Reading time: about 5 minutesIn their first semester, some Cornell engineering students don’t just learn about lasers in class — they build them. This hands-on intensity is exactly what stood out to students in ENGRI 1100: “Lasers and Photonics.”“I didn’t really know anything about applied and engineering physics. “And then I saw that in this class we were able to build the nitrogen laser and we did it over six weeks. In the construction lab, students build their own nitrogen laser system, which uses nitrogen gas to produce pulses of ultraviolet light. Early labs explore physical phenomena, such as the reflection of polarized light— light where waves vibrate in a singular direction, rather than all directions.

Source: Daily Sun January 27, 2026 22:04 UTC