STEM Workforce Development  

Transfer of math, physics, and communication skills into the entry-level photonics workforce

Effective Years: 2014-2019

The Rochester Institute of Technology will implement a small focused research project that is designed to provide a better understanding of how academic content and communication skills transfer into the entry-level workforce. It is adapting foundational research on learning in an academic setting to the workplace and provides multiple perspectives of the "skills gap" between higher education and the workplace. Specifically, the researchers propose to examine the use of mathematics, optics, and physics content knowledge and communication skills within the Rochester-region optics, photonics, and imaging community. They will conduct two interrelated studies. The first study will produce evidence about the skills required to obtain, keep, and succeed at a job in optics with immediate relevance to local colleges and universities focused on optics education. The second study will expand on the first by examining the employee perspective in more detail. The PIs will use data-based deduction research to integrate the two studies within a higher education framework. The project will reveal differences in skill sets between academia and industry and provide evidence regarding whether or not a common curricula can serve each path. Rochester is an ideal location for the study. Xerox, Kodak, and Bausch and Lomb made Rochester the optics and imaging hub in the nation.

10 Publications Related to This Project: