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I have begun my freshman year with an intended major of Optical Engineering. While I have not gotten deep into the field of study yet I have done some research regarding the major and what it revolves around.
- Optical engineering revolves around heavy physics and specifically how to utilize and apply light in different ways. Students in this field learn mainly focusing on creating light devices that can help society in some way. One big focus of optical engineering is the creation of lenses although there is also emphasis on creating lasers, telescopes, microscopes, how to maximize optimization, and crafting countless other light devices.
- Students who pursue a degree in this specific field often go on to further their knowledge on the subject of utilizing light or applying it in some way to help the world. Jobs include, but are not limited to, working for NASA and observatories with expansion of knowledge and telescopes, computer manufacturers, medical supply companies and optical production and manufacturing.
- I realized that I wanted to pursue something regarding to physics during Junior year of high school. Although I struggled a bit in physics as a whole, the optics unit that we spent a few weeks on really interested me and I seemed to excel at it. In addition to enjoying the optics unit in physics my favorite subject has always been math. Upon realizing I liked both of these topics so much I figured it was natural to start going down the path of finding a career having to do with both of them and optical sciences and engineering seemed the most natural and interesting way to go.
- While there aren't many specific people that head the field of optical engineering there are a number of major companies. The Optical Society is the world's largest professional society for the field of optics and the study of light. This society works to further the innovations pertaining to the study of light and helps to apply these ideas to places throat the world. Another big name in Optics is Bio Optics World which is a company that focuses on the manufacturing of technology pertaining to the study of light through articles published in magazines and social media. Additionally, Innovations in Optics is a leading company in the optical field. This company specifically focuses on high brightness LED lights and how to improve upon them to make them even more effective. These are just three of many very important companies within the optical engineering field of study and expansion of knowledge.
- Major Journals on Optical Engineering:
- The International Society for Optics and Photonics
- Articles are submitted online and if accepted published in the SPIE digital library
- Elsevier
- Journals are submitted online and if accepted published online at science direct.com
- Optical Engineering Journal
- Articles are submitted online and if accepted published on the Online optical engineering journal
Reflection:
Reading Stef's blog post about her major made me very inspired to find such passion within myself regarding my own field. It brought to my attention how important it is to be able to relate to the work that I will be dong for the rest of my life and to be able to enjoy this work. I think that I will work on making sure that I enjoy what I am planning on doing before deciding whether or not to pursue a degree in it. I hope that one day I can find such comfort in doing something that I love as much as she does!
I found Zayla's blog post about her major to be very relatable. We both found something during high school that we really enjoyed and hadn't known much about previously. I think it's so interesting how this works and how suddenly you can change from thinking you know what you want to do to realizing you want to do something completely different. Pursuing a degree in economics is very impressive to me because I could never really get into my economics course during high school so I commend her on being so interested in something that is so useful throughout the world and in everyday society.
I find it extremely interesting that although optical engineering is so specific in terms of subject matter, it is still extremely applicable in the real world. Optics is apparent everywhere, from technology for space exploration (as you discussed) to eyeglasses. I find this interesting simply because of the stark contrast between the narrow width of the field and the huge scope of applications that it has. I learned about some of the major companies in the field of optical engineering; I had never heard of any of them before reading this. My only question for you is purely out of curiosity, not based on any of the content that you presented here...What do you want to go on to do someday, after you have your degree in optical engineering? (:
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really interesting! I can definitely relate to struggling sometimes in physics, in math I sometimes struggle. But I love that you're going for it and working towards that goal, we seem to be similar in this aspect.
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