Engineer shortage a 'concern' for optics industry
The shortage of optical engineers in Europe and the USA is a growing ‘concern’ for the industry, according to executives speaking during a panel discussion at SPIE Photonics West on 17 February.
Gloria Hoefler, director, optical integrated components group at Infinera, commented during the discussion that there is ‘definitely a need for more engineers’ and that it will be ‘quite challenging’ to meet that demand. She added: ‘As a country [USA], we need to do better to encourage students to remain in optical engineering.’
She was not alone in her views, with the rest of the panel – Christof Lehner, Trumpf’s general manager for North America; Dirk Rothweiler, VP of Jenoptik’s Optical Systems division; Sam Sadoulet, CEO of Edmund Optics; and Alex Schoenfelder, VP of Commercial Lasers at Lumentum – agreeing that more needs to be done to train and retain optical engineers.
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