譯/王麗娟
Shawn Reese is the perfect example of the complicated route that can lie ahead for workers of the future — but also for the opportunities that are emerging.
從項恩．里斯的例子可以充分看出未來工作者可能面臨的複雜道路，卻也能同時看到應運而生的機會。
He graduated from Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts, in May with a degree in electronics engineering, a field that — like most — is undergoing rapid change. A degree today is unlikely to be enough preparation for the challenges of tomorrow. So what is a student, a university, an industry, to do?
他今年5月畢業於麻州伍斯特市的「昆西加蒙社區學院」，取得電子工程學位，和多數領域一樣，這個領域也在快速變遷之中。今天的學位不太可能為明天的挑戰做好充分的準備。如此一來，學生，大學，以及產業該如何因應？
One approach is the one taken by AIM Photonics — its AIM Photonics Academy — and a group of community colleges and universities that have banded together over the last five years to develop emerging technologies and train the work forces needed to sustain them. (AIM stands for the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics; we'll get to the photonics part in a moment.)
途徑之一是「AIM 光子學」財團的「AIM光子學院」，和一群社區學院、大學所採取的一項作法。它們五年來聯手開發新興技術，以及培養支撐這些技術所需的人力。（AIM全名為「美國製造積體光學研究所」；我們待會兒就會論及光子學的部分。）
The partnership is one of 14 across the country focusing on emerging technologies and industries addressing an increasingly important and frequently vexing question: how to prepare workers at all levels — technicians as well as people with doctoral degrees — for new technologies, like integrated photonics, that are in development, but only at the very early stages of commercial use.
這項夥伴關係是全美14個中的一個，聚焦於新興技術和產業，以解決一個日益重要且經常令人煩惱的問題：如何為積體光學等正在發展中、但就商業用途而言仍處於非常初階的新技術，儲備所有各階層的人才，包括技師和擁有博士學位的專家。
"Because the jobs don't exist yet, we need to train students in the skills that are relevant today so they can get a job, but at the same time, very selectively, begin to supplement the training relevant to new industries," said Sajan Saini, the education director of the AIM Photonics Academy, which is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
「AIM光子學院」教育主任薩揚．賽尼說：「因為這些工作還不存在，我們必須讓學生學會當下用得上的一些技術，讓他們能夠謀生，同一時間，非常有選擇性地，開始補充和新產業有關的一些訓練。」「AIM光子學院」設在劍橋「麻省理工學院」內。
In his view, the way to accomplish this is by creating "a staggered educational curriculum so that the learning never stops."
在他看來，實現這一目標的方法，是創建一套「交錯式的教育課程，讓學習永不止步」。
And that brings us to photonics: It's the science of using particles of light, or photons, as an energy source (as opposed to electrons) and derives from work by Albert Einstein and others that began more than a century ago. It figures in a wide range of modern devices, from CT scans to bar codes, to laser-guided missiles, cellphone networks and more. Light-based technologies are energy efficient, reliable and fast.
這將我們帶回到光子學：它是以光粒子，或稱光子為能源（相對於電子）的一門科學，源自亞伯特．愛因斯坦等人在一個多世紀前展開的工作。光子學已應用於多種現代裝置，從電腦斷層掃描、條碼，再到雷射導引飛彈、手機網絡等。以光為基礎的技術被認為節能、可靠又快速。
Integrated photonics is still a developing technology that enables components to work seamlessly together. It is expected to be incorporated in telecommunications and computing, to name just two applications, and could, by 2025, comprise a market exceeding $5 billion, said Lionel Kimerling, the AIM Photonics Academy executive.
積體光學仍是一種開發中的技術，可讓組件無縫地協同工作。「AIM光子學院」主管萊諾．基默林說，預計它將被納入電信和計算領域，這只是諸多應用中的兩項，而且到2025年時積體光學的市場可能超越50億美元。
