SPRINGFIELD, Mass.- Springfield Technical Community College hopes their 'STCC Makes' summer laser camp will encourage more young people to seek a career path in the science and technology industry.

The Laser and Photonics summer program is a four day free camp that gives students between the ages of 9 and 17 hands-on learning opportunities with laser science.

Springfield Tech professor and program coordinator Dr. Nick Massa said knowledge of laser science is very valuable because of the constant use in modern society.

"The technology is ubiquitous, it's everywhere." said Massa. "You can't get up in the morning and spend the first five minutes without being affected by lasers, light, fiber optics, the internet, it doesn't work without lasers and fiber optics, the displays, your flat panel TV, it's all electro optics."

Among others, the camp features activities such as working with holograms and fiber optic voice transmitters.

On Tuesday, students had the opportunity to do some laser material processing where they would carve their own names out of a plank of wood.

Camp members said the wide use of this technology appeals to them when it comes to their futures.

"There are so many diverse professions where you can use lasers and optics," said Anya Kahn, a camp member. "For example, in the medical field you can use lasers for tumors and then during which we just presented, the fibers that we just learned about, you can seed them to use transmitters."

"Places that we haven't seen before like underwater deep sea or like up in space," said camp member Abdullah Kahn. "You can use all these machines to navigate them and see what's there and what's to come."

Dr. Massa said only a limited amount of math knowledge is needed to succeed in the industry.

"Science in general, STEM, which you know, we need more people in STEM basically," said Massa. "Because that's where the jobs are, that's where the fascinating careers are and this field is so specialized that there's not a lot of people in it so you can do really well in a very short period of time."

The Springfield Tech laser camp will run until Thursday, July 28th. The college also plans to host other free 'STCC Makes' program in August including an airbrushing camp along with an 'STCC Builds' program that focuses on architecture.