Activities It's not what you say, it's what you do!
Photonics exists in the real world???
Optium Lab Tour (20th March 2008)
I well remember it being a difficult thing to deal with the prospect of actually finding employment after (the sometimes gruelling) years of being an undergraduate in science and/or engineering. Many of my fellow engineering students from the University of Sydney would recall the compulsory work experience hunt, where it was no easy task to even find a place that would take someone on for free - let alone actually pay them for their work hours. ‘Why bother?’ we would ask ourselves. ‘Who is going to employ us once we’ve finished the struggle of our degree?’ Well, well. The tour of the Sydney-based photonics company, Optium (www.optium.com), held on the 20th March, certainly helped dispel such dark imaginings.
Together with Optium’s Engineering Manager, Ian Clarke, and the University of Sydney OSA student chapter, we were able to organise a tour of Optium’s labs for post- and undergraduate students. The tour involved a show-around of the clean room labs, a seminar that described to us the product they sell and, afterwards, afternoon tea which offered the opportunity for students to meet with the scientists, managers and employers from within the company. On the day, thirty people showed up for the tour before we embarked on the short walk from the University of Sydney campus to Optium.
Upon arrival and meeting with Ian Clarke and the other tour guides, our contingent was split into two groups. One group was given the seminar about the product and then shown through the labs, the other vice versa. The seminar went over the concepts of their “wavelength switch” and described a number of the processes involved in the manufacturing side of things. The lab tour was much like walking through a larger, busier version of the University of Sydney research facilities, yet for some it was a fun first-time experience of gowning up for a clean room.
Picture of one group as it was toured through the Optium labs.
When speaking with members of Optium, it was remarkable to hear just how much they were keen to employ graduate students. With the company hiring sixty employees in the previous four months, and a similar growth set to continue, the greatest problem to them was the lack of graduates available to hire, who to Optium are considered a resource rapidly drying up. This knowledge that Optium was definitely interested in students who graduate through their degrees was no doubt reassuring to many of us.
At the end of the day, I was very thankful that all the students were privileged with such a positive and informative tour. The warm reception of the people at Optium was very encouraging and the information offered by the people from Optium was incredibly helpful. I would put a strong wager that a number of CV’s were submitted to the company shortly after.
And it’s a good thing when everyone’s a winner.
Cameron Smith
CUDOS, School of Physics
University of Sydney
OSA Student Chapter President