The modern photonics and optical communications industries have placed ever increasing demands on the supply of skilled graduates who are competent in the design, installation and operation of photonics systems. In response to this demand, we have developed a range of photonics laboratory teaching experiments to support accompanying lecture courses by underpinning fundamental principles with hands-on experimental experience. These systems enable students and trainees to investigate experimentally the basic principles, characteristics, and design of optical waveguides, optical communications systems, optical amplifiers and fault location techniques for optical networks, with additional scope for open-ended investigation of real technical issues such as mode spectrum analysis in optical waveguide and optical pulse dispersion/bit rate limits in fiber communications systems. The educational and overall system design philosophies, hardware,and experiments are reported in this paper.

This paper examines the issue of instrumentation for civil structures and in particular discusses the role of sensing systems in the evolution of the smart building concept. The sheer size of most structures of interest presents its own technological challenge in designing a suitable sensing architecture which will also conveniently address the area to be covered and will also provide sufficient sensing points to adequately characterize the structure under test. In addition, the measurement problem itself, which comprises both process monitoring and in use assessment must be defined. The former is very much process specific and may range from assessing whether concrete is dry to ensuring that protective materials are properly installed. The latter is almost entirely concerned with providing an alarm for either the onset of unacceptable corrosion within the structure or the appearance of physical damage for example due to foundation failure. This paper presents an analysis of the principal issues which the civil engineering smart structure must address and derives generic system specifications. It continues to argue that fiber optic solutions are the most appropriate sensing technologies and examines a number of distributed fiber optic technologies which enable both physical and chemical parameters to be addressed throughout a large structure.