LRC News

Second-year Master's of Lighting student Fei Hu has won a top award in the 2006 Optical Design Competition, sponsored by Optical Research Associates (ORA). The annual competition gives cash awards to students who submit projects showing excellence in optical design using LightTools^® software.

Hu's entry in the competition, "An LED Light Fixture Design for Pathway Marking in a Park," demonstrated knowledge of optics, optical engineering, and optical design software. The award was announced at the SPIE Annual Meeting in August. 

"I designed a new, efficient LED-based light fixture using the accumulated lumen method and verified by LightTools," said Hu.

The winning design:  LED Light Fixture Design for Pathway Marking

“This fixture saves energy, has a long lifetime, and can address security and safety issues involving lighting a pathway in a park.”

The LED pathway marking fixture was designed as a class final project for the Lighting Technology and Applications course at the LRC and was supervised by Professor John Van Derlofske.

“I am really happy to win this award,” said Hu. “I want to thank John Van Derlofske and Chenlu Zhang for their great help,” said Hu. Zhang, also an LRC student, won the award last year.

This is the sixth year in a row that Lighting Research Center students have won an award in the Optical Research Associates' competition, which is open to students currently enrolled in a degree-granting program. Other LRC students winning an award include Jennifer Watkinson (2004), Yimin Gu and Jie Chen (2003), Peping Dee (2002), and Feng Zhao (2001).

Dan Frering, LRC manager of education, said, "Competitions and award programs such as the ORA Optical Design Competition give our students a great opportunity to show their skills and demonstrate the high caliber of the LRC's graduate lighting education."

Optical Research Associates (ORA^®), founded in 1963, supplies imaging and illumination design/analysis software.

For more information about the Graduate Education program at the Lighting Research Center, visit www.lrc.rpi.edu/education/graduateEducation/.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) is part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, N.Y., and is the leading university-based research center devoted to lighting. The LRC offers the world's premier graduate education in lighting, including one- and two-year master's programs and a Ph.D. program. Since 1988 the LRC has built an international reputation as a reliable source for objective information about lighting technologies, applications, and products. The LRC also provides training programs for government agencies, utilities, contractors, lighting designers, and other lighting professionals. Visit www.lrc.rpi.edu.