OSRAM SYLVANIA has made a long-term commitment to the University of Colorado at Boulder to further the development of its lighting education program. The SYLVANIA Lighting Education Grant provides the university with $50,000 per year to create more extensive and integrated coursework and to integrate lighting engineering and technology with design and architecture.
OSRAM SYLVANIA has long supported educational programs for lighting professionals and recognizes the value of higher education in lighting and illuminating engineering.
The University of Colorado at Boulder offers the largest undergraduate educational program in lighting and illumination engineering in the country, preparing about 20 students per year for jobs in the lighting industry.
"Tomorrow's innovators in lighting are the students of today," said Henny Peters, the executive vice president of general lighting for OSRAM SYLVANIA. "The University of Colorado values an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to lighting education that we fully support. We see this grant as an investment in the future of the industry and are proud to be contributing to the program."
With the grant, the university will develop a new "capstone" course tailored to senior students who have completed the previous lighting courses offered and have participated in a summer internship in lighting design or manufacturing. "There is so much new and emerging technology in the field of lighting. The funding from OSRAM SYLVANIA will help us to better prepare our students for future leadership in the world of the professional lighting industry," said Robert Davis, senior instructor of lighting in the architectural engineering program at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The grant will allow the university to solicit input from the professional design community to formulate specific plans for the new course. Additionally, it will facilitate revisions of the course annually based on changes in the industry and feedback from prior course offerings. Once the course is established, the funding will provide opportunities to bring additional instructional resources such as adjunct professors or a full-time lighting design instructor to the program.
The first capstone course for lighting students at the University of Colorado will be offered in the Fall Semester of 2005.