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Optical Sciences and Photonics are areas of growing importance that are too often missing from traditional undergraduate science and engineering curricula. Often, aspects of optics and photonics are picked up as side topics in undergraduate and graduate courses along the way to obtaining more traditional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees. Since 2016, the annual Optical Sciences Winter School has been held during the winter break of the University of Arizona’s academic calendar. Its annual participants are now approximately 50 – 60 undergraduate students (mostly juniors and seniors) from US (United States) Universities who demonstrate an aptitude and talent for science and research. These students participate in a three- to five-day immersion experience, learning the many opportunities and benefits that choosing optics and photonics for their graduate studies can offer. The Optical Sciences Winter School (OSWS) brings together a motivated group of undergraduate students for a series of overview lectures teaching foundational topics in optics and their relation to current research. It also provides a forum for faculty, alumni, and invited guests to share results, approaches and methodologies in optics and photonics research and education that are unique to the undergraduate setting. This event is not focused on a specific school’s program but tries to highlight the diverse optics programs in the US. Many sessions in the program are filled with various invited faculties and researchers’ presentations from prominent optical physics and engineering undergraduate or graduate institutions.
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