruments and devices. Key modules:

List of projects:

Optical image modeling and processing

This SEP includes lectures and labs devoted to optical imaging theory and basic principles of image processing. Projects include optical image modeling and optical image processing in C++ programming language.

Key modules:

Design of Optical Devices and Components

This summer camp includes lectures and labs devoted principles of design of optical devices. Basic working methods of the development of optical instruments in the modern production are considered. The focus is on the design and development of device units. The effective work in CAD systems is also considered. Key modules:

3.

BASIC MODULES FOR THE SHORT EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Presented SEPs embrace various spheres of optical engineering. As can be seen from the short description, a SEP can be easily adopted for different educational background and desirable specializations. On the figure 1 the basic modules are shown which can be composed to the desired course.

Figure 1

Modules and programs

The module Applied Optics can be varied: it usually includes some information regarding standard optical elements and their typical application in optical devices. For the most students it is a theoretical module they know at least partly, in basics or can easily find in text-books which are available in every language. That is why this part of the course is most often is in on-line part of the SEP.

Optical system design module includes both basics of optical system design and more specified parts intended for those who would like to specialize in that area. Therefore, the basics of optical system design are often included into introductory courses: students have to know not only the first-order properties of different optical elements but they also have to know aberration properties and have the basic ideas about why optical systems for given optical devices, units and instruments have some special structure and features.

Optical Elements Mounting is a very useful module, it helps to understand rules and principles of optical mounting and mechanical design. Usually when becoming familiar with this area students have the possibility to deal with the elements of real (physical) parts of optical instruments and / or have to design their own simple mechanical design. This course also helps an optical designer to understand correlation between the optical details and the tolerancing, and mechanical design.

Opto-mechanical Design module includes both brief overview of element mounting and optical systems mounting using various methods.

Optical Image Modeling module deals mostly with mathematical description of optical phenomena and elements modeling, it also helps to understand deeply how the optical design software works and provides the basic knowledge for those who would like to develop optical software for various purposes.

Image Processing module deals with principles of image registration, coding, filtering and other transformation.

On the figure 1 only several possible courses with the included modules are shown, but this module structure can help compose new courses and programs, which can be easily adopted to the students. Moreover, this module structure may be a basis for graduate educational program development.

4.

FORMS OF THE SHORT EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Depending of the desired time to spend in St. Petersburg a SEP can include only 1 week of on-site training, the rest time are on-line studying and time for the certain project. This variant includes very intensive on-site training with nearly all necessary material for working on project. During the on-site training students are also offered some topics for projects they have to prepare. The assigned supervisor gives the initial task and describes steps to prepare the project. A supervisor also answers the questions via e-mail or Skype and gives the recommendation regarding the final report. Usually the report contains the initial data, description of stages for implementation of the project and comments on the results and conclusion. This form of SEPs suits well for PhD students and also for advanced students (master students), because it requires high-level of motivation and much self-work.

For most cases SEPs includes 2 weeks for on-line training. The on-line part includes 2 modules for two weeks, theoretical (informational) case can be used as many times as needed, the evaluation (assessment) part includes tests with both theoretical questions and practical tasks and only 3 trials to pass it. After the successful passing this part students come to on-site training. During two on-site weeks they have both lectures with theoretical material and practical classes, usually on computers with special software for optical system modeling, mechanical design, etc. Also during these weeks they have some time to prepare the projects. On the last day of the on-site training they have to present they project. During the presentation they answer the questions of the teacher, lecturer and other students and get recommendations and comments. Figure 2 shows students during the classes; figure 3 presents fragments of students’ projects.

Figure 2.

Students during the classes

Figure 3

Fragments of the presentation prepared by students

5.

CONCLUSION

Short educational programs are the useful form of organizing the classes for studying the topics and areas that are the best and know-how of the university. ITMO University offers several courses that include some basic modules on Applied optics, Optical systems design, Opto-mechanical Design, Image modeling and processing. These modules can be easily adopted and completed to desired specialization. Usually these courses take place in summer while international students have an ability to move. Such a way, students can have a good practice in neighboring academic field and a good chance to become familiar with Russian culture, St. Petersburg, and ITMO University – the center of optical education and science of Russian Federation. Therefore SEPs can be interesting for students from various universities which deal with optical engineering, design, development and application of various optical devices and instruments.