Dear Advisors,
Please share the following course information withyour incoming students looking for a new course (ECE 198, “In a New Light: Hands-on Optics”) to takethis fall. We are opening this Campus Honors Program section to freshman. They will need to register through CHP and we will assist with that process. Interested students can contact CHP for details (chp@illinois.edu). Students need to complete our on-line course request form (http://honors.illinois.edu/docs/courserequest.pdf) and return it to either by email at chp@illinois.edu or deliver a hard copy to CHP at 1205 W Oregon. CHP staff will handle the instructor’s approvalportion of our form and assist students with enrollment into our section.
In a New Light: Hands-on Optics
ECE 198 DL1
Credits: 3 hours
In a New Light is designed to introduce non-science majors to major concepts in optical engineering in a hands-on, lab-centered manner. The labs will focus on major fields of optical engineering, such as optical communication, nanotechnology, imaging, lighting, and lasers, and will be buttressed by 2 hours of supplementary lecture each week. Students will be introduced to major technical aspects of optical engineering, as well as the public policy, environmental, medical and health, and defense and security implications of this technology. Ultimately, the course is designed to use optics as a vehicle for exposing non-science majors to the scientific method and the impact of technology across a wide range of both technical and non-technical fields. Students will also learn about UIUC’s storied history in optics and optical engineering, as well as current state-of-the-art research at UIUC, via a series of lab tours and guest lecturers from UIUC faculty.
Bio Sketch: Professor Wasserman developed the original version of the course described above as a Princeton University Council on Science and Technology Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow. The course is still active at Princeton, and has increased to serve >80 students per semester. Upon leaving Princeton, Professor Wasserman took a position as an Assistant Professor in the Physics and Applied Physics department of the University of Massachusetts Lowell. There Professor Wasserman undertook the revamping of the Introductory University Physics course at UMass Lowell, a course with an enrollment of approximately 300 students per semester, serving all first year science and engineering student on campus. Professor Wasserman’s lectures used clips from popular (and some unpopular) films to illustrate fundamental concepts in each lesson plan. The intro to this course can be viewed on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s0VObPUPC8. For his efforts, and the student response to this approach, Professor Wasserman was awarded the Department’s “Excellence in Teaching” award in 2010. Professor Wasserman arrived at UIUC in 2011, and has taught ECE 329: Fields and Waves and ECE 340: Solid State Devices in the ECE Department, in addition to developing the current proposed course. Professor Wasserman is also an active undergraduate mentor, and currently is advising 6 UIUC undergraduates on Senior Thesis or Independent Research Projects.