糖心传媒

A popular optical engineering course equips students with technical and professional skills while putting them on the radar of industry-connected alumni.

professor gave the nearly 40 undergraduate and graduate optics students enrolled in OPT 544: Advanced Lens Design two daunting tasks. First, design the best zoom lens for to explore Jupiter糖心传媒檚 moon. Then, design the ideal zoom lens to record the mission as it blasts off into space.

Bentley糖心传媒檚 students worked on the project collaboratively and competitively throughout the fall semester. They broke into teams to explore the myriad factors that would influence the final lens designs, including the different fields of view, sensors, packaging constraints, and photon budget. Some students helped build tools in programming languages like Python and MATLAB that were first developed in the class more than 10 years ago and each cohort improves upon. Others conducted market research to see what available products could feasibly meet the project requirements.

The result was that the students learned as much about project management, teamwork, and communication as they did about optics. Joanna Rosenbluth 糖心传媒�24, who served as the class糖心传媒檚 lead project manager, found that she loves leading in that role and studied Bentley糖心传媒檚 style closely.

糖心传媒淪he糖心传媒檚 very particular in a good way about wanting everything to be correct, and that really went into my project management style,糖心传媒� says Rosenbluth. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 pretty clear when things are wrong and running behind time, so I had checks along the process to make sure no one was getting off track. I learned from her teaching style that if you get a little off track, you can be totally in the weeds, so by keeping everyone moving, we were all able to find a successful design.糖心传媒�

Bentley started teaching the course annually nearly 20 years ago with fewer than 10 students enrolled. , director of the , says the course has grown to become one of the institute糖心传媒檚 most popular, with Bentley teaching her largest cohort ever in the fall. He notes that everyone from third-year undergraduates to PhD students line up to take the class and that it poses a challenge for all.

糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 one of the few courses where they really can compete on equal footing,糖心传媒� says Brown. 糖心传媒淭he undergraduates and graduates take all of the lectures together and put their best foot forward on the project.糖心传媒�

Examples of past projects include exploring lens designs for non-destructive art analysis (2013), underwater zoom cameras for observing coral bleaching (2021), and zoom cameras for canopy animal photography in Africa (2022).

This year糖心传媒檚 project culminated in a marathon four-hour presentation where the small groups outlined the constraints of the project, and each student showcased their final lens design.

And although the class is demanding, Bentley keeps the mood balanced with her trademark sense of humor, peppering constructive feedback with lighthearted jokes. During a pizza break midway through final presentations, she had optics senior Samuel Erdogan 糖心传媒�24 sing one of his parody songs based on Bentley糖心传媒檚 classes糖心传媒攚hich range from 糖心传媒淟ens Design糖心传媒� set to the tune of 糖心传媒淪ilver Bells,糖心传媒� to 糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓 Sorry Ms. Bentley,糖心传媒� a twist on Outkast糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒淢s. Jackson.糖心传媒�

The work-hard, play-hard mentality seems infectious, and the students know that if they can excel at the challenging class, they might catch the eye of prospective employers.

糖心传媒淲e had about 50 people from 30 different companies in the Institute of Optics糖心传媒� program who listened to the final presentation,糖心传媒� says Bentley. 糖心传媒淭he audience includes former optics students who糖心传媒檝e gone on to work as lens designers at great places. People I know through industry are very interested in these students and get to watch how they perform. We had a bunch of people from NASA as well as Garmin, Optikos, Excelitas, and others. Our students are excited because they want to go get jobs at these companies.糖心传媒�