INTERVIEW: SKILLS OUTREACH
also very conscious of the environmental impact of the initiative. Noa did great work to ensure we had solar panels and battery systems that were as efficient as they could be. So, while we continue to think about trailer two and trailer three, one of the key things for us now is how do we create learning experiences such as these that have a smaller environmental impact? Bill Warger: We did discover
that such and such university has a bus, and there is a ‘quantum truck’ in Arizona. So, there are opportunities for us to team up and kind of build out through these other organisations.
The Thorlabs Mobile Lab Experience at the University of South Carolina, complete with mascot Cocky the gamecock
items. So it was a really fun project. But we were on a time crunch to get to that deadline.
Have you had to modify the lab or the programme now you’ve got it out in the field? Noa Shaw: Nothing major yet. We spent a lot of time figuring out which layout would be best – I can’t even tell you how many times we did that! Michael Mohammadi: We
have had six to eight months to build out the entire idea, unpick the logistics and figure everything out. We called last September to Photonics West our experiment phase. After Photonics West 2024, we’re going to spend a few weeks regrouping on the strategy.
Could you talk about Thorlabs’ mission of ‘democratising photonics learning’ in relation to this project? Bill Warger, Director, Photonics Education: We talked to local schools and colleges in the area to work much of this out. More widely, we discovered institutions that have labs with some kit, but some students – especially at undergrad level – aren’t going into those labs and getting that access. It’s not just do they have labs or not, it’s do they have the opportunity?
Has the experience been pitched right, in terms of
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what you are presenting and how? Bill Warger: The pitch in general has stayed pretty consistent. We tried to make the demos interesting for all levels. It’s really the discussion that changes, depending on who we’re talking to. Elementary school kids really engage with the basic concepts. We’ve been lucky in that we picked things that seem to be relatively interesting to the majority and then it’s just changing the way we talk about it. We provide more in-depth, one-hour sessions where students can dive into something and use the parts to learn something. What we do can be unique from location to location. Some places say ‘we don’t really do anything in octane, but we do something else’ so then it becomes a logistics issue with equipment and depending on where precisely the spot is. Garrett Cole, Manager, Thorlabs Crystalline Solutions: I brought my daughter along. She is 11 years old and does not have a strong foundation in photonics, obviously! It still worked well and there were things that caught her attention and that she was very excited about. Noa Shaw: The capacity at
any one time is about 12 to 15, and we try to break everyone up into groups of four for each of the lab stations on the truck.
What reaction have you had from the institutions you’re visiting?
Michael Mohammadi: I would say that – especially early on – there was a lot of excitement. Bill and Noa did a lot of calls last summer with universities, trying to sell the vision, and we didn’t even have a completed trailer yet or any marketing. Even so, there was a lot of excitement and we found some really good partners that way. The community reception’s been phenomenal. We’re even in contact with other companies in our industry. We are totally open-minded about whoever wants to get involved with this. We want the mobile lab to be seen as a service for the photonics community.
Has anything been surprising in the reaction you have had from the students? Bill Warger: Perhaps just the real excitement from people walking out of the lab, saying ‘That’s so cool’.
So, can we expect more mobile labs on the road any time soon?
Michael Mohammadi: Well, the lab is now in California, and has been at Photonics West 2024. We’re going to have to spend the winters in warm weather, so hopefully we can move the lab north again later this year. That does limit us as far as the number of trailers. But we’re
Are there any plans to take the project outside the USA? Michael Mohammadi: I wouldn’t be surprised to see something cool coming out of our team in Europe along similar lines. Watch this space!
It sounds like something other companies could and should be drawing inspiration from Michael Mohammadi: We view photonics as an industry that’s based on ‘co-opetition’. I’m sure you’re familiar with that term, but we use it a lot internally. The photonics industry is still in a strong growth phase, and we accept that for Thorlabs to be successful, the entire community needs to be successful. We need our direct competitors to be successful. That drives our corporate strategy and how we think about our competitors. If students come to our mobile lab through our programme at Sussex County Community College and go to Edmund Optics, great. That’s another person in our industry.
You can see the link here to building a solution to the industry-wide skills shortage. Is that shortage affecting Thorlabs directly? Michael Mohammadi: We don’t quantify it in terms of a number, but our headquarters is in Newton, New Jersey, a rural community, and we operate globally so [upskilling and recruitment] is already an urgent issue for us. EO
March 2024 Electro Optics 15
Thorlabs
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