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Quantum Science and Engineering

PhD in Molecular Engineering

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The PhD in Quantum Science and Engineering program provides students with the opportunity to study with some of  the most prominent researchers  working in both fundamental and applied aspects of quantum science. The program encompasses a variety of engineering topics that will help shape the quantum future. This includes quantum computing, quantum communications, and quantum sensing, as well as research in quantum materials. Students have the option of working with one or more thesis advisors to build a cross-cutting research project that touches multiple disciplines.

Our graduate students work within a growing nexus of quantum research in Chicago, which includes the  Chicago Quantum Exchange , two Department of Energy funded national quantum information science research centers  Q-NEXT  and  SQMS , the  NSF QuBBE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute , one of the  longest ground-based quantum communication channels  in the country, and much more.

Students perform their research in state-of-the-art facilities at both the  University of Chicago  and  Argonne National Laboratory  campuses, and have opportunities to gain industry expertise through interactions with UChicago’s  Booth School of Business  and the  Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation , as well as our  industry and corporate partners . More opportunities are available through our robust programs in  career development and entrepreneurship ,  science communication ,  mentoring training and opportunities , and  educational outreach .

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Learn more about our curriculum structure, inclusive and student-centered approach to education and research, programs to support career development, and more.

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Quantum Science & Engineering

Join the quantum revolution at Harvard.

We are witnessing the birth of Quantum Science & Engineering, an event no less significant than the advent of the physics and engineering of electronics at the beginning of the last century. This new discipline demands new approaches to educating the rising generations of researchers who will require deep knowledge of science and engineering principles.

The quantum world of very small things has only recently been amenable to full control and this, in turn, has led to an explosion in potential applications, from new approaches to computation and communication, to more rapid drug discovery, and new sensors with unprecedented precision and resolution. We are at the frontier of the development of fully engineered quantum systems, starting from physical phenomena exhibited by quantum materials, integrating devices and systems subject to quantum architectures, and transforming the way in which we acquire, communicate, and process information.

Harvard University plays a leading role in the development of Quantum Science & Engineering. We invite you to learn more about our PhD program .

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University News | 4.26.2021

Harvard to Launch Quantum Science and Engineering Ph.D. Program

Renovation of 60 oxford street will create a quantum hub where theorists and engineers work side by side..

After renovation, 60 Oxford Street will become the hub for quantum science and engineering at Harvard. Photograph by Kristina DeMichele/Harvard Magazine. 

Harvard will launch a Ph.D. program in quantum science and engineering, one of the first in the world, the University announced today. The program has been designed to train the next generation of leaders and innovators in a domain of physics already having transformative effects on electrical engineering and computer science, biology and chemistry—and poised to transform other fields, too, as researchers demonstrate increasing capability to harness and control quantum effects that defy explanations based on the principles of classical physics alone. Simultaneously, the University revealed that it plans a major renovation of 60 Oxford Street in order to house key portions of its ambitious quantum program. The transformation of that 94,000 gross-square-foot building, constructed in 2007, into a quantum-science and engineering hub is made possible by what the University described in a statement as “generous support from Stacey L. and David E. Goel ’93 and several other alumni.”  

“Existing technologies,” said David Goel in the statement, “are reaching the limit of their capacity and cannot drive the innovation we need for the future, specifically in areas like semiconductors and the life sciences.” The co-founder and managing general partner of Matrix Capital Management Company, LP (a hedge fund based in Waltham, Massachusetts), called quantum science “an enabler, providing a multiplier effect…a catalyst that drives scientific revolutions and epoch-making paradigm shifts.” (The Goels  previously made a $100-million gift to catalyze the University’s formation of a performing-arts venue  in Allston that will include the relocated American Repertory Theater.) 

The new doctoral degree builds on the 2018 launch of the Harvard Quantum Initiative,  co-led  by Silsbee professor of physics John Doyle, Tarr-Coyne professor of applied physics and of electrical engineering Evelyn Hu, and Leverett professor of physics Mikhail Lukin. Its program of study will draw on existing courses in quantum science—which encompasses physics at the scale of atoms and sub-atomic particles, or that is linked to the discrete energy states (quanta) associated with these objects—as well as courses in materials science, photonics, computer science, chemistry, and related fields. The aim is to provide, within a community of scholars and engineers, a foundational core curriculum that Hu said will dramatically reduce “the time to basic quantum proficiency for a community of students who will be the future innovators, researchers, and educators in quantum science and engineering.” The  program is expected to admit its first cohort of Ph.D. candidates —about six students—in the fall of 2022; eventually, it will enroll 35 to 40 candidates. They will learn how to build quantum materials, including quantum bits (“qubits”) that perform switching functions analogous to those found in classical computers; how to stabilize and extend the life of quantum states; and how to design quantum information networks, among other skills. 

The Ph.D. program

Quantum science and engineering is “a brand new field in many ways,” explained Hu, the faculty co-director, with Doyle, of the new doctoral program. Although Harvard and other institutions have invested in the study of quantum physics for decades, “This particular moment is timely”—and unusual, she said in an interview: even though “there’s still a tremendous amount of basic science to explore, and fundamental scientific questions and challenges,…companies are seizing the opportunity to go forward with commercial products.” Industry has recognized that quantum behaviors can be harnessed for practical use, even without an understanding of precisely why they exist. The entanglement of particles is one example, because it enables unbreakable quantum cryptography over quantum communication networks. Entangled photons and electrons are particles that have become linked, so that the state of one, when queried, is instantaneously “communicated” to the other, no matter where or how far away in the universe that entangled counterpart might be. Thus, if someone tried to steal data encoded using a quantum key by probing one of the particles, the other particle would immediately reveal the interference.

Currently, there simply aren’t enough graduates with expertise in quantum engineering to satisfy corporate demand. To fill that gap and advance basic science research in the field, the new doctoral program, said Hu, will provide an integrated approach that builds on quantum behaviors in “not just physics, not just chemistry, electrical engineering, computer science, applied math, and mechanical engineering, but a whole host of other disciplines. That is what motivates the Ph.D. program that we just launched.”

Christopher Stubbs, science division dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Moncher professor of physics and of astronomy, called Harvard’s investment in the field—at a time when University budgets are constrained, and hiring of new faculty has been limited in many other areas—“significant.” Beyond the renovation of 60 Oxford Street, several searches for new faculty members are already under way, in hopes of recruiting as many as 10 during the next decade to join an already active group of researchers and educators in the field. Several current faculty members have made notable contributions within the quantum domain in the past year alone, including assistant professor of physics Julia Mundy (the recipient of a $875,000 Packard Award to pursue her research in novel quantum materials during the next five years); professor of physics in residence Susanne Yelin (named a fellow of the Optical Society for “pioneering theoretical work in quantum optics”); and Kahn associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics Kang-Kuen Ni. (In 2018, Ni joined atoms of sodium and cesium, which normally don’t react with each other, into a single molecule that lasted for an instant. This year, her lab members were able to extend the life of that dipolar molecule to three and half seconds—more than enough time to make it useful in quantum applications.)

Numerous existing centers throughout the University will add depth in both quantum science and engineering in a variety of specific research areas. The  Center for Integrated Quantum Materials , for example, is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center for studying quantum materials with unconventional properties; the  Center for Nanoscale Systems  is focused on  the science of small things , and their integration into larger systems; the  Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Quantum Optics  is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Harvard’s physics department that conducts research and education in a broad range of quantum sciences including metrology (measurement) and quantum-based information science. And the Center for Ultracold Atoms is a joint NSF Physics Frontier Center run together with MIT, with which Harvard has a longstanding collaboration in quantum-science investigations. John Doyle adds that he and his colleagues want to expand on this constellation of domain expertise by establishing a center for quantum theory in the new building, to which they can invite colleagues from around the world. At the practical, hands-on end of the spectrum, the building will also feature an instructional lab where undergraduate and graduate students will have an opportunity to work with quantum systems. Common areas in the building, he added, will provide natural opportunities “for theorists and experimentalists to connect.”

“An incredible foundation has been laid in quantum and we are now at an inflection point to accelerate that activity,” summed up Frank Doyle, dean of the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Armstrong professor of engineering and applied sciences (and no relation to John Doyle). Collaborations, he emphasized, will play an important role in that acceleration. To speed the translation of applied research into industrial products, Dean Doyle described a vision for “integrated partnerships where we invite partners from the private sector to be embedded on the campus to learn from the researchers in our labs, and where our faculty connect to the private sector and national labs” that have been affiliated with five quantum-information science research centers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The broad aim, he said, is to learn about “cutting-edge applications, as well as help translate…basic research into useful tools for society.”

Even though engineering using quantum behaviors can advance ahead of basic scientific understanding in some cases, as Evelyn Hu pointed out, predicting the behavior of quantum systems will require quantum computational abilities. A key applied-research area that will advance both the basic science and the engineering involves quantum simulation, a precursor to broadly useful quantum computation. Quantum simulators can be used to describe and potentially predict the behavior of quantum systems and materials. For example, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR) is now being used at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to identify small molecules in living subjects. To identify the molecules, NMR relies on a quantum probabilistic process. Interpreting the results with traditional computers would take days, but pairing a classical computer with a quantum simulator—a special-purpose computer which itself operates on quantum probabilistic principles—can identify the molecules in minutes.  

In another example, quantum-materials engineers use one-atom-thick sheets of crystalline materials like graphene that have perfect symmetry (and no dangling bonds) to create new structures for controlling the behavior of electrons. When two sheets of this atomically identical material are placed atop one another, and one layer is then rotated slightly, a moiré pattern is created that contains areas of high and low energy—a kind of landscape of mountains and valleys with extraordinary tunable properties. Electrons trapped between the sheets congregate in the low-energy valleys, according to the bilayer material’s changing optical and electrical properties (which depend on the angle of rotation). But predicting exactly  what  those properties will be, so that they can be used for quantum-based electronics, is beyond the capability of classic computers, even those deploying artificial intelligence and advanced deep learning techniques.

Past successes in quantum-materials design, such as the  extraordinary development of the quantum cascade laser by Wallace professor of applied physics Federico Capasso , were based on the behavior of  single  particles. Now investigators hope to exploit the vastly greater intricacy of polyatomic molecules, with three or more atoms, to make materials and devices with complex properties unexplainable using classical models of physics. The University’s deepening research and development capacity in this transformative field, in collaboration with other institutions, national laboratories, and industry, appears poised to provide both solid and compelling training for prospective scholars.

Candidates interested in the new Ph.D. in quantum science and engineering can learn more about the program philosophy, curriculum, and requirements  here.

  Read the University announcement here. 

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Field expected to usher in era of super-fast computing and innovation across a range of fields

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In the middle of the 20th century, mathematicians, physicists, and engineers at Harvard began work that would lay the foundations for a new field of study, the applications of which would change the world in ways unimaginable at the time. These pioneering computer scientists helped develop the theory and technology that would usher in the digital age.

Harvard is once again taking a leading role in a scientific and technological revolution — this time in the field of quantum science and engineering. Today, the University launched one of the world’s first Ph.D. programs in the subject, providing the foundational education for the next generation of innovators and leaders who will transform quantum science and engineering into next-level systems, devices, and applications.

The new degree is the latest step in the University’s commitment to moving forward as both a leader in research and an innovator in teaching in the field of quantum science and engineering. Harvard launched the Harvard Quantum Initiative in 2018 to foster and grow this new scientific community. And additional future plans call for the creation of a quantum hub on campus to help further integrate efforts and encourage collaboration.

“This is a pivotal time for quantum science and engineering at Harvard,” said President Larry Bacow. “With institutional collaborators including MIT and industry partners, and the support of generous donors, we are making extraordinary progress in discovery and innovation. Our faculty and students are driving progress that will reshape our world through quantum computing, networking, cryptography, materials, and sensing, as well as emerging areas of promise that will yield advances none of us can yet imagine.”

“This cross disciplinary Ph.D. program will prepare our students to become the leaders and innovators in the emerging field of quantum science and engineering,” said Emma Dench, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “Harvard’s interdisciplinary strength and intellectual resources make it the perfect place for them to develop their ideas, grow as scholars, and make discoveries that will change the world.”

At the nexus of physics, chemistry, computer science, and electrical engineering, quantum science and technology promises to profoundly change the way we acquire, process, and communicate information. Imagine a computer that could sequence a person’s genome in a matter of seconds or an un-hackable communications system that could make data breaches a thing of the past. Quantum technology will usher in game-changing innovations in health care, infrastructure, security, drug development, climate-change prediction, machine learning, financial services, and more.

Researchers excited and detected spin waves in a quantum Hall ferromagnet, spending them through the insulating material like waves in a pond.

The University is building partnerships with government agencies and national laboratories to advance quantum technologies and educate the next generation of quantum scientists. Harvard researchers will play a major role in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers, aimed at bolstering the nation’s global competitiveness and security. As part of the centers, Harvard researchers will:

• develop and study the next generation of quantum materials that are resilient, controllable, and scalable;
• use quantum-sensing techniques to explore the exotic properties of quantum materials for applications in numerous quantum technologies;
• construct a quantum simulator out of ultra-cold molecules to attack important problems in materials development and test the performance of new types of quantum computation;
• develop topological quantum materials for manipulating, transferring, and storing information for quantum computers and sensors;
• investigate how quantum computers can meaningfully speed up answers to real-world scientific problems and create new tools to quantify this advantage and performance.

In partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Harvard University Center for Integrated Quantum Materials (CIQM) has helped develop curriculum and educator activities that will help K‒12 students engage with quantum information science. CIQM is also collaborating with the Learning Center for the Deaf to create quantum science terms in American Sign Language .

“Breakthrough research happens when you create the right community of scholars around the right ideas at the right time,” said Claudine Gay, the Edgerley Family Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “The Harvard Quantum Initiative builds on Harvard’s historic strength in the core disciplines of quantum science by drawing together cross-cutting faculty talent into a community committed to thinking broadly and boldly about the many problems where quantum innovations may offer a solution. This new approach to quantum science will open the way for new partnerships to advance the field, but perhaps even more importantly, it promises to make Harvard the training ground for the next generation of breakthrough scientists who could change the way we live and work.”

“Harvard’s missions are to excel at education and research, and these are closely related,” said John Doyle, the Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics and co-director of HQI. “Being at — and sometimes defining — the frontier of research keeps our education vibrant and meaningful to students. We aim to teach a broad range of students to think about the physical world in this new, quantum way as this is crucial to creating a strong community of future leaders in science and engineering. Tight focus on both research and teaching in quantum will develop Harvard into the leading institution in this area and keep the country at the forefront of this critical area of knowledge.”

Quantum at Harvard: ‘A game-changing’ moment

A conversation with SEAS Dean Frank Doyle, John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Science Division Dean Christopher Stubbs, Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy.

Transcript:

Doyle: We’re at a game changing point in science and technology. We’re poised to enable translation breakthroughs in our applications of that understanding to broadly stated information science, so networking, signal processing, encryption, communications, computing and simulation.

Stubbs: What we’re talking about, looking to the future, exploits the really spooky parts of quantum mechanics, about the relationship of information in spatially separated systems and trying to harness that technologically and bringing it to bear on problems in networking, computing, and sensing systems.

I think we’re learning more about the way the world works every day, and we’re interested here at Harvard in knitting that understanding together across different traditionally separated fields and pulling together an integrated effort that pulls together, computer science, electrical engineering, physics systems engineering, and tries to use these to build new tools to make life better for everybody.

Doyle: Chris, I completely agree, and I would say that one thing, I recognize deeply as the dean on the engineering side is that foundations are critical to achieving success in the domain of innovation or translation, whatever the application space might be. We have to have that core body of knowledge supporting and enabling really a continuum from basic science through applied science, ultimately to engineering. I would also point to the fact that we are modestly scaled compared to some of our peers, which I think empowers us with agility and nimbleness that allows us to quickly assemble the teams that cross the spectrum of these disciplines that we need to harness, and that’s a real strength here at Harvard as well.

Stubbs: I would say we’re making significant institutional investments in this enterprise. We’ve identified a building, working in partnership across the university, that’s going to be put to use for this activity, with new labs, new teaching labs. We will fill that space with colleagues that we intend to bring to campus to strengthen our faculty in this domain. We’re building a strong and vibrant educational program. And I think an important element to include here is that we see this as a way to reach all the way into applications at scale, and we’re building partnerships with industrial partners, ranging from startups-sized companies to major national corporations that are going to have the ability to bring these ideas to bear at scale and impact people’s lives in a positive way.

Doyle: I would say that this opportunity has tremendous potential across a wide array of fields and applications, from more traditional engineering fields like communications, cybersecurity, network science, but across an even broader array of fields including finance (thinking about the new kinds of algorithms that are going to power the future of things like trading and stress testing the market); precision medicine; the quantum principles that we’re going to be able to leverage in devices that will now interrogate at unprecedented scale — spatial and temporal — to bring information back that we can act upon. So it’s virtually a limitless horizon of application opportunities out there.

Stubbs: We’re fortunate in the Boston area to have another university down the road, whose initials are MIT, with which, in particular in this technical domain, we have strong existing partnerships among the faculty. We view this as moving forward arm-in-arm with sister institutions in this region to establish Boston as one of the premier centers in the nation for both innovation, education, and application of this new technology.

Doyle: Our faculties partnering across Harvard and MIT have been doing this for literally decades. So there’s an incredible organic foundation that has been laid in the Greater Cambridge, Greater Boston space that we’re now turning an inflection point to accelerate that activity.

The field of quantum really opens up some exciting partnership opportunities, which we’re exploring with great passion. The notion that the continuum from the university and basic research and applied research, through to getting products in the market, through getting operational networks, operational systems is one that truly is a continuum. So there has to be integrated partnerships, where we invite partners in the private sector in to be embedded on the campus to learn from the researchers in our labs, where we embed our faculty out in the private sector in national labs to learn about the cutting edge applications that need to drive and fuel the research taking place back on the campus. So I really view this as a wonderful new opportunity to rethink the nature of how the private sector and the academy partner to enable the ultimate translation into products, technologies that are going to benefit mankind.

Edited for length.

The University’s location within the Greater Boston ecosystem of innovation and discovery is one of its greatest strengths.

A recent collaboration between Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and University quantum physicists resulted in a proof-of-concept algorithm to dramatically speed up the analysis of nuclear magnetic resonance (NNMR) readings to identify biomarkers of specific diseases and disorders, reducing the process from days to just minutes.

A multidisciplinary team of electrical engineers and physicists from Harvard and MIT are building the infrastructure for tomorrow’s quantum internet , including quantum repeaters, quantum memory storage, and quantum networking nodes, and developing the key technologies to connect quantum processors over local and global scales.

“We are moving forward arm in arm with sister institutions in this region, most notably MIT, to establish Boston as one of the premier centers in the nation for both education and developing technologies that we anticipate will have significant impact on society,” said Christopher Stubbs, science division dean and Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy.

  “We are excited to see the ever-growing opportunities for collaboration in quantum science and engineering at Harvard, in the Boston community, and beyond,” said Evelyn L. Hu, the Tarr-Coyne Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Science at SEAS and co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative. “Harvard is committed to sustaining that growth and fostering a strong community of students, faculty, and inventors, both locally and nationwide.”

Fiber-optical networks, the backbone of the internet, rely on high-fidelity information conversion from electrical to the optical domain. The researchers combined the best optical material with innovative nanofabrication and design approaches, to realize, energy-efficient, high-speed, low-loss, electro-optic converters for quantum and classical communications.

“Building a vibrant community and ecosystem is essential for bringing the benefits of quantum research to different fields of science and society,” said Mikhail Lukin, George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics and co-director of HQI. “Quantum at Harvard aims to integrate unique strengths of university research groups, government labs, established companies, and startups to not only advance foundational quantum science and engineering but also to build and to enable broad access to practical quantum systems.”

To facilitate those collaborations, the University is finalizing plans for the comprehensive renovation of an existing campus building into a new quantum hub — a shared resource for the quantum community with instructional and research labs, seminar and workshop spaces, meeting spaces for students and faculty, and space for visiting researchers and collaborators. The quantum headquarters will integrate the educational, research, and translational aspects of the diverse field of quantum science and engineering in an architecturally cohesive way.

This critical element of Harvard’s quantum strategy was made possible by a generous gift from Stacey L. and David E. Goel ’93 and gifts from several other alumni who stepped forward to support HQI. David Goel, co-founder and managing general partner of Waltham, Mass.-based Matrix Capital Management Co. and one of Harvard’s most ardent supporters, said his gift was inspired both by recognizing Harvard’s “intellectual dynamism and leadership in quantum” and a sense of the utmost urgency to pursue opportunities in this field. “Our existing technologies are reaching the limit of their capacity and cannot drive the innovation we need for the future, specifically in areas like semiconductors, technology, and the life sciences. Quantum is an enabler, providing a multiplier effect on a logarithmic scale. It is a catalyst that drives the kinds of scientific revolutions and epoch-making paradigm shifts.”

Electrodes stretch diamond strings to increase the frequency of atomic vibrations to which an electron is sensitive, just like tightening a guitar string increases the frequency or pitch of the string. The tension quiets a qubit’s environment and improves memory from tens to several hundred nanoseconds, enough time to do many operations on a quantum chip.

Goel credits the academic leaders and their “commitment to ensuring that Harvard’s community will be at the forefront of the science that is already changing the world.”

The University is also building partnerships with industry partners, ranging from startups to major national corporations, that are preparing to bring quantum technologies to the public.

“An incredible foundation has been laid in quantum at Harvard, and we are now at an inflection point to accelerate that activity and build on the momentum that has already made Harvard a leader in the field,” said Frank Doyle, SEAS dean and John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Research happening right now in Harvard labs is significantly advancing our understanding of quantum science and engineering and positioning us to make breathtaking new discoveries and industry-leading translation breakthroughs.”

To enable opportunities to move from basic to applied research to translating ideas into products, Doyle described a vision for “integrated partnerships where we invite partners from the private sector to be embedded on the campus to learn from the researchers in our labs and where our faculty connect to the private sector and national labs to learn about the cutting-edge applications, as well as help translate of basic research into useful tools for society.”

  “We are at the early stages of a technological transformation, similar or maybe even grander than the excitement and the promise that came with the birth of computer science — and Harvard is at the forefront,” Stubbs said.

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Princeton University

Princeton engineering, princeton introduces a ph.d. program at intersection of quantum physics and information theory.

November 13, 2023

Princeton University has launched a new Ph.D. program in Quantum Science and Engineering , providing graduate training in an emerging discipline at the intersection of quantum physics and information theory.

This new field of quantum information science may enable fundamentally new technology, including new types of computers that can solve currently intractable problems, communication channels guaranteed secure by the laws of physics, and sensors that offer unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution.

Applications from prospective students are due December 15 for an incoming first class in Fall 2024. 

The new doctoral program is part of Princeton’s expanded commitment to quantum science and engineering research and education. The University’s growing programs, along with the ongoing recruitment of top faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, reflect the University’s recognition of the transformative potential of quantum science and technology to benefit society in the decades ahead.

According to Andrew Houck, professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-director of the Princeton Q uantum I nitiative , Princeton is “ramping up efforts across campus to remain the leading place in the world for this kind of science and engineering for many decades.”  Ali Yazdani, the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics and co-director alongside Houck, adds that Princeton’s work in this area stands apart from quantum research at other institutions due to the University’s inclusive approach across disciplines and across the spectrum from foundational science to innovative devices. 

 “A major goal of the program is to form a graduate student community spanning disciplines and research topics, and united by a common scientific language,” according to Nathalie de Leon, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the director of graduate studies for quantum science and engineering. “Our curriculum will place students in an excellent position to build new quantum systems, discover new technological innovations, become leaders in the emergent quantum industry, and make deep, lasting contributions to quantum information science.”

De Leon says the new quantum science and engineering doctoral program is structured to take advantage of the unique interdisciplinary breadth of Princeton’s quantum community. “Research at Princeton encompasses every layer of the quantum technology stack, bringing together many-body physics, materials, devices, new quantum hardware platforms, quantum information theory, metrology, algorithms, complexity theory, and computer architecture,” explains de Leon. “This vibrant environment allows for rapid progress at the frontiers of quantum science and technology, with cross-pollination among quantum platforms and approaches.”

The initiative also benefits from a growing number of collaborations with scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory managed by Princeton; the collaborative work includes designing highly specialized materials such as diamonds and superconducting magnets needed for quantum experiments and technologies.

De Leon adds, “The quantum faculty at Princeton value interdisciplinarity, collaboration, depth, and fostering a close-knit community that enables fundamental and significant advances.”

The new doctoral program will provide students with a strong foundation of fundamentals, as well as opportunities to explore the frontiers of current research, instruction on reading and understanding literature over an extensive range of topics, and many opportunities for scientific interaction and professional development. 

Princeton University’s stipend for graduate students is among the highest in the nation. The University fully funds all Ph.D. students, offering generous tailored support across all years of regular program enrollment. The graduate student experience at Princeton encompasses campus housing, a health plan and benefits, family care assistance, and a wide range of student life programs and traditions that welcome all to participate in the diverse and inclusive Graduate School community.

Prospective students are encouraged to review the degree program requirements and indicate on the application their interest in the broad research areas of quantum systems experiment, quantum systems theory, quantum material science, or quantum computer science. 

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Quantum Engineering

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• Introduction

Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

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Questions about these requirements? See the contact info at the bottom of the page. 

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The graduate program in Quantum Science and Engineering accepts applications only for the PhD degree. Although graduate students can earn a continuing AM (Master of Arts) degree along the way to completing their PhDs, the program does not accept applications specifically for terminal AM degrees.

The objective of the Quantum Science and Engineering program is to prepare investigators with diverse backgrounds for research careers in which the concepts and methods of quantum mechanics are applied to innovative science and practical, useful platforms for quantum sensing, simulation, and computation. This objective will be met through a set of core courses and individually designed paths involving additional elective courses in physics, chemistry, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), research group rotations, qualifying examinations, independent research, and thesis writing.

Although no two PhD students follow precisely the same path, students should keep in mind the following general timeline.

Student Advisory Committee

The Student Advisory Committee (SAC) will oversee the advising process for all students. This will include creating the student’s Individual Advisory Committee (IAC), helping to create and approve the student’s Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) and assessing and developing the student advising programs for all QSE students.

Individual Advisory Committee

The SAC assigns each incoming graduate student a three-person IAC before they have identified a particular thesis advisor. The committee will meet on a regular basis as needed with the student to provide advice and guidance on curricular issues, professional development, and discussion of norms and expectations. One of the committee members will be the student’s academic advisor (see below). The role of the committee will also include advice and guidance on research and matching of the student with a particular research group.

Academic Advisor 

One member of the IAC will be assigned as the student’s academic advisor. They will help the student understand the courses available, degree requirements, and advise on the selection of research group rotations. Students and academic advisors are required to have a one-hour meeting every semester but are expected to meet monthly, at least briefly, until the TAC is formed (see below). In planning a program, students should study the catalog of Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and SEAS, as well as the description in the Programs of Study. After drawing up a tentative program, students should discuss it with their faculty advisors. Students are also welcome to discuss their plans at any time with the directors of graduate studies. 

Thesis Advisor

After the first year and laboratory rotations successfully completed, a student will select a thesis advisor who will then take on the remaining responsibilities of the academic advisor and direct the student’s doctoral research. The thesis advisor must be a QSE Core Faculty Member or in a related department (physics, computer science, electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemistry and chemical biology, or mathematics). Sometimes students may wish to do a substantial portion of their thesis research under the supervision of someone who is not a faculty member in a quantum science and engineering field. Such an arrangement must have the approval of both the student’s academic advisor and the Standing Committee on Higher Degrees in Quantum Science and Engineering (SCHDQSE). 

A few students may wish to design their own thesis projects, taking advantage of the interdisciplinary nature of QSE. These students will need to propose a research plan to their potential academic advisor(s). The academic advisor(s) will consult with the SCHDQSE as to the viability of the plan. For these students, the academic advisor(s) will serve on the student’s TAC. 

Thesis Advisory Committee

In consultation with their thesis advisor or academic advisor, each student will nominate to the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) a Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) to oversee the progress of their research. In most cases, this will be done by the beginning of the student’s third year. The membership of the TAC will be approved by the SAC. At the same time, the student’s proposed program of research will be reviewed and approved in writing by the TAC. The TAC will meet with the student at least once per year to review progress and offer advice. The TAC will normally have three faculty members, two of whom are program members. 

Program of Study (Credit and Course Requirements)

Each student is required to accumulate a total of 16 four-credit courses of credit, which can include any combination of 200- or 300-level Harvard courses in quantum science and engineering and related fields, graduate-level courses taken by official cross-registration at MIT, and units of reading and/or research time courses (300-level). 

In fulfilling this requirement, students must obtain grades of B- or better in nine four-credit courses specified as follows:

• Mandatory   core courses:  Four four-credit courses: (1) Foundations of Quantum Mechanics; (2) Quantum Optics; (3) Introduction to Quantum Information Science; and (4) Applied Quantum Systems.
• Focus courses:  Two four-credit courses drawn from the  QSE Program's official list. These courses would be fundamental to the student’s sub-area of research.
• Field courses: Three required four-credit courses, drawn from the QSE related departments list of graduate courses, with at least one outside the student’s area of specialization.

Note: Not all courses listed are given every year, and course offerings, numbers, and contents sometimes change. Therefore, students should confer with their advisors or with the chairs of the SCHDQSE about their program of study. Note also that the award of the continuing AM degree does not automatically qualify the student as a candidate for the PhD. Course descriptions can be found on the registrar’s website . 

Other fields courses and petitions to waive certain course requirements:  With the approval of the SCHDQSE, a student may use 200-level courses or fields not officially listed for their focus courses. Upon entering the program, students may petition SCHDQSE to use courses previously taken (before arriving at Harvard) to meet certain course requirements. Students will submit, along with the petition, evidence of satisfactory course performance. 

The general requirements outlined above are a minimum standard and students will usually take additional courses in their selected fields as well as in others. A student need not fulfill all course requirements before beginning research.

As a result of an exchange agreement between the universities, graduate students in QSE at Harvard may also enroll in lecture courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The procedure is outlined under Cross-Registration .

Research Group Rotations

Each QSE PhD candidate is required to complete a minimum of two laboratory rotations. The two rotations are expected to be adequately distinct and ideally be in both science and engineering to gain firsthand exposure to new techniques and questions. Lab rotations are considered equivalent to course requirements and therefore must be done before a student can take their qualifying oral exam (see below). Students will submit their lab rotation application before starting their second rotation and no later than February 1 of their first year of study for review by SCHDQSE. More details on lab rotations can be found on this program page .  

In addition to research assistantships (RAs), teaching fellowships (TFs) are important sources of support for graduate students after their first year. Because of the importance of teaching skills for a successful quantum science and engineering career, a one-term TF is required of all graduate students, generally within the first three years of study. This teaching experience provides an opportunity for students to develop the communication skills that are vital for careers in academics and industry.

To fulfill the teaching requirement, students must serve as a teaching fellow at least one fall or spring term for at least 15 hours per week (3/8-time). The TF position should involve a teaching component and not merely grading.

There is no formal language requirement for the PhD in QSE. 

Qualifying Oral Examination

Each student is also expected to pass an oral examination given by the student's Qualifying Exam Committee (QEC) (see below), ideally by the end of the fourth term in residence. This oral exam will emphasize general knowledge, reasoning, the ability to formulate a research plan, and the ability to engage in high-level scientific discourse. The purpose of the examination is two-fold: The examination aids in estimating the candidate’s potential for performing research at a level required for the doctoral thesis, and serves as a diagnostic tool for determining whether the candidate requires changes to the program of research and study.

For the examination, each student is asked to select, prepare, and discuss in depth a topic in their specialization field, and to answer questions from the faculty committee about that specific topic and, more broadly, about the student’s larger subfield. Originality is welcomed but not required.

The student selects the topic—preferably but not necessarily related to the proposed field of thesis research—and then submits a title and abstract together with a list of completed course requirements (described above under Program of Study). The student then confers in detail with their thesis advisor about the topic to be discussed and concrete expectations for the examination. The QEC provides approval of the topic. To ensure adequate preparation, this conference should take place at the earliest possible date, typically one to two months before the examination.

Oral examinations are evaluated on the knowledge and understanding students demonstrate about their chosen topic as well as about their general subfield. Students are also judged on the clarity and organization of their expositions. The examining committee may take into account other information about the candidate’s performance as a graduate student. The student will pass the examination if the committee believes that the student has demonstrated adequate comprehension of the chosen topic and the larger field, as well as an ability to perform the thesis research required for the doctoral degree. Students who do not pass the qualifying oral examination on their first attempt will be given instructions for improvement and encouraged by the committee to take a second examination at a later date.

Qualifying Exam Committee

Each student will have an individual Qualifying Exam Committee, the membership of which will be approved by the SCHDQSE. The committee is responsible for developing and administering the qualifying examination and for making pass/fail recommendations to the SCHDQSE. Normally, the Qualifying Exam Committee would have three faculty members, one of whom is the student’s prospective thesis advisor. If the student’s immediate research advisor is from outside of Harvard, that person would constitute a fourth member of the committee. The committee should include two members who are QSE program members, with one person outside the specific type of research focus (e.g. for an experimentalist, there would be one theorist on the committee).

The SCHDQSE may, upon petition, grant a deferment of the examination for up to one year. Students who have not passed their oral examinations by the end of their third year of graduate study must seek approval from the SCHDQSE prior to being allowed to register for a fourth year of graduate study. If satisfactory arrangements cannot be made, the student will be withdrawn from the program.

Year Three and Beyond

In order to become acquainted with the various programs of research in progress and promising areas for thesis research, students should attend seminars and colloquia, and consult with their faculty advisors and upper-level graduate students. A list of the current faculty and their research programs is available  online .

The QSE program will have an annual retreat. The purpose of the retreat is to bring the entire QSE community together to learn about research progress in QSE both at Harvard and elsewhere. Since the retreat is a major program occasion, all students and program faculty will be expected to attend, and advanced students will be expected to present (orally or through a poster) their thesis research to date.

At least yearly, all students are required to give a short talk about their research at one of the QSE-related gatherings, such as the Joint Quantum Seminar, in front of the invited speaker.

Academic Residence

Ordinarily, a candidate must be enrolled and in residence for at least two years (four terms) of full-time study in the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Ideally, the PhD is completed within six and a half years. The student’s TAC reviews the student's progress each year. For financial residence requirements, see Financial Aid .

Criteria for Satisfactory Progress

In addition to the policies specified by Harvard Griffin GSAS, the QSE program identifies satisfactory progress for graduate students by several key criteria.

The student is expected to identify a potential thesis advisor before taking the qualifying exam. The student must be formally accepted by an appropriate thesis advisor and arrange for the appointment of the TAC within six months of passing the qualifying oral examination.

During each subsequent year, the student must submit a progress report in the form specified by the SCHDQSE. The progress report must be approved by the student’s TAC who will evaluate the student’s progress toward the completion of the degree. 

For other types of extensions or leave-of-absence policies, consult the Registration section of Policies.

Dissertation Defense

Following the qualifying exam, the student should arrange a TAC, which consists of at least three faculty members and is chaired by a member of the QSE program (see above). At least two members of the TAC, including the chair, must be members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) or the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). A non-FAS or a non-SEAS thesis advisor should be a member of the dissertation committee but cannot serve as its official chair.

The dissertation defense consists of an oral final examination delivered to the TAC that involves a searching analysis of the student’s thesis. If the student’s coursework does not indicate a wide proficiency in the field of the thesis, the examination may be extended to test this proficiency as well.

The candidate must provide draft copies of the completed thesis for members of the dissertation committee at least three weeks in advance of the examination. The program requires one bound copy of the final thesis, which students can order through the online dissertation submission system. See the Dissertation section of Policies for detailed requirements.

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Quantum Science and Engineering: Ph.D., M.S.

Prepare for the quantum revolution.

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Quantum science and engineering is the design and study of materials, devices and algorithms that take advantage of the unique properties of quantum systems to realize technologies that can outperform their classical counterparts.

With a curriculum developed to maximize hands-on, project-based learning, university of delaware graduate students are trained to use state-of-the-art equipment ranging from semiconductor nanofabrication tools to high-performance computers in one of the only programs offering both m.s. and ph.d. degrees in quantum science and engineering. the interdisciplinary program leverages the talents of diverse experts from departments throughout the university., apply today >, inquire today >, exploding technology.

A report by Fortune Business Insights, “Quantum Computing Market, 2021-2028,” said the global quantum computing market is expected to grow from $486.1 million in 2021 to $3,180.9 million in 2028, which equates to a compound annual growth rate of 30.8%.

Acknowledging this potential, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zellinger, who used entangled quantum states in groundbreaking experiments that demonstrated the possibility and feasibility of new technologies based on quantum information.

The emerging quantum industry needs people with different training than what is provided by traditional disciplines. Our degree program is designed to provide this mix of skills and to develop a shared vocabulary that allows people working on every aspect of quantum technologies — from material foundations to quantum algorithms — to communicate effectively.

New Dimensions for Encryption

How Quantum Computers Break the Internet: youtube.com/watch?v=-UrdExQW0cs

Program Benefits

• Choose between M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
• Learn from award-winning faculty taking a project-based approach
• Benefit from interdisciplinary expertise in engineering, physics, information science and physics
• Receive hands-on access to world-class labs and facilities
• Acquire the skills and knowledge required for the quantum workforce that will carry this field into the future

the SECOND Quantum Revolution IS HERE

The first quantum revolution occurred when scientists discovered quantum mechanics, which led to technologies ranging from lasers to mri machines to the engineering of new molecules for biomedical applications. the second quantum revolution started with the realization that quantum information processing could be much more powerful than the digital information processing that enabled the information and computing revolution of the past few decades., the national quantum initiative act , signed into law on dec. 21, 2018, directs the u.s. president to establish the goals and priorities for a 10-year plan to accelerate the development of quantum information science and technology applications., in response to the needs of industry, our curriculum is designed to rapidly introduce all students to the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics and quantum information processing, establish a shared vocabulary and knowledge base that accelerates collaboration across disciplines, and train students with the professional skills they need when they join the workforce..

A Great Career Choice

According to the  Harvard Business Review , "Just as classical computers reduced the cost of arithmetic, quantum presents a similar cost reduction to calculating daunting combinatoric problems."

IBM, Microsoft, HP, Northrop Grumman and Google all have big quantum initiatives, as do many smaller businesses and startups. Citing a dearth of available talent, McKinsey Digital's June 2022 "Quantum Technology Monitor" noted that quantum technology job postings in 2021 outpaced qualified talent by nearly 300%.

Starting salaries for quantum physicists, quantum computer scientists, quantum computing software engineers and other quantum jobs regularly exceed $100,000.

A Race to New Heights

Companies, countries battle to develop quantum computers | 60 Minutes: youtube.com/watch?v=K4ssT6Dzmnw

About the Program

In order to maintain a strong, diverse and substantial pool of applicants, our tuition is designed to make us competitive, especially with our peer institutions.

Credits in both Core Curriculums

M.S. and Ph.D. students take the same core and elective courses. The 32-credit master’s can be completed in as little as one year because the coursework is followed by a relatively brief capstone project. The Ph.D. entails extensive dissertation research with a faculty advisor and is typically completed in five to six years.

Affiliated Faculty

Full-time faculty members from UD's College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering — who are leaders in their field — share their individual expertise and unite to equip students with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.

Learn More on the Program Overview Page

From our students.

Ph.D. student, Quantum Science and Engineering

"There are not many U.S. universities that offer this kind of interdisciplinary program dedicated to quantum science and engineering. UD has very strong labs and is very good at experimental science.”

Groundbreaking Research

With many of our  affiliated faculty members conducting funded research projects in a variety of quantum areas, students earning a degree in quantum science and engineering have the opportunity to discover alongside leaders of industry and find their voice in the research community.

Learn More About our Faculty and Their Research >

Master's or ph.d..

M.S. and Ph.D. students take the same core and elective courses. The master’s degree can be completed in as little as one year because the coursework is followed by a relatively brief capstone project. The M.S. program is designed for people who want to learn the foundations of the field and enter the workforce relatively quickly. The Ph.D. program typically takes five to six years because the coursework is followed by several years of research under the supervision of a faculty advisor culminating in a Ph.D. dissertation. The Ph.D. program is designed for people who want to develop the capacity to perform – and lead – independent research in the field.

Explore these degree options more in depth:

Learn about the ph.d., learn about the m.s., what to know before applying.

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The M.S. degree is intended to be a self-paying program. Tuition for the 2023-24 academic year is $1,352 per credit hour. To be considered for federal student loans, students should file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Aid is generally awarded for the academic year, but disbursement (payment) is split between the fall and spring semesters.

Students enrolled in the ph.d. program typically receive a tuition waiver and a stipend that covers their living expenses for the duration of their course of study. , more information about the cost of attendance >, explore funding opportunities.

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Quantum science and engineering

Quantum mechanical entanglement is the main resource for implementation of all quantum technologies (quantum computers,simulators, sensors, and networks). Our goal is to study and scale entanglement in a variety of physical systems (light, semiconductors, atoms), and to develop practical quantum systems and technologies.  

Courses Related to Quantum science and engineering

This course listing is an example; Please speak with your Advisor about what courses are best suited for your individual interest areas.

APPLIED PHYSICS GRADUATE PROGRAM Joint PhD Program Between Weinberg College and Mccormick School of Engineering

Engineered quantum systems.

The fields of applied quantum physics and engineered quantum systems inspires scientists in physics and electrical engineering worldwide, and forms a major thrust of lively research today. At Northwestern, it unites the interests of both experimental and theoretical research groups actively investigating applications of quantum physics for a broad array of tasks, including development of new high-precision measurements, secure information transfer by quantum cryptography, quantum manipulation of ultra-cold trapped atoms and ions, and manipulation of quantum information in superconducting circuits and other mesoscopic systems with quantum coherence. Experimental and computational resources at Northwestern range from cooling quantum systems to temperatures close to the zero-point (e.g., laser cooling of trapped atoms or molecules, and operating two-dimensional electron gases or superconducting samples in dilution refrigerators) to the Quest high-performance computing cluster for numerical simulations.

Faculty: Venkat Chandrasekhar , Anupam Garg , Matthew Grayson , John Ketterson , Jens Koch , Prem Kumar , Hooman Mohseni , Brian Odom , James Sauls , Tamar Seideman , Selim Shariar , Nathaniel Stern .

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Harvard launches phd in quantum science and engineering.

Harvard University announced today one of the world’s first PhD programs in Quantum Science and Engineering,  a new intellectual discipline at the nexus of physics, chemistry, computer science and electrical engineering with the promise to profoundly transform the way we acquire, process and communicate information and interact with the world around us.

With the launch of the PhD program, Harvard is making the next needed commitment to provide the foundational education for the next generation of innovators and leaders who will push the boundaries of knowledge and transform quantum science and engineering into useful systems, devices and applications. 

"The new PhD program is designed to equip students with the appropriate experimental and theoretical education that reflects the nuanced intellectual approaches brought by both the sciences and engineering," said faculty co-director Evelyn Hu, Tarr-Coyne Professor of Applied Physics and of Electrical at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "The core curriculum dramatically reduces the time to basic quantum proficiency for a community of students who will be the future innovators, researchers and educators in quantum science and engineering."

"Quantum science and engineering is not just a hybrid of subjects from different disciplines, but an important new area of study in its own right,” said faculty co-director John Doyle, Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics.“A Ph.D. program is necessary and foundational to the development of this new discipline."

The new program lies at the interface of physics, chemistry, and engineering, providing students with exciting opportunities to explore the fundamentals, realizations, and applications of QSE. Students of diverse backgrounds will benefit from an integrated curriculum designed to dramatically reduce the time to basic quantum proficiency and to equip students with experimental and theoretical education that reflects the nuanced intellectual approaches brought by both the sciences and engineering. Students will have the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art experimental and computational facilities. Integrating a new approach to interdisciplinary scholarship, graduates of the program will be prepared for careers in academia, industry, and national laboratories.

Research is a primary focus of the program, with students beginning research rotations in their first year. Extensive mentoring and advising is embedded in the program: graduate students in QSE are part of an academic community that cuts across departments and schools and, as such, are strongly encouraged to pursue cross-disciplinary research. In addition to their research, QSE PhD students will receive training in communication and professional opportunities, such as industry internships.

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Advancing Quantum Leadership and Community

Northwestern hosted a qed-c plenary meeting for academic, corporate, and government stakeholders.

Quantum 1.0 technologies — including lasers, MRI scanners, transistors, and semiconductor devices — paved the way for ubiquitous devices and services such as smart phones, laptops, and GPS navigation. Harnessing the quantum mechanics of sub-atomic particles — the phenomena of superposition, measurement, and entanglement — quantum 2.0 technology has the potential to revolutionize artificial intelligence, communications, information technology, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics.

To advance quantum research and technology development, Northwestern University is a founding member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), an alliance of academic, corporate, and government stakeholders established under the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to accelerate the development of quantum information science and technology applications.

QED-C aims to realize the transformative potential of quantum 2.0 technologies — from quantum computing and cryptography to quantum sensing, timing, and imaging — by supporting a robust quantum ecosystem and quantum industry supply chain and identifying strategic gaps in enabling technologies, standards and regulation, and quantum workforce development.

On March 20-21, Northwestern hosted a QED-C plenary meeting for nearly 150 members — including leaders from Northwestern Engineering and the University —to learn, network, and identify collaboration opportunities.

Northwestern President Michael H. Schill and QED-C executive director Celia Merzbacher welcomed the guests.

“One doesn't need to be an expert about quantum computing to understand that it is a critical area for Northwestern and indeed for our nation and world,” said Schill, professor of law in Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law and professor of finance and real estate in the Kellogg School of Management. “The research emerging from this field is poised to revolutionize our lives in the coming decades, and the work that all of you are involved in certainly brings needed solutions to a whole range of societal challenges that quantum computing will have the answers to.

“Quantum is a rising priority for Northwestern and for our faculty members. In the University priorities I unveiled last summer, I highlighted the importance of research and innovation in data science, artificial intelligence, sustainability, and decarbonization. All of those things are implicated in quantum computing, so I'm really excited that we're able to host this conference and that we're a founding member of this consortium.”

One doesn't need to be an expert about quantum computing to understand that it is a critical area for Northwestern and indeed for our nation and world. The research emerging from this field is poised to revolutionize our lives in the coming decades, and the work that all of you are involved in certainly brings needed solutions to a whole range of societal challenges that quantum computing will have the answers to.

Northwestern University President Michael H. Schill

Quantum computing for transportation and logistics

Quantum computing offers significant promise for optimization, real-time decision making, monitoring, and predictive modeling in the highly complex, data-driven transportation, logistics, and supply chain sectors.

On March 19, the QED-C Use Cases Technical Advisory Committee published a study, titled “ Quantum Computing for Transportation and Logistics ,” based on a workshop NUTC facilitated last October to assess the feasibility and impact of quantum computing use cases for transportation and logistics applications.

The committee — which also included NUTC senior associate director Bret Johnson ; Kevin Glynn , adjunct lecturer in Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Science in Information Technology Program ; and postdoctoral scholar Divyakant Tahlyan (MS ’21, PhD ’23) — proposed 83 potential uses, including applications with high-impact potential in the near-term such as demand forecasting and optimization of labor, routing, and warehousing.

At the QED-C plenary meeting, Glynn moderated a panel featuring Tahlyan, chief technology officer at PCS Software Yusuf Ozturk (CS PhD) and Catherine Potts of D-Wave Quantum to discuss the findings and recommendations of the study and the computational challenges within the transportation and logistics domains.

The panelists agreed that the existing level of classical computation power is insufficient to solve the algorithmic problems across the logistics and supply chain sectors and that the development and adoption of quantum computing technologies is the next step toward increasing operational efficiency, supply chain security and resilience, and efficiencies to address sustainability.

Sustainable quantum technologies

Mahmassani explained that quantum technologies can play a crucial role in enhancing sustainability efforts within transportation and logistics by optimizing energy consumption, reducing carbon emissions through more efficient routing, and improving overall resource utilization.

“What mRNA research did for COVID is similarly what quantum computing could do for climate change,” said Nivedita Arora , the Allen K. and Johnnie Cordell Breed Junior Professor of Design and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern Engineering. “The next decade is going to be very critical, and we need to accelerate radical decarbonization efforts in electricity, transport, and manufacturing.”

Prem Kumar , professor of electrical and computer engineering, opened a dialogue in a QED-C plenary breakout session on both the applications of quantum to sustainability and the sustainability of quantum technology.

Kumar and panelist Michael R. Wasielewski are executive committee members of Northwestern’s Initiative for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE), a transdisciplinary hub of education and research excellence in quantum sciences across areas including material informatics and data science, material synthesis, molecular quantum transduction, nanotechnology, photonics, physics, and superconducting technologies.

“If we think that we're at an incipient stage of developing quantum technology, now is the time to really think of alternatives, to be creative and see what’s possible,” said Wasielewski, who is also the director of INQUIRE and the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction .

Student focus on next-generation quantum technologies

Students conducting research in quantum fields from Northwestern and nearby universities were invited to participate in a special track at the plenary meeting which featured speed mentoring, a science communication workshop, and a poster session.

Gamze Gül , a fifth-year PhD student in applied physics advised by Kumar, is interested in designing quantum networking protocols to manage and control quantum networks using classical bits. She presented a poster titled “ Quantum Wrapper Networking ,” which demonstrated a novel approach to operate quantum networks that is both compatible with current fiber optic infrastructure and allows for quick adjustments to address network problems — such as loss or high traffic. By creating a package of quantum bits — or qubits — wrapped with classical bits, the qubits can be transported to their destinations without measurement or disturbance to the payload.

“Some technologies that we use in our daily lives, such as lasers, GPS, and transistors, would be impossible without a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics,” Gül said. “Today, we are entering a new era of quantum technologies that could help us understand the world we live in through quantum computing or sensing. It will be crucial to connect the distributed quantum systems.”

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A blueprint for making quantum computers easier to program

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When MIT professor and now Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) member Peter Shor first demonstrated the potential of quantum computers to solve problems faster than classical ones, he inspired scientists to imagine countless possibilities for the emerging technology. Thirty years later, though, the quantum edge remains a peak not yet reached. Unfortunately, the technology of quantum computing isn’t fully operational yet. One major challenge lies in translating quantum algorithms from abstract mathematical concepts into concrete code that can run on a quantum computer. Whereas programmers for regular computers have access to myriad languages such as Python and C++ with constructs that align with standard classical computing abstractions, quantum programmers have no such luxury; few quantum programming languages exist today, and they are comparatively difficult to use because quantum computing abstractions are still in flux. In their recent work, MIT researchers highlight that this disparity exists because quantum computers don’t follow the same rules for how to complete each step of a program in order — an essential process for all computers called control flow — and present a new abstract model for a quantum computer that could be easier to program.

In a paper soon to be presented at the ACM Conference on Object-oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications, the group outlines a new conceptual model for a quantum computer, called a quantum control machine, that could bring us closer to making programs as easy to write as those for regular classical computers. Such an achievement would help turbocharge tasks that are impossible for regular computers to efficiently complete, like factoring large numbers, retrieving information in databases, and simulating how molecules interact for drug discoveries. “Our work presents the principles that govern how you can and cannot correctly program a quantum computer,” says lead author and CSAIL PhD student Charles Yuan SM ’22. “One of these laws implies that if you try to program a quantum computer using the same basic instructions as a regular classical computer, you’ll end up turning that quantum computer into a classical computer and lose its performance advantage. These laws explain why quantum programming languages are tricky to design and point us to a way to make them better.” Old school vs. new school computing One reason why classical computers are relatively easier to program today is that their control flow is fairly straightforward. The basic ingredients of a classical computer are simple: binary digits or bits, a simple collection of zeros and ones. These ingredients assemble into the instructions and components of the computer’s architecture. One important component is the program counter, which locates the next instruction in a program much like a chef following a recipe, by recalling the next direction from memory. As the algorithm sequentially navigates through the program, a control flow instruction called a conditional jump updates the program counter to make the computer either advance forward to the next instruction or deviate from its current steps. By contrast, the basic ingredient of a quantum computer is a qubit, which is a quantum version of a bit. This quantum data exists in a state of zero and one at the same time, known as a superposition. Building on this idea, a quantum algorithm can choose to execute a superposition of two instructions at the same time — a concept called quantum control flow.

The problem is that existing designs of quantum computers don’t include an equivalent of the program counter or a conditional jump. In practice, that means programmers typically implement control flow by manually arranging logical gates that describe the computer’s hardware, which is a tedious and error-prone procedure. To provide these features and close the gap with classical computers, Yuan and his coauthors created the quantum control machine — an instruction set for a quantum computer that works like the classical idea of a virtual machine. In their paper, the researchers envision how programmers could use this instruction set to implement quantum algorithms for problems such as factoring numbers and simulating chemical interactions.

As the technical crux of this work, the researchers prove that a quantum computer cannot support the same conditional jump instruction as a classical computer, and show how to modify it to work correctly on a quantum computer. Specifically, the quantum control machine features instructions that are all reversible — they can run both forward and backward in time. A quantum algorithm needs all instructions, including those for control flow, to be reversible so that it can process quantum information without accidentally destroying its superposition and producing a wrong answer.

The hidden simplicity of quantum computers According to Yuan, you don’t need to be a physicist or mathematician to understand how this  futuristic technology works. Quantum computers don’t necessarily have to be arcane machines, he says, that require scary equations to understand. With the quantum control machine, the CSAIL team aims to lower the barrier to entry for people to interact with a quantum computer by raising the unfamiliar concept of quantum control flow to a level that mirrors the familiar concept of control flow in classical computers. By highlighting the dos and don’ts of building and programming quantum computers, they hope to educate people outside of the field about the power of quantum technology and its ultimate limits.

Still, the researchers caution that as is the case for many other designs, it’s not yet possible to directly turn their work into a practical hardware quantum computer due to the limitations of today’s qubit technology. Their goal is to develop ways of implementing more kinds of quantum algorithms as programs that make efficient use of a limited number of qubits and logic gates. Doing so would bring us closer to running these algorithms on the quantum computers that could come online in the near future.

“The fundamental capabilities of models of quantum computation has been a central discussion in quantum computation theory since its inception,” says MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab researcher Patrick Rall, who was not involved in the paper. “Among the earliest of these models are quantum Turing machines which are capable of quantum control flow. However, the field has largely moved on to the simpler and more convenient circuit model, for which quantum lacks control flow. Yuan, Villanyi, and Carbin successfully capture the underlying reason for this transition using the perspective of programming languages. While control flow is central to our understanding of classical computation, quantum is completely different! I expect this observation to be critical for the design of modern quantum software frameworks as hardware platforms become more mature.” The paper lists two additional CSAIL members as authors: PhD student Ági Villányi ’21 and Associate Professor Michael Carbin. Their work was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation.

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MIE Seminar: Cheng Gong, University of Maryland, "Two-dimensional quantum materials: from fundamental electron behaviors to disruptive sensor technologies"

Mie seminar: cheng gong, university of maryland, "two-dimensional quantum materials: from fundamental electron behavio.

Abstract:  Two-dimensional (2D) quantum materials are a unique class of solid-state platforms, with all constituent species seated in a flatland and meanwhile fully exposed to external influences (e.g., adsorbed molecules, mechanical strain, and electromagnetic radiation). On the one hand, probing the effects of these influencing factors in 2D quantum materials can lead to the innovative development of ultrasensitive sensors. On the other hand, proactively engineering 2D quantum materials by the rational implementation of external stimuli can tailor 2D materials towards the previously inaccessible properties, thereby fundamentally expanding and reshaping the present landscape of quantum materials. In this talk, I will introduce our contributions to the scientific field of 2D quantum materials in the fundamental understanding and rational control of 2D magnets [1,2], 2D ferroelectrics [3,4], and 2D multiferroics [5,6]. Furthermore, I will discuss how we leverage the “wonder materials” to develop disruptive sensor technologies [7] in both civil and defense domains, including safeguarding food security, aircraft positioning, and early detection of diseases.

1. C. Gong et al., Nature 546, 265-269 (2017).

2. C. Gong et al., Science 363, eaav4450 (2019).

3. Q. Wang et al., Matter 5, 4425-4436 (2022).

4. Q. Wang et al., Materials Science and Engineering: B 283, 115829 (2022).

5. C. Gong et al., Nature Communications 10, 2657 (2019).

6. S. Liang et al., Nature Electronics 6, 199-205 (2023).

7. T. Xie et al., Applied Physics Letters 119, 013104 (2021).

Bio: Prof. Cheng Gong is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at University of Maryland, College Park. His research group focuses on 2D quantum materials and devices. He is a recipient of IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Semiconductor Physics 2020. In 2022, Prof. Gong won UMD’s “Invention of the Year” and ACS Maryland “Chemist of the Year” with “Governor’s Citation”. From 2014 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, where he pioneered the experimental discovery of the first 2D magnet. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2013.

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UC Davis ECExpo 2024: Uniting Industry and Academia through Innovation

• by Katherine Panaligan
• April 15, 2024

On April 5, Kemper Hall buzzed with the exchange of new ideas as the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis, hosted ECExpo 2024. The event was a vibrant meeting ground for over 150 industry partners, students, alumni and faculty, dedicated to showcasing the department's latest research and technological strides.  

Stephan Schell, one of the department's two distinguished alumni of 2023 , opened the event with his keynote, "From Academia to Apple: A Journey of Innovation and Discovery." Schell discussed the career path that led him from being a student in the department to 10 years at Apple, where he helped develop devices like the iPhone and AirPods. He retired from Apple in 2015 as a senior director of wireless systems architecture and with the prestigious, director-like title of Distinguished Engineer, Scientist, Technologist, or DEST.  

"Schell was a really remarkable speaker," said Billy Putnam , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and chair of the ECExpo planning committee. "He could really connect with everyone in our audience: undergraduates, graduate students, industry folks and faculty."  

Following Schell's keynote, Assistant Professor Yubei Chen , a recent addition to the ECE faculty, delivered a presentation on "Self-Supervised Learning: The Principles and the Frontier," igniting conversations on the future of artificial intelligence. Chen's talk focused on the current state of supervised learning — a process for training AI systems using labeled datasets — and how this method may be improved with self-supervised learning principles, which mimic natural learning by training the AI systems to build upon inputted data.  

Department Chair André Knoesen followed Chen to provide an update on the ECE department, which included enrollment figures, faculty, alumni and student awards for 2023.  

Distinguished Professor S. J. Ben Yoo and Professor Saif Islam were next. They discussed the department's participation in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and related workforce development programs launched by federal agencies. The Department of Defense Microelectronics Commons has designated UC Davis as part of the California-Pacific-Northwest AI-Hardware Hub . The hub, led by Stanford University and the UC Berkeley, is poised to propel AI hardware advancements while fostering workforce development and streamlining the journey from laboratory research to fabrication.  

On the topic of workforce development, Islam spoke about the Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society, or CITRIS. As its director, he mentioned how the center is pursuing innovative seed project proposals that integrate community colleges and K-12 institutions into the broader CHIPS and Science initiatives. Projects like this will play a pivotal role in crafting a skilled and ready workforce for the technological challenges of tomorrow.  

Closing the afternoon's presentations, Professor Jeremy Munday provided a brief overview of the Center for Nano- and Micro-Manufacturing , or CNM2 — a 24/7 cleanroom that received a $20 million renovation in 2018.   

At the event, students also had the opportunity to showcase their research during the student poster session. About 40 students presented and discussed their research with fellow undergraduates and graduate students within the College of Engineering, which ranged from robotic arms to gesture recognition technology. The poster session was followed by an ECExpo Industry Immersion networking session and social mixer hosted by the IEEE Student Club and ECE Graduate Student Association.  

Watch Stephan Schell's full keynote 

The cornerstone of ECExpo is the involvement of industry partners who actively engage with students, offering insights and demonstrations on emerging technologies.   

"Several companies set up tables and showed off really exciting demonstrations of some of their products, and a handful of our excellent senior design project teams showcased really neat projects they're building," Putnam said. "We always have new and exciting things happening at ECExpo."  

ECExpo 2024 was sponsored by Chevron, Anritsu, Digikey, Dell, Keysight, Texas Instruments and Silvaco.  

View all photos from ECExpo

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Georgia tech unveils new ai makerspace in collaboration with nvidia.

By giving students access to powerful supercomputers, Georgia Tech will teach AI to undergraduates in a way unlike any other university in the nation.

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering has established an artificial intelligence supercomputer hub dedicated exclusively to teaching students. The initiative — the AI Makerspace — is launched in collaboration with  NVIDIA . College leaders call it a digital sandbox for students to understand and use AI in the classroom. 

Initially focusing on undergraduate students, the AI Makerspace aims to democratize access to computing resources typically reserved for researchers or technology companies. Students will access the cluster online as part of their coursework, deepening their AI skills through hands-on experience. The Makerspace will also better position students after graduation as they work with AI professionals and help shape the technology’s future applications. 

“The launch of the AI Makerspace represents another milestone in Georgia Tech’s legacy of innovation and leadership in education,” said  Raheem Beyah , dean of the College and Southern Company Chair. “Thanks to NVIDIA’s advanced technology and expertise, our students at all levels have a path to make significant contributions and lead in the rapidly evolving field of AI.”

At its core, the Georgia Tech AI Makerspace is a dedicated computing cluster paired with NVIDIA AI Enterprise software. The software technology resides on an advanced AI infrastructure that is designed, built, and deployed by  Penguin Solutions , providing a virtual gateway to a high-performance computing environment. 

The first phase of the endeavor is powered by 20 NVIDIA HGX H100 systems, housing 160 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs (graphics processing units), one of the most powerful computational accelerators capable of enabling and supporting advanced AI and machine learning efforts. The system is interconnected with an NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking platform, featuring in-network computing. 

To put this computational power into perspective, it would take a single NVIDIA H100 GPU one second to come up with a multiplication operation that would take Georgia Tech’s 50,000 students 22 years to achieve.

The launch of the AI Makerspace represents another milestone in Georgia Tech’s legacy of innovation and leadership in education. Thanks to NVIDIA’s advanced technology and expertise, our students at all levels have a path to make significant contributions and lead in the rapidly evolving field of AI.

RAHEEM BEYAH Dean Southern Company Chair

“The City of Atlanta commends the leadership of Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering in advancing education and technology through the AI Makerspace,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “Partnerships with industry leaders such as NVIDIA propel our students and workforce toward tomorrow, further enhancing Atlanta’s status as an innovation hub.”

Students and faculty will also receive support through NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute resources, including faculty-run NVIDIA workshops, certifications, a university ambassador program, curriculum-aided teaching kits, and a developer community network.

The collaboration between the Georgia Tech and NVIDIA signifies the College’s significant commitment to best-in-class enterprise AI hardware and software.

“AI supercomputers provide a platform to help drive powerful new discoveries that could solve some of the world’s most complex challenges,” said Cheryl Martin, director of Higher Education and Research at NVIDIA. “Georgia Tech’s AI Makerspace will provide students with access to NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform, equipping them with the technology to push the boundaries of AI learning and research.”

The Next Step in the College’s AI for Engineering Initiative 

The AI Makerspace expands on Georgia Tech’s foundational, theory-focused AI curriculum by offering students a hands-on platform to tackle real-world AI challenges, develop advanced applications, and present their AI-driven ideas at scale. It also complements two recent “ AI for Engineering ” announcements by the College: the  unveiling of Georgia Tech’s first minor degree program in AI and machine learning , as well as the re-imagining and creation of 14 core AI courses for undergrads . 

“The AI Makerspace represents a significant advancement in technology for education,” explains  Arijit Raychowdhury , professor and Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering . “To draw a comparison, the makerspace will provide a technological upgrade equivalent to switching from an etch-a-sketch to an iPad. That’s the level of difference in technology that the AI Makerspace provides to students.”

Penguin’s comprehensive solution features tightly integrated, end-to-end compute, data management, networking, software, and infrastructure, providing the AI cluster with the ability to process intense amounts of data with ultra-low latency.

“By initially focusing on undergraduates, the AI Makerspace at Georgia Tech is leaning in on the important work of providing technology to help educate an emerging new segment of students who could conceivably be called Generation AI,” said Mark Adams, president and CEO of SGH, Penguin Solutions’ corporate parent. “We’re pleased to partner with Georgia Tech and NVIDIA to help make the AI Makerspace a reality. With the speed and evolution of AI, it’s critical that those who will be developers and users of AI, now and in the future, are grounded by the best in higher education and have access to the latest, ever-evolving technology.” 

The effort is bolstered by Georgia Tech’s Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE) , which is providing sustainable leading-edge cyberinfrastructure and support, ensuring students have the necessary tools and assistance to best utilize the cluster. 

Ghassan AlRegib, Raheem Beyah, and Arijit Raychowdhury listen to Ruben Lara of PACE’s cyber infrastructure team.

Back row, L-R: Ghassan AlRegib (John and Marilu McCarty Chair Professor, ECE), Aaron Jezghani (Research Scientist, PACE), Pam Buffington (Executive Director of Foundational Infrastructure & Technology, OIT), Ruben Lara (Senior Systems Support Engineer Manager, PACE), and Didier Contis (Executive Director Academic Technology, Innovation, Research Computing, OIT).

Front row, L-R: Arijit Raychowdhury (Steve W. Chaddick School Chair and Professor, ECE), Raheem Beyah (Dean of the College of Engineering and the Southern Company Chair), and Fang (Cherry) Liu (Senior Research Scientist, PACE).

The Next Steps for AI Education

Undergraduate students currently enrolled in ECE 4252: Fundamentals of Machine Learning (FunML) are accessing the AI Makerspace to learn, experiment, prototype, and showcase their AI-driven ideas at scale. This fall, the AI Makerspace will be incorporated into the curriculum of all eight engineering schools. 

By spring 2025, all Georgia Tech engineering students — both undergraduate and graduate — will have access to non-instructional learning. In 2026, Georgia Tech plans to set up the AI Makerspace Omniverse, a sandbox for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The education and research hub is based on NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for connecting and developing 3D tools and applications, and will be available to all students.

To break down the accessibility barrier students may face with the makerspace, PACE and ECE’s Ghassan AlRegib are developing smart interfaces and strategies to ensure that students from all backgrounds, disciplines, and proficiency levels can effectively utilize the computing power. 

“The intelligent system will serve as a tutor and facilitator,” said AlRegib, the John and Marilu McCarty Chair of Electrical Engineering. “It will be the lens through which students can tap into the world of AI, and it will empower them by removing any hurdle that stands in the way of them testing their ideas. It will also facilitate the integration of the AI Makerspace into existing classes.”

“Democratizing AI is not just about giving students access to a large pool of GPU resources,” said Didier Contis, executive director of academic technology, innovation, and research computing for the Office of Information Technology. “Deep collaboration with instructors is required to develop different solutions to empower students to use the resources easily without necessarily having to master specific aspects of AI or the underlying infrastructure.” Beyond traditional computing applications, the hub is designed to be utilized in each of Georgia Tech’s six colleges, placing a unique emphasis on human-AI interaction. By doing so, it ensures that AI is viewed as a transformative force, encouraging innovation that extends beyond the confines of a single field.

Finally, and similar to how students use physical makerspaces on campus, Raychowdhury sees the AI Makerspace as a tool for students to create technology that prompts AI start-up companies. 

“AI is increasingly interdisciplinary and an irreversibly important part of today’s workforce,” said Raychowdhury. “To meet the needs of tomorrow’s innovation, we need a diverse workforce proficient in utilizing AI across all levels.”

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