Osram Sylvania, a leading lighting company, has lit some of the nation's most important treasures including Niagara Falls, the Hoover Dam, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and Boston's Old State House. The company announced today that it is committed to illuminating a different kind of national resource: students in the field of lighting.
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.
CU-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.
With the grant, the university will develop a new "capstone" course tailored to senior students who have completed previous lighting courses and participated in a summer internship in lighting design or manufacturing.
"Tomorrow's innovators in lighting are the students of today," said Henny Peters, 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."
"There is so much new and emerging technology in the field of lighting," said Robert G. Davis, senior instructor of lighting in the architectural engineering program at CU-Boulder. "The funding from Osram Sylvania will help us to better prepare our students for future leadership in the world of the professional lighting industry."
Osram Sylvania has long supported educational programs for lighting professionals and recognizes the value of higher education in lighting and illuminating engineering, Peters said.
The grant will allow the university to solicit input from the professional design community to formulate specific plans for the new capstone course. It also will facilitate annual revisions of the course based on industry changes and feedback from prior course offerings. Once the course is established, the funding will support additional instructional resources such as adjunct professors or a full-time lighting design instructor for the program.
Through implementation of the Lighting Education Grant, Osram Sylvania seeks to assist CU-Boulder by building on its legacy of excellence in educating future lighting professionals, Peters said.
The first capstone course for lighting students at the University of Colorado will be offered in the fall semester of 2005.
About Osram Sylvania
Headquartered in Danvers, Mass., Osram Sylvania is the North American lighting operation of Osram GmbH. The company is the second-largest lighting and materials enterprise in the world, serving customers in more than 140 countries. The company manufactures and markets a wide range of lighting products, including automotive, electronic and magnetic ballasts, and precision materials and components for industrial and commercial users. Products and equipment are sold primarily under the Sylvania brand name, but also under the Osram brand. For further information refer to the Web site at http://www.sylvania.com/.