Fascination light

Question: What do modern microchips, breathtaking special effect in movies, the rapid growth of the internet and laser shows have in common? Answer: None of it would be possible without optical technologies. Light is omnipresent for us, while still offering fascinating properties for research and industry: Light is pure energy, it is rapid, it can be focused on a single point with enormous power, and it can be overlapped without any issues.

Already, light in form of laser technology is indispensable in material processing, medicine and the entertainment industry. Experts are predicting a similar triumph for photonics in the coming years as electronics has experienced in recent decades.

For Germany, the chances to hit the ground running in this future market are quite promising: According to data of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Employment, already about 40,000 people in 350 companies are employed in the industry of optical technologies in Germany alone. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) estimates that about 16% of all jobs in the processing industry are already influenced by optical technologies.

However, Ms Bulmahn, the Minister of Education and Research, gets to the heart of Germany’s issues: “For me it is [...] not enough that German research industries are showered with top grades, while we have to look on as tons of great ideas and inventions get buried in the archives of laboratories.”

In order to avoid this, the minister started a joint campaign under the slogan “Fascination Light” together with Wolfgang Clement, Minister of Economics and Employment, and the associations VDI, VDMA and SPECTARIS. It aims at giving young people career prospects in the field of optical technologies, thus preventing a growth-inhibiting labor shortage in this booming industry.

This resulted in a travelling exhibition, allowing students of various ages to familiarize themselves with this topic in an entertaining way with many practical experiments.

LOBO, the laser specialist from Aalen, is along for the ride – what better way to demonstrate the fascination of light than a laser show? Images from LOBO shows appear on banners, information columns, and on material supplementing the lessons. Furthermore, LOBO exemplifies an industry that has achieved what others have yet to accomplish: The sector’s largest companies are located in Germany.

It was only logical that the ministers Mr. Clement and Ms. Bulmahn opened the exhibition on 21st February with a LOBO laser show. The opening at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin’s Hyatt Hotel was attended by high-ranking guests from politics, economics and research.

A congress and presentation on optical ideas followed, where researchers and industry representatives could exchange ideas. Here, LOBO was also present with a laser display, offered in cooperation with Jenoptik.