Photonics and Optical Sciences Curriculum Overview

The Master of Engineering in Photonics and Optical Sciences is a 30-credit degree distributed as follows:

  • Core Industry Preparation Courses (6 credits)
  • Departmental/Disciplinary or Cross-Disciplinary Requirements (15 credits)
  • Technical Electives in a Concentration Area (9 credits)
  • Internship, Project or Equivalent (0 credits)

Curriculum Notes

  1. Students may take 3 units of independent study (BME 899/BME 790 or ECE 899) for a project.
  2. Technical elective courses must be selected from Engineering, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, mathematics or Computer Science unless approved by an advisor.
  3. Each student in the P & OS MEng program will be advised on a semester by semester basis to match degree requirements with current course offerings.
  4. Graduation requirements include approval of all courses by an advisor.
  5. Internship requirements will follow the MEng Internship guidelines with the exception that the internship or project must occur after the student matriculates at Duke University.

Overview

Core Industry Preparation Course Requirements (6 credits)

  • MENG 540: Management of High Tech Industries
  • MENG 570: Business Fundamentals for Engineers

Departmental/Disciplinary or Cross-Disciplinary Requirements (15 credits)

Required coursework includes:

  • An advanced mathematics course (3 credits)
  • Required Optics/Photonics courses (6 credits)
  • One technical optics/photonics course from the BME department and one technical optics/photonics course from the ECE department (6 credits)

In addition, each student must attend at least 4 Fitzpatrick Institute of Photonics (FIP) seminars over the course of their degree.

Advanced mathematics requirement (3 credits required; choose one of the following)

  • MATH 551: Applied Partial Differential Equations and Complex Variables
  • MATH 561: Scientific Computing I
  • MATH 577: Mathematical Modeling
  • PHYSICS 560: Mathematical Methods in Physics

Required Optics/Photonics courses (6 credits)

  • BME 552/ECE 541/PHY 621: Advanced Optics
  • BME 555: Advances in Photonics

One technical optics/photonics course from the BME department and one technical optics/photonics course from the ECE department from the following list (6 credits)

  • BME 550: Modern Microscopy
  • BME 590: Biomedical Optical Diagnostics
  • ECE 545: Nanophotonics
  • ECE 546: Optoelectronic Devices
  • ECE 523/PHY 627: Quantum Information Science
  • ECE 573: Optical Communications Systems
  • ECE 590: Laser Systems
  • ECE 590: Nonlinear Optics
  • ECE 675: Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy
  • ECE 722: Quantum Electronics
  • ME 555: Optical Properties of Nanostructured Materials
  • PHYSICS 562: Fundamentals of Electromagnetism
  • PHYSICS 719: Advanced Electromagnetism

Technical Electives in a Concentration Area (3 courses, 9 credits)

Select three technical courses to satisfy the Technical Electives. Generally, 2 of the 3 should be in similar areas to enable depth in the student's program. Courses may be chosen from the above list or other technical areas, including life sciences, as approved by an advisor. At least one of the technical electives must be an ECE or BME course.

Internship, Project or Equivalent Requirements (0 credits)

  • MENG 550: Internship or Applied Research Project
  • MENG 551: Internship/Project Assessment