Optics Engineer Career Guide and Counseling

Question: Is there a scientific drawing software for optics or radio engineering? I need a drawing software to demostrate optical and wave propagation phenomena. I need to draw antenna towers, buildings, propagation lines. I need to draw optical phenomena like diffraction, reflection etc. Is there any software for this purpose that can help me? Any ideas?

Answer: Well...I am an undergraduate student studying Electrical Engineering in my final semester before graduation. I have come across two different software programs that may be of assistance to you. The first, is Ansoft HFSS. This is a very expensive EM simulation software package in which you can model just about any type of structure and the apply to it many different types of excitation, boundaries, and physical properties. You can then analyze the different radiation properties of the modeled structures (e.g. radiation patterns, impedance matching, impedance bandwidth, voltage-standing wave ratio, etc.). That software may be somewhat helpful, but unless you have access to a university which has it, the cost may make it useless. Another piece of software I know of is called Optica. This is a software package which has the capability of modeling optical systems. I have not used or seen this software, and am unaware of its real potential. But, it has come recommended to me since I am working on a laser system for my senior design project. You can inquire more about this software by contacting iCyt, or Optica Software. An engineering firm out of Champaign, IL, USA (website below).

Question: How much does a fiber optic outside plant engineer make per hour?

Answer: Check on www.monster.com or www.blv.gov Good Luck.

Question: Is Fibre optic engineer have job oppurtunities in europe and america.?

Answer: i heard france has a lot of oppurtunities in that domain

Question: from where i could find the lessons that are educated in optics and lasers engineering ?

Answer: Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers free course material online: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm I believe they also share lectures on youtube.

Question: Engineering : Optics and Sound? What are the different aspects of Optical and Sound engineering?? Any information is appreciated!! Ummm....is sound engineering related to music industry anyhow??

Answer: Optics deals with all things that can be seen. Sound deals with all things that can be heard. The TV, cameras amplifiers, recorders, playbacks, etc., are some subjects in above engineering. Yes, sound engineering is related to music industry. What type of microphone (ribbon, carbon, coil, laser, liquid piezo, etc.,) is used, what type of acoustics to be made, what type of voice to be used for a specific purpose, what media is required for storing and retrieval of information, etc., Laser, sonar, ultrasound, etc., are some of the other subject matter.

Question: who were the first ones to use fiber optics? (polar bears, engineers, surgeons, physicist, mechanic?)?

Answer: polar bears, cheers

Question: i am GPercy, why in aircraft engineering, laser & fiber optics r not used 2 transport electricity in d system? i think it would be a great idea if the aircraft engineers could figure out away to use laser and fiber optics to transport electricity from place to an other instead of billions of wires ! the aicraft would weight way less, and it would take less fuel to operate them. and gravity would have least impact on them. i know it would cost a lot of money to build such a type of aircraft, but in the long run, more money would be saved. since an airplane is such a tight place, it would definitely be more convenient, and with technology, now adays, more things are possible.

Answer: With the current state-of-the-art it is only possible to transport small amounts of power (in the 0.1 to 1 Watt range) via fiber optics. At least that's the way it was a decade ago -- perhaps there have been some breakthroughs in the past 10 years that allow for transporting power in the 1 to 10 Watt range. Even so, 10 Watts is still far too low to be useful in an aircraft, where some pumps and actuators require 10 times or even 100 times that power level. What you propose will probably happen, someday, when that technology matures a bit more. .

Question: how do you explain israels contribution to the world.according to the world vacation scale, Israelis get more? time off then any other country.(second after finland).http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/work.life.balance/chart/ Its not the amount of hours worked, but the quality of work. It says a lot about such a small country, its amazing with all its problems and hatred , it has achieved so much Israeli contributions to science and technology have been significant. Since the establishment of Israel, . Israeli scientists have contributed in the areas of genetics, medicine, agriculture, computer sciences, electronics, optics, engineering and other high-tech industries.Can you name other young countries who have achieved so much in such a short period of time?Others should take israel as an example and follow its foot steps, instead of all the hatred and jealousy towards it, countries must praise her, for all its contributions in the different fields. Other countries have a lot to learn from it, with not many natural resources.I wanted to say well done israel. What do you think?

Answer: Israel is one of those marvels in countries that progressed in an astronomical sense in a small amount of time. 1) The United States-from a confederation of 13 colonies became the world power in a little more than 100 years. 1776- US declares independence... 1898- Spanish-American War - the US gains huge amount of territory and becomes the world's most powerful country. 2) Japan- from a secretive and backwater government ruled by a traditional emperor and a militaristic and primitive shogunate, became a major industrial and military power in 50 years. In 1853, Commodore Perry sails in to Japan to open trade...1904-1905 Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese war, a major shock to the world... WWII Japan becomes a major threat in the world and is the key player in the Pacific Theater. 3) Israel- becomes power in about 19 years occupied by hostile forces for 2,000 years out of 4,000 years of Jewish history, the Israel declares its independence in 1948. It is subsequently (within 6-8 hours) invaded by 7 Arab countries' armies and 3 Arab militias. Israel defeats all these enemies. 1956- Sinai War- Israel wins yet again against overwhelming odds of the Egyptian army. 1967- Israel destroys Jordan, Egypt, Syria in a lighting fast 6 day campaign. This war establishes Israel's military superioriy over all of the Middle East. 1973- Israel quickly re-bounds from a surprise attack from Syria and Egypt. Syria is shattered early on in the conflict, and Israel turns it attention to the Egyptians. Egyptians are hunted down and surrounded in the Sinai (Third Army of Egypt). UN declares cease-fire as Israel is 30 miles from Cairo and advancing. Israel wins yet again. Israeli has become a regional economic powerhouse, a military power not only in Mid East but in the entire Asian continent and in the world, par excellence. Israeli thinkers revolutionize the face of humanity-inventions such as ethe scanning electron microscope, camera cell phone, PC operating systems, PC anti-Virus, etc. Israel, considering what it has done in its short span since it declared independence, is a miracle of God and a light to the other nations.

Question: what is the new engineering opportuniteis?is optics is more best than electronics? pls answer

Answer: yes

Question: Fiber optics within the computer? I was reading a book on glass that was published a decade ago, so I was wondering if there have been any relatively recent breakthroughs on replacing wires with fiber optics within the computer and/or computer chip? If so, how is the advancement an improvement from before? Also, can scientists and engineers still see a computer run solely on fiber optics (in the far future)? Thanks.

Answer: I'm not certain what the bandwidth of a fiber optic line is, but it is likely quite a bit less than current computer bus technology, so I don't see this technology making a lot of inroads. The big research for the future of computing is in quantum computing, which will eventually replace what we currently know as a computer and will allow computing speed to continue to increase as atomic limits are reached in scaling down current microprocessor technology. Quantum computing allows individual molecules to store and process information by making use of quantum mechanical concepts that allow molecules to have different states. Instead of just 0 and 1, as in normal computing, each molecule could have many different states that could be manipulated for computing. The huge number of molecules and ability of each molecule to have multiple states in small amounts of material, would allow for insane processing and computing speeds by today's standards. Quantum entaglement concepts could lead to instantaneous transfer of information (faster than the speed of light, unless someone eventually finds a flaw in the theory; however, Einstein has taken issue with Quantum entanglement as "spooky force at a distance", but for now it appears that this may be one thing that Einstein was wrong about). Now the technology just needs to be developed. In about 20 years you should be seeing things that make today's fastest supercomputers look like an abacus in comparison.

Question: Why should electrical engineering majors take special relativity? I'm pursuing a degree in EE. There is a general requirement for the degree to take a class that is half optics, half special relativity. I understand why I should take the optics class, but why would every electrical engineer need to learn special relativity. It seems to me that if you actually need to use it, you'll be working with something very specialized to begin with.

Answer: Matt is correct, to create a well rounded engineer, you need to study many areas. EE will study MEing and vis-versa

Question: Jobs in Photonics and Optics? (E.E. major)? I am currently a junior Electrical Engineer student, planning on concentrating in Photonics/Microelectronics. I am just curious what types of jobs are there? And what salary range I can expect? I have tried to go to salary websites and it's tough to find something related to Photonics, most just list Electrical Engineering generically.

Answer: That is because in EE if you only get a Bachelor's Degree, then the specialization is irrelevant and you end up interviewing for many types of hardware or software jobs and taking what you can get. With a Master's degree, your specialization becomes more important in landing the actual area of work you are targeting and with a PhD even more so although not guaranteed. A BSEE might not be able to easily locate positions in photonics or optics but perhaps a Physicist could. One area people are studying is switchable windows. Do some research on that.

Question: Does anyone know how to get certified in Sonet Ring technologies? Sonet Ring is used in engineering fiber-optic telecommunications and networks. My employer requires certification in Sonet Ring to be considered for advanced positions...Thanks

Answer: Whose equipment are you using at your company? Nortel, Lucent, Cisco are 3 that come to mind. Contact the manufacturer for their certification courses. Most companies will pay for there employees to take the course. Cisco SONET certification: http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/current_exams/642-311.html

Question: were fiber optics and teflon created by reverse engineering using captured UFO's from the Roswell incident? ? NO Physical PROOF ? what about all the pyramids that science CANT prove?!?!?!!? isnt that PROOF!?!?

Answer: that is correct

Question: Fiber Optics - many random questions for my project! Help? In a little over a week I have to teach my high school physics class about fiber optics and I have a number of questions: 1. I know that fiber optics has a lot of advantages over copper wire, but how does one decide which is better to use? When may copper wire be better to use (in function and cost)? Is there a possibility that fiber optics may completely replace copper wire in the future? 2. What are some expected future breakthroughs with fiber optics? And what exactly do engineers and scientist strive for when they try to "improve" fiber optics? (do they try to make the fibers even smaller, cheaper, etc?) 3. What is the difference between the fiber optics used in something small such as flower arrangement lights and something like cameras for surgery? Is the bundle used in surgery just contain more fibers? 4. Also, I heard somewhere that data of many wavelengths can be transfered through a single fiber. Does this mean many color wavelengths can be channeled through a fiber, and if so, is there a limit in the wavelengths a fiber can transfer? Why is this a good characteristic for fibers and does this differ from copper wire? If you know any general information or interesting facts / uses about fiber optics that isn't exactly a part of my questions, feel free to share your knowledge because I will be very interested. I will probably have a lot more questions when I research more, so if anyone is willing to keep in contact, that would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks a lot.

Answer: 1. Copper wire is FAR cheaper; that is its main advantage. Fiber optics are best for high-speed, efficient computer systems where it is cost-effective to use it. Anything besides very-fast communication only needs copper wire. So for function, copper wire will do when one doesnt need lightning fast communication. But consideration should be taken when considering EM fields; they may compromise the integrity of the signal sent over copper wire, but the same does not hold true for FO. 2. You said it. Size is not so much an issue now; we can make fiber optic cables quite small. But cost is a huge caveat; the stuff is incredibly expensive compared to copper wire. 3. Ah. The aesthetic use of fiber optics is an entirely different thing. Obviously, you cannot transmit light with copper wires. The optic fibers used in cheap ornaments are usually made of plastic and DO NOT maintain the integrity of any digital signal...you would need glass made FO cables for that. So the FO cables used in cameras/surgery are almost always made from glass as opposed to plastic. 4. FO cables can transmit any wavelength of light (any practical wavelength, at any rate). So unless you're experimenting with super-high energy gamma rays, you should be fine with good-ole glass FO. Copper simply can't transmit light.

Question: What is the best Electrical Engineering concentration? ? I want to know which of the following concentrations are the best, ie. must fun and highest paying? Concentrations offered at my school: Signal Processing Wireless Communication Solid State and VLSI Design Fiber-optics, Microwave and RF Engineering Power Systems Intelligent Control Systems Telecommunications

Answer: power systems, you will always have a job and wont necessarily have to keep training (old power systems will always be around).