Arizona Photonics Days 2021 – Expanding Optics and Photonics Technologies in Industrial and Commercial Applications
The fourth annual Arizona Photonics Days will be a virtual conference held March 3-5, 2021, just prior to Photonics West. Engage with your peers and industry leaders for technical discussions, industry trends, and virtual business connections with global attendees. There will be no cost to attend the 2021 virtual conference.

Conference Focus:

The focus of this year’s conference will be expanding the scope of optics and photonics technologies in industrial and commercial applications in Sensing and Metrology, Astronomy, Quantum Technology, Laser Technology, and Biomedical Technology.

Agenda:

Download the Conference Agenda PDF HERE
Program Overview:

Expert Keynotes
Technology and Business Presentations
Company Presentations
Panel discussions about trends and issues
Important Dates:

Dec. 2, 2020 – Jan. 27, 2021: Call for Papers is closed.
Dec. 2, 2020 – Mar 1, 2021: Sponsor opportunities available. Download Sponsor Opportunities PDF HERE.
Conference Schedule:

The conference will be held virtually over three days to best accommodate our local and international attendees:

March 3: 7:00 am – 1:15 pm MST / 14:00 – 20:15 UTC
March 4: 7:00 am – 1:15 pm MST / 14:00 – 20:15 UTC
March 5: 7:00 am – 1:15 pm MST / 14:00 – 20:15 UTC
Who Should Attend:

Business owners, executives and professionals of optics and photonics companies
Industry leaders whose companies apply these technologies
Academic and industry scientists and engineers
Optics cluster leadership and staff
More Information

Visit Arizona Photonic Days 2020 webpage
Learn more about Arizona Photonics Days

This lesson explores the similarities between how a human being moves/walks and how a robot moves. This allows students to see the human body as a system, i.e., from the perspective of an engineer. It shows how movement results from (i) decision making, i.e., deciding to walk and move, and (ii) implementing the decision by conveying the decision to the muscle (human) or motor (robot).

This archive contains a series of lessons on cryptography suitable for use in a CS0 course. The only requirement is familiarity with Python, particularly dictionaries, lists, and file IO. It is also assumed that students know how to create stand-alone Python programs and interact with them through the terminal. Most of the work is done in Jupyter notebooks.

The material found in the notebooks is a combination of reading material, exercises, activities and assignments. Below are descriptions of each lesson or assignment and links to notebooks on Cocalc. The same files are available for batch download in this archive.

Student Version: This lesson addresses: Common acronyms that are used to identify proper food-handling procedures, and how to prevent the growth of microorganisms.

This material introduces Linux File System structures and demonstrates how to use commands to communicate with the operating system through a Terminal program. Basic program structures and system() function of Perl are discussed. A brief introduction to gene-sequencing terminology and file formats are given.

This material introduces the AWS console interface, describes how to create an instance on AWS with the VMI provided, connect to that machine instance using the SSH protocol. Once connected, it requires the students to write a script to enter the data folder, which includes gene-sequencing input files and print the first five line of each file remotely. The same exercise can be applied if the VMI is installed on a local machine using virtualization software (e.g. Oracle VirtualBox). In this case, the Terminal program of the VMI can be used to do the exercise.

This manual guides the instructor to combine the partial files of the virtual machine image and construct sequencer.ova file. It is accompanied by the partial files of the virtual machine image.

This material briefly reintroduces the DNA double Helix structure, explains SNP and INDEL mutations in genes and describes FASTA, FASTQ, BAM and VCF file formats. It also explains the index creation, alignment, sorting, marking duplicates and variant calling steps of a simple preprocessing workflow and how to write a Perl script to automate the execution of these steps on a Virtual Machine Image.

This material introduces the AWS console interface, describes how to create an instance on AWS with the VMI provided and connect to that machine instance using the SSH protocol. Once connected, it requires the students to write a script to automate the tasks to create VCF files from two different sample genomes belonging to E.coli microorganisms by using the FASTA and FASTQ files in the input folder of the virtual machine. The same exercise can be applied if the VMI is installed on a local machine using virtualization software (e.g. Oracle VirtualBox). In this case, the Terminal program of the VMI can be used to do the exercise.

These materials include background for the instructor and a lab that engages student in an analysis of global inequality while learning and using the R language (a programming language for statistics). Students obtain data on the US and two other countries (one more developed and one less developed).

These materials include background for the instructor and a lab that engages student in an analysis of global inequality while learning and using the R language (a programming language for statistics). Students ultimately write a function to access country level data from the CIA World Factbook.

In this lesson, we learn how insects can fly in the rain. The objective is to calculate the impact forces of raindrops on flying mosquitoes. Students will gain experience with using Newton's laws, gathering data from videos and graphs, and most importantly, the utility of making approximations. No calculus will be used in this lesson, but familiarity with torque and force balances is suggested. No calculators will be needed, but students should have pencil and paper to make estimations and, if possible, copies of the graphs provided with the lesson. Between lessons, students are recommended to discuss the assignments with their neighbors.

This set of lecture slides was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant with an accompanying question library for tests and quizzes. The course uses the free and open Human Development sections of Boundless Psychology. Topics covered include:
Nature vs. Nurture
Piaget
Attachment
Freud
Erikson
Kohlberg
Childhood Development
Adolescent Development
Adulthood Development
Late Adulthood

This Instructor’s Guide contains the brief outlines of Chapters 12-21 as found in Concepts of Biology, though some underwent revision. Also, instructors will find detailed outlines of the text for use in lecturing, as well as structured outlines that may be used by students to take notes while reading the chapter or during lecture. All outlines are derived from the OpenStax text. Additionally, study guides that contain a variety of questions are provided for students.

This ready-to-adopt Introduction to Business course develops students’ understanding of business fundamentals with learning design structured around timely, real-world case studies and examples. Key topics include the role of business, the global economic and legal environment, ethics, marketing, accounting and finance, and managing processes and operations. Enriched OER content (text, video, simulations, etc.) orients students to the shifting business landscape and prepares them for success in business program curriculum and the workplace.

This course was written by Linda Williams of Tidewater Community College and Lumen Learning and is supplemented by content from OpenStax Principles of Economics, Boundless Business, and videos from multiple sources.

-----------------------------Review------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Criteria
Accuracy and Currency
How accurate is the material, based on current standards in the field?
If the material is inaccurate, does it acknowledge conflicts in perspectives and changes over time?
If the material is outdated, does it serve other purposes (to provide historical perspective, to provoke discussion, or to serve as an example)?

Within this review of Lumen's Open Educational Resource (OER) Introduction to Business by Linda Williams, I chose to pick one part of the course content to review - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The material is based on current standards within the business ethics foundation. This portion of CSR goes over current terminology such as "green-washing" and connects to current controversies within CSR, which is important to students going forward in business. Thus far, I see that this information serves discussion purposes, as well as historical relevance. The chapter starts with President Calvin Coolidge's vantage to of business not being a part of business, outside of people being a foundation to business.

Bias
How does the material acknowledge perspectives (of the authors, of other experts in the field, of critical voices, etc.)?
How does the material present facts, opinions, and judgments?
How does the licensing of the material allow the instructor to remix or revise biased content?

The material doesn't acknowledge the author's perspective, which doesn't give a bias. It does present facts within the chapter. In my review, I am unsure if educators can revise the content; but, educators can add portions of the course OER to their classrooms, i.e. CANVAS or Blackboard.

Ability to Overcome Barriers to Engagement
How does the material engage students? Does the material reflect student experience and views?
How do students access the material? Does it require technology skills? Can it be accessed in multiple ways through multiple means?
How does the material/resource respond to accommodative and adaptive technologies?

In reviewing the CSR chapter, I was happy to see video supporting "Increased Pressure from Consumers" subsection of the chapter. This could be a great reflection of students views. This material does require technology skills in order for access to this chapter and OER book. In my review, I was able to connect to the OER course and chapter through a desktop computer, but I did not connect via a mobile phone. For accessibility (ADA) purposes, it is possible to use "talk to text" or "speechnotes" with this OER.

Publishing Process & Licensing
How was the material published? What kind of review/editing process was used?
How is the material licensed and stored? Can it be remixed and revised as needed? Is it subscription-based and if so, who pays for the subscription?
What is the 'permanence' of this material? Is it temporal (likely to be removed or taken down)? What would be the back-up plan if license/access to this material is lost?

Depending if the educator uses "Waymaker", "OHM", or "Candela", each student could pay between $10 to $25 per student as a subscription, in comparison to over $100 for a textbook. Lumen offer workshops and training within their OER program.

Relevant to Course & Institution
How does this material align with course objectives and learning activities?

At the beginning of the CSR chapter, it gives student outcomes such has the definition of CSR, describe the impact of CSR to its stakeholders, and give examples to students of what CSR is within business. This material is align to "Introduction to Business" student outcomes, as well as to AACSB International accreditation.

Relevant to Students
How does the material reflect student interests and learning goals?
How does the material give student autonomy in their learning?
How does the material encourage interaction, critical thinking, and deeper learning/processing

List Comprehensions

This is a tutorial on list comprehensions in Python, suitable for use in an Intro or CS0 course. We also briefly mention set comprehensions and dictionary comprehensions.

https://cocalc.com/share/bde99afd-76c8-493d-9608-db9019bcd346/171/list_comprehensions?viewer=share/

This OER material was produced as a result of the CS04ALL CUNY OER project

These are materials that may be used in a CS0 course as a light introduction to machine learning.

The materials are mostly Jupyter notebooks which contain a combination of labwork and lecture notes. There are notebooks on Classification, An Introduction to Numpy, and An Introduction to Pandas.

There are also two assessments that could be assigned to students. One is an essay assignment in which students are asked to read and respond to an article on machine bias. The other is a lab-like exercise in which students use pandas and numpy to extract useful information about subway ridership in NYC. This assignment uses public data provided by NYC concerning entrances and exits at MTA stations.

This OER material was produced as a result of the CS04ALL CUNY OER project

In this archive there are two activities/assignments suitable for use in a CS0 or Intro course which uses Python.

In the first activity, students are asked to "fill in the code" in a series of short programs that compute a similarity metric (cosine similarity) for text documents. This involves string tokenization, and frequency counting using Python string methods and datatypes.

https://cocalc.com/share/bde99afd-76c8-493d-9608-db9019bcd346/171/Proj1?viewer=share/

In the second activity (taken directly from Think Python 2e) students use a pronunciation dictionary to solve a riddle involving homophones.

https://cocalc.com/share/bde99afd-76c8-493d-9608-db9019bcd346/171/Dicts2?viewer=share/

This OER material was produced as a result of the CS04ALL CUNY OER project