Last week I taught for the second time the new course “Hands-On Evaluation of Image Sensors”. The course location was Copenhagen, and the organization was in the hands of CEI-Europe. As I reported a while ago about the first edition of this course, there were several items that could be improved. The main change compared to the previous edition of the course was the availability of extra software functions/tools that could be used during the measurements/calculation. So the participants could focus more on the interpretation of the data. If I compare the two editions of the course, I think that the availability of the functions was really a step forward. I also can confirm this by the timing of the course. The participants had their measurements results available much quicker than in the first course.
I also went through a cycle of further updating and optimizing the course material, this is always necessary after the first edition(s) of a course. Based on the questions and remarks from the participants during the first course, I learned about the quality of my own sheets. Also during the second version of the training, less errors and typos could be found in the material, and I had no complains about the course notes. Apparently the extra work increased the quality of the training in general and of the course notes in particular.
The next “Hands-On Evaluation” class is scheduled for November 2011 in Dresden (see also www.cei.se). What will be further improved for the third edition ? I am thinking about updating the discussion and measurement on QE and MTF. During the first two editions I just showed how to perform the measurements and showed the results obtained. Next time we will perform the measurements in the class and go through the algorithms and mathematics needed to process the raw measurement data. The set-ups for the QE and MTF measurements are pretty large, so it will not be possible to allow all participants to perform their own experiments. For that reason, QE and MTF will be measured in a plenary session. But all other sensor parameters will be characterized by the participants themselves. That part of the training remains unchanged ! Maybe we see each other in Dresden ??
Albert, 17-05-2011.