New web series engages future quantum workforce

Quantum technology is expected to revolutionize the American workforce in the coming decade, and as part of a national effort to meet that demand, the Chicago Quantum Exchange today released the introductory episode in a new web series aimed at building interest among high school students—a generation essential to the field’s skyrocketing advancement.

Quick Quantum: For High Schoolers, a YouTube series sponsored by Boeing and produced by the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) with input from leading scientists, introduces young people to quantum information science and engineering, which exploits the unusual properties of nature’s tiniest particles to create unhackable communications and other cutting-edge technology.

“Ensuring that there is a capable and diverse pool of quantum information scientists and engineers is vitally important as we turn this exciting area of research into future Boeing products and services,” said Chief Scientist for Boeing’s Disruptive Computing and Networks team Jay Lowell.

The field is expanding so quickly that its advancement is outpacing its training—only one qualified quantum candidate is available for every three quantum job openings, according to recent research by McKinsey and Co. To address the growing workforce demand, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation are spearheading the National Q-12 Education Partnership, a consortium that aims to expand access to K-12 quantum learning tools and inspire the next generation of quantum leaders.

The web series represents part of Q-12’s growing efforts to increase the skills, diversity, and number of students who are ready to join the quantum workforce.

“I remember being interested by the bizarreness of quantum physics while I was in high school, but I also remember the limited resources that were available for me to pursue this interest further,” said Robby Weinbaum, a University of Chicago physics graduate student, who cohosts the series with Katie Sautter, a quantum engineer who at the time of filming was a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne National Laboratory. “I’m very excited to be a part of this video series where I can do my part to help fill this gap and allow students who may be interested in understanding quantum to have a place to start their journey.”

Today’s episode is released on World Quantum Day, a global initiative created in 2021 to build public understanding of the field and its potential. The rest of the Quick Quantum series will roll out over the summer with new episodes launching in June, July, August, and September.

The episodes use compelling visuals to explore key concepts such as superposition, which describes how a quantum system can be in two states at once; qubits, the fundamental building blocks of many quantum technologies; and entanglement, which describes how quantum systems can affect each other over any distance—even miles. The hosts will also talk to scientists from the fields of quantum sensing, quantum computing, and quantum communication—Shimon Kolkowitz from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Victory Omole from the quantum startup Super.tech, and Nadya Mason from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“I hope that students watch this series and come away wanting to know more about quantum and its many related fields,” said Sautter, who is now putting her quantum knowledge to use as a senior production engineer at IQE, a semiconductor manufacturing company. “I want them to know how much quantum will be present in their futures, and that it’s possible to be a part of it if they want. That’s why creating a series dedicated to unraveling quantum in a fun and digestible way is so important to me.”

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