Optical Engineer Career Guide and Counseling

Question: How to become an optical engineer? I want to work (making/designing lenses at Leica or Zeiss)? I love Leicas and Zeiss so much and I want to work at one of those companies as an optical engineer. What universities/colleges in the US or europe (preferably in Spain coz Im spanish) offer the degree I need? And how many years can I finish the degree coz I don't wanna study for like 10 years like they do in Medicine and I want don't want to graduate in my late 20's. Im still 20 yrs old. Little Pooky, I want to work for Leica or Zeiss because I love photography. I want to make/design lenses. The reason I want to work for Leica or Zeiss is NOT because I love their products. That would be like worshipping them. Little Pooky, I don't want to work in an assembly line. I want to work as an engineer. I want to design lenses. "Designing lenses" is different from attaching lens parts. For example, BMW engineers don't work in the assembly line where parts are welded, attached, painted, etc. Little Pooky, if you are going to be a car engineer, would you choose to work for Mercedes-Benz or Kia? Benz of course. I laughed when you mentioned Tamron and Sigma! They are absolute crap.

Answer: odd, i've always liked lincoln continentals, don't work for them, but i've always liked the car. ofcourse if you really want nice, bentley is good.

Question: what is the salary range for optical engineer in canada?

Answer: look here http://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&q=salary+survey+in+canada&meta=&aq=o&oq=

Question: An optical engineer needs to ensure that the bright fringes from a double-slit are 15.7 mm apart on a detector that is 1.70 m from the slits. If the slits are illuminated with 633 nm light, how far apart should the slits be? a) 74.0 micrometers b) 63.0 micrometers c) 79.5 micrometers d) 68.5 micrometers

Answer: slit spacing = wavelength * distance to screen / distance between fringes Just plug and chug See explanation/derivation on wiki page.

Question: i am thinking of taking an apprenticeship for optical bench engineer.? this job is to service and repair lasers used for surveying on site . iam am just wondering if anyone knows what kind of earning potential there is once qualified

Answer: There's currently one advertised in the south east for 25k but i think the sky's the limit to an extent because the better trained/qualified then you can ask for more money. I think you should be aiming for 30-35k plus.

Question: Optical Engineering with no physics in high school? I'm currently in the IB program, and because of that, I won't be able to put physics into my senior year. I took computer science as my 6th area elective instead of physics, which was a huge mistake on my part. Currently, I have a 3.9 unweighted GPA. I do very well in all of my math classes and am taking Calculus BC senior year. Will I still be able to pursue engineering at university even though I haven't taken any physics yet?

Answer: Your best bet may be to talk to someone in admissions at a school you are interested in and see what they say. My school started us with basic level physics, you didn't need any prior knowledge. It sure didn't hurt to take physics in high school, but I didn't have to take it.

Question: Does the telecommunication and optical communication field aslo get affected by finacial crisis in india as we? what are the prerequsities to become an telecommunication and optical communication engineer.

Answer: For most western companies you need a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering with a focus on the respective areas. The answer is yes, nearly all fields of engineering will be affected by the financial crises. The absolute best thing to always do is to study as hard as you possibly can, and if you get a job, work as hard as you possibly can. Doing this will provide you the best protection against any type of economic crises.

Question: Does the navy have Optical Engineering ? I would like to go to school for optical engineering and I wanted to know if the navy had that as a job ?

Answer: There are many Navy weapon systems that require a high level of optical knowledge to maintain. However, how much optical engineering you will learn at Navy schools I don't know. If you mean to go to school first and then join the Navy I'm sure that an Optical Engineering degree will be very useful. Check with your local recruiting office. Don't listen to the idiots who are down on the services. People who gain a good education through the armed forces are usually sought after by industry. They nearly always get excellent training combined with a good work ethic. In addition, although I don't agree with most of the US foreign policy in recent years I am grateful that there are others who take on the role of defending our country. (I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that you are from the US)

Question: Which colleges in India offer a bachelor's degree in optical engineering?

Answer: Delhi college of engineering , University of Delhi

Question: Electro Optical Engineering??? I am looking into this new exciting field, and was wondering if anyone had any guidelines for topics that I need to know. I am going to be a senior electrical engineering student (bachelor's) and have taken classes in advanced E&M, fiber optic networks, t-line theory, digital signal processing, solid state devices, and will take a quantum properties of optoelectronic materials series senior year. I'm also studying lens design independently due to a suggestion my friend made. I would really like to be an attractive candidate as an entry level electro optical engineer and was wondering if there is anything else I need to study in depth? Any help from someone who knows this field well is greatly appreciated.

Answer: This really depends on what interests you. Electro-optical engineering is no longer a single discipline as it was when I was at college. Are you interested in eo devices, lasers, holography, manufacturing, measurement systems, biological systems, military, commercial, academic, astronomy, communications, lens systems etc. Much depends on where you wish to end up. I would recommend taking a masters degree at one of the better eo universities. Post back with more specifics and I'll try to help more.

Question: Would you believe engineers have created an optical cloaking device to render objects invisible? How would you use such a device and for what purpose? Researchers using nonotechnology created such a device that could render objects invisible by guiding light around anything placed inside this "cloak." SOURCE: At Purdue University by Robert & Ann Burnett, Professors of Electrical & Computer Enginering at the Birch Nanotechnology Center at Ourdue's Discovery Park.

Answer: Yes, isn't that fantastic? It's still under development but it has been deminstrated to work. What next, I wonder? I myself would use it to spy on back room deals between corrupt politicians, for one thing. Imagine being a fly on the wall in a Bush cabinet meeting (or a bin Laden one, for that matter) - you could bust that evil cabal wide open!

Question: Whats the difference between an normal and Optical Zoom? i was asked this question by one of my uncles (who is actually a camera engineer....found that out AFTER i made up some crap about optical zooms in camera) so i was just wondering what it actually is so that next time i can come clean and actually tell him what i know :D

Answer: Optical zoom occurs when the camera manipulates the light by moving the glass within the lens to enlarge the subject. It's "true" zoom, so-to-speak. Digital zoom is when the camera digitally manipulates a image to enlarge the subject. The camera crops the center of the image and enlarges it back to full resolution by process of interpolation. Digital zoom is just another marketing term to push cameras. It's not "real" zoom and should be completely disregarded when considering a camera.

Question: An engineer in a train moving toward the station with a velocity v = 0.54c lights a signal flare as he reaches? An engineer in a train moving toward the station with a velocity v = 0.54c lights a signal flare as he reaches a marker 1 km from the station (according to a scale laid out on the ground). By how much time, on the stationmaster's clock, does the arrival of the optical signal precede the arrival of the train? (For speed of light use 3 108 m/s.)

Answer: Oddly, you don't need any special relativity to do this problem. Since the signal flare was lit at the same place as the train passing the marker, everyone agrees that these were simultaneous (if they were at different places, people wouldn't agree on that fact.) So, we can analyze the whole problem in the stationmaster's frame of reference. He sees a light pulse come in at a speed c, followed by a train coming in at speed 0.54 c. These take times of (1 km)/c and 1km/(0.54 c), respectively. If the signal flare takes a little time dt to light, then this will change the problem completely, because when the stationmaster looks inside the train, everything in the train looks like it's going in slow motion. In which case, the event takes γ dt = 1.188 dt according to the stationmaster's clock. =)

Question: Optical Engineering term...? What are polarization Crosstalks? What des this term mean? i.e. "Polarization crosstalks are lower than -25dB."

Answer: Crosstalk is the ability of a singal in one conductor to distort the signal in an adjacent conductor. The amount of distortion is related to both the amplitude of the signals, the distance between the conductors, and what shileding (if any) is employed on one or both conductors). Your sentence basically says that the chances of interference in conductor number 2 (caused by the signal in conductor number 1) is pretty small ... and the observed signal degradation is below 25 dB amplitude. ... In case you wer ewondering, a smaller dB number corresponds with a larger distortion. At 1 dB, you're basically cancelling out the signal in conductor 2 entirely.

Question: Should I continue with Optical Engineering major? I'm currently a Freshman taking my 2nd semester of courses. My first semester was quite enjoyable and nothing really to complain about. This semester I'm taking Vector Calculus, Solid State Chemistry, Engineering Physics, and another course to fulfill my general studies. Now, the problem comes in because I have never really liked Chemistry, although I can manage to get at least B's in them. I really enjoy Math and usually pull off A's in my courses. Although I thought I would enjoy physics, but it seems completely more complex since high school, which I know it should be. In any case, the complexity and the time consuming problems is making me give it a second though on whether to keep going with engineering. I enjoyed math and that is the main deciding factor that made me choose this field. It seems like the high end calc courses are nowhere near as complex as the physics problems can range from being around 2-4 paragraphs long. It is really frustrating me! :(

Answer: What do you want to do when you graduate? If you like math/engineering, and If you want $$$$ (and happiness via lots of job options), suck it up. If you dislike math, then you won't like most engineering jobs and won't be happy regardless. Pick a different major in this case.

Question: Environmental engineering, applied (optical, geo, imaging, etc.) physics, or biomed/biotech engineering? Which of the three above undergrad majors would be most beneficial to pursue? I am interested in those choices and was wondering which one would give me the best career oppurtunities and the best money.

Answer: I would go with environmental engineering. While bioengineering is exciting, who knows where it is going. EnviroEng is going to be very big, and you can't lose! Be sure to line up some internships and field experiences.

Question: If v=0.6c and d=2 km how much t does the arrival of an optical signal precede? An engineer in a train moving toward the station with a velocity v=0.6c lights a signal flare as he reaches a marker 2 km from the station. By how much time, on the stationmaster's clock, does the arrival of the optical signal precede the arrival of the train? (c=3 x 10^8)

Answer: d = 2 km = 2 * 10^3 m d/v - d/c = d/(0.6c) - d/c = (d/c)(1/0.6 - 1) = (d/c) * (0.4/0.6) = (d/c)*(2/3) = [(2*10^3)/(3*10^8)]*(2/3) = (4*10^3)/(9*10^8) = 4.4 * 10^-6 s = 4.4 micro-second