On a hot morning in June, a high school student in safety goggles hovered over a lab table with tweezers, hesitating. She was supposed to pick up a cantilever tip—a tiny piece of metal smaller than a grain of rice—for the atomic force microscope (AFM) behind her.
“Don’t be nervous!” reassured Muriel McClendon, a graduate student at Chicago State University in the lab of Dr. Valerie Goss, an associate professor of chemistry. “It’s okay, even I mess it up sometimes.”
As the teenager successfully manipulated the cantilever tip, other students in the lab were preparing samples of mica and putting them in the AFM to see the surface of the mineral at the atomic level. A worksheet nearby read, “What will we, as researchers, do today?”
This activity was a part of the Quantum Sensing Summer Program, which brings local high school students into labs at Chicago State and other local institutions to learn about quantum technology. The program is administrated through the National Science Foundation Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (QuBBE), of which CSU is part.
QuBBE, which also includes the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Chicago, and Harvard University, is one of five QLCIs created as a part of the National Quantum Initiative Act — and one of two in the Illinois-Wisconsin-Indiana region. QuBBE’s work focuses on extracting novel information from biology through quantum measurements and imaging systems.
"If we want to grow the quantum workforce, we have to start by making sure people even know what quantum science is," said Goss, QuBBE’s workforce development director. "If they’ve never heard of it, how are they supposed to learn about it or imagine themselves working in the field? That’s why it’s important to start introducing it at all levels. We wanted to give students a real experience, something that could open their eyes and make an impact on their future careers."
The Quantum Sensing Summer Program is now in its third year, and with 24 participants, it has more than doubled in size.
Students are immersed in the environment of scientific labs for two weeks, during which they stay in dormitories. In addition to labs at CSU, they also visit quantum labs at the University of Chicago and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. They get to directly interact with high-end equipment, such as a scanning electron microscope (SEM)—moving the camera over butterfly wings, a bird feather, the head of a bee, or a piece of popcorn.
CSU Professor Andrew Maselli, who helped them operate the SEM, compared it to a ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer—another piece of sophisticated lab equipment—they had used the previous day and encouraged them about jobs in science, including those that didn’t require a PhD.
“And if you come to Chicago State,” he added, “I’m here: come find me.”
Building the future quantum workforce
The Quantum Sensing Summer Program is just one piece of CSU’s broader and growing efforts in quantum education. Another QuBBE summer program is Quantum Academy, where Chicago Public School teachers develop a quantum science curriculum module to teach in their high school classrooms. And starting in the fall, students can take a series of courses to get a certificate in quantum technology. The university is also involved in the development of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), being built only a few miles from the CSU campus. CSU’s provost, Sonja Feist-Price, is a member of the board.
“At Chicago State University, we are proud to be shaping the future of Illinois’ quantum workforce by leveraging the expertise of our distinguished faculty and a curriculum designed to prepare students for the demands of emerging technologies,” said Zaldwaynaka Scott, president of CSU. “Our faculty bring strong research experience and applied knowledge in quantum science, enabling our students—many of whom are the first in their families to attend college—to access high-level STEM opportunities that can transform their lives. As a university where 90% of students receive need-based aid and scholarships, 78% identify as Black, 10% as Latinx, and 33% are student parents, we are intentional in creating pathways that reflect the true diversity of our state. With CSU ranked in the top 4% nationally for economic mobility, quantum represents not just a frontier of science, but a catalyst for equity and economic empowerment."
Students who have gone through this program are going to Yale, University of Michigan, and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, among many other collegiate institutions. Destiny Giwa, who has attended the program every year since it began, will be matriculating at UChicago in the fall as a molecular engineering major, and says her experience in quantum research at CSU was key to her choice and her application.
“I couldn’t see myself doing anything else, honestly, especially after doing these QuBBE programs,” said Giwa, who is also currently participating in research in Goss’s lab at CSU. “It really spoke to me, and I got a lot of hands-on experience.” She also said that she received feedback on her application to UChicago that complimented her experience in quantum at CSU as strengthening her application.
William Reed, a teacher at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy High School on the South Side, says he’s seen the impact this program has made on his students as they graduate to the next stage of their education.
“For all these students, from my perspective, participating in this program has really advanced their interest and access to post-secondary science,” Reed said. “I think they're all going to be very comfortable getting into research labs and feeling more confident in their coursework in undergrad.”
Exposure and access are central to the program’s mission, especially with the Illinois-Wisconsin-Indiana’s growing recognition as a central hub for quantum innovation. Reed hopes this message reaches beyond the lab so young people feel inspired to take advantage of the growing opportunities that quantum technology is bringing to the area.
Analysts project that quantum technology could bring as much as $80 billion in economic impact and as many as 191,000 jobs to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana by 2035. More than 70% of those jobs are expected to be available to people with bachelor’s degrees, associates degrees, or technical training, according to an analysis by Boston Consulting Group for the Chicago Quantum Exchange.
“There’s so much talk about the region and the South Side of Chicago being leaders in quantum technology, and that means that kids here are getting exposure — they’re hearing about the potential for careers and jobs in the future,” Reed said. “And because they have more awareness, I think they’re maybe feeling slightly less alienated.”
For students like Felix Qaasim, a senior at Chicago’s Senn High School attending the Quantum Sensing Program for the first time, the experience is already making an impact.
“I really like this program so far because I get exposures to new and different technologies,” said Qaasim. “I get to understand what's going on in the field and how this is related to what I what I want to do.” Qaasim, a rising senior, plans to apply to college programs in astrophysics. “I’m really excited to visit Fermilab,” he said with a grin.
Sage Regulus just graduated from Gwendolyn Brooks, and is going to the Illinois Institute of Technology to major in biomedical engineering. She’s attended the program before but returned this summer to help teach other students. She said the summer quantum sensing program is what drove her to pick her major.
“I was really happy when I finally got to go inside of a lab for the first time,” she said, speaking of her first time attending the program. “It was like a breath of fresh air. And I thought, ‘This might just be for me.’ And that was it.”