CaltechAUTHORS
Published May 2022 | Version Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

Building a Quantum Engineering Undergraduate Program

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon IBM Research - Thomas J. Watson Research Center
  • 2. ROR icon Université de Sherbrooke
  • 3. ROR icon Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
  • 4. ROR icon Duke University
  • 5. ROR icon Stanford University
  • 6. ROR icon University of Southern California
  • 7. ROR icon Colorado School of Mines
  • 8. ROR icon University of Colorado Boulder
  • 9. ROR icon Google (United States)
  • 10. ROR icon University of Waterloo
  • 11. ROR icon Virginia Tech
  • 12. ROR icon University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • 13. ROR icon Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
  • 14. ROR icon Imperial College London
  • 15. ROR icon Yale University
  • 16. ROR icon San Jose State University
  • 17. ROR icon Purdue University West Lafayette
  • 18. ROR icon The Ohio State University
  • 19. ROR icon University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • 20. ROR icon Harvey Mudd College
  • 21. ROR icon National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • 22. ROR icon SRI International
  • 23. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 24. ROR icon Harvard University
  • 25. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 26. ROR icon University of California, Los Angeles
  • 27. ROR icon University of Oregon
  • 28. ROR icon University of Sydney
  • 29. ROR icon Howard University
  • 30. ROR icon University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

Contribution: A roadmap is provided for building a quantum engineering education program to satisfy U.S. national and international workforce needs. Background: The rapidly growing quantum information science and engineering (QISE) industry will require both quantum-aware and quantum-proficient engineers at the bachelor's level. Research Question: What is the best way to provide a flexible framework that can be tailored for the full academic ecosystem? Methodology: A workshop of 480 QISE researchers from across academia, government, industry, and national laboratories was convened to draw on best practices; representative authors developed this roadmap. Findings: 1) For quantum-aware engineers, design of a first quantum engineering course, accessible to all STEM students, is described; 2) for the education and training of quantum-proficient engineers, both a quantum engineering minor accessible to all STEM majors, and a quantum track directly integrated into individual engineering majors are detailed, requiring only three to four newly developed courses complementing existing STEM classes; 3) a conceptual QISE course for implementation at any postsecondary institution, including community colleges and military schools, is delineated; 4) QISE presents extraordinary opportunities to work toward rectifying issues of inclusivity and equity that continue to be pervasive within engineering. A plan to do so is presented, as well as how quantum engineering education offers an excellent set of education research opportunities; and 5) a hands-on training plan on quantum hardware is outlined, a key component of any quantum engineering program, with a variety of technologies, including optics, atoms and ions, cryogenic and solid-state technologies, nanofabrication, and control and readout electronics.

Additional Information

© 2022 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Manuscript received August 3, 2021; revised November 19, 2021; accepted November 28, 2021. Date of publication February 4, 2022; date of current version May 5, 2022. This work was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant EEC-2110432. The work of Alexandre Blais was supported by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. The work of Lincoln D. Carr, Hilary M. Hurst, Eliot Kapit, and Theresa W. Lynn was supported by NSF QLCI-CG under Grant OMA-1936835. The work of Sophia E. Economou, Steven M. Girvin, and Thomas A. Searles was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Co-Design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) under Contract DE-SC0012704. The work of Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin was supported by NSF C-ACCEL under Grant 2040581. The work of H. J. Lewandowski was supported by NSF QLCI under Grant OMA-2016244. The work of Corey Rae H. McRae and David P. Pappas was supported by NIST NQI and QIS efforts, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) under Contract DE-AC02-07CH11359. The work of Spyridon Michalakis was supported by Caltech's Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Physics Frontiers Center under Grant PHY-1733907. The work of Michael G. Raymer was supported by the NSF Engineering Research Center for Quantum Networks (CQN), led by the University of Arizona under Grant NSF-1941583. The work of Mark Saffman was supported by NSF QLCI-HQAN under Award 2016136. This article was presented in part at the Quantum Undergraduate Education & Scientific Training (QUEST) Workshop and at the SPIE Photonics for Quantum Symposium. (All authors contributed equally to this work.)

Attached Files

Published - Building_a_Quantum_Engineering_Undergraduate_Program.pdf

Submitted - 2108.01311.pdf

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2108.01311.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
113411
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220210-721846000

Related works

Describes
10.1109/TE.2022.3144943 (DOI)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.01311 (URL)

Funding

NSF
EEC-2110432
Canada First Research Excellence Fund
NSF
OMA-1936835
Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-SC0012704
NSF
OIA-2040581
NSF
OMA-2016244
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-AC02-07CH11359
NSF
PHY-1733907
NSF
EEC-1941583
NSF
OMA-2016136

Dates

Created
2022-02-11
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-05-12
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Institute for Quantum Information and Matter