A grating-based spectral filtering project in photonics instrumentation

In response to the growing demand of photonic systems engineers in industries, this paper proposes a term project that help students gain insight into photonics instrumentation via a grating-based spectrometer. The students are guided through simulations and experiments for the spectral filtering system and then implement the spectrometer using some technical notes and testing kits. They perform experiments and tests to verify and refine their works. A contest is held at the end of the course where the measurement accuracy and repeatability of the proposed systems are evaluated. This project has been used for two semesters, and both the instructors' and the students' feedback are discussed.