Photonics is the science and application of light. Whenever we think about optical engineering, quantum computing, fibre communications, and display technology, we think about photonics.
Sub-fields
Thoughts
I used to be pretty interested in the field. My first introduction was this video on photonics grad school which I watched back in high school. I still think it’s a cool field — it’s almost certainly going to be the next big thing (with its quantum focus) but there are too many downsides weighing things down.
Grad school (a master’s at least, or a PhD probably) is a pre-requisite to break into the field. At the ECE department here, we have 4 or 5 undergraduate photonics or optics courses. The majority of the depth and breadth necessary are in graduate-level courses — to get sufficient experience in the field as an undergrad would require going to the University of Rochester or some programmes in Arizona or Germany.
There’s also a substantial lack of rigour in regular electrical engineering that doesn’t really set you up to enter the field. Things like quantum mechanics aren’t really explained well enough in undergrad and the approach to learning is different. If I was in physics or EngSci physics option, photonics would be far more attractive. This learning curve IMO is the hardest to contend with.