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Optical projects in the Clinic program at Harvey Mudd College

Clinic program is the senior capstone program at Harvey Mudd College (HMC). Multidisciplinary and industry-sponsored projects allow a team of students to solve a real-world problem over one academic year. Over its 50 plus years, Clinic program has completed numerous optics related projects. This report gives an overview of the Clinic program, reviews recent optical projects and discusses how this program supports the learning of the HMC engineering students. A few sample optical projects with more details are presented to provide an insight of what challenges that undergraduates can overcome. Students achieve learning within the optics discipline and the related engineering disciplines. The experiences in these optical projects indicate the great potential to bringing optical hands-on projects into the undergraduate level. Because of the general engineering curriculum at HMC, these projects often work the best with a multidisciplinary nature even if the core of the project is optically focused. Students gain leadership training, oral and written communication skills and experiences in team work. Close relationship with the sponsor liaisons allows for the students to gain skills in professional conduct, management of tight schedule and a specified budget, and it well prepares the students to their engineering practice. Optical projects have their own sets of specific challenges, so it needs to be chosen properly to match the undergraduate skill sets such as those of HMC engineering students.