Written by Meredith Fore
Quantum information science has the potential to lead to breakthroughs across industries, but will need a large, well-educated workforce to turn this potential into reality. To fill this gap, top minds are applying innovative thinking to educational initiatives that run the gamut from quirky quantum games to novel training programs.
On Thursday, April 14, a nationwide effort called World Quantum Day will share many of these quantum education and training opportunities with new audiences. “World Quantum Day is an event designed to engage people in quantum science and let them know what is going on in current research, but it’s also a chance to demystify and make quantum science more accessible and available,” says Mallory Conlon, a quantum science outreach coordinator at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Bringing quantum information science to middle and high school students
Students often do not learn about quantum concepts until college, which is a key obstacle in the quantum workforce pipeline. One initiative, TeachQuantum, aims to enable high school teachers to teach quantum information science to their students. Through a 6-week summer program, high school teachers are immersed in real-world quantum research environments and prepared to teach quantum-focused STEM concepts in their classrooms. TeachQuantum was recently featured at a public Quantum Education Open House held in conjunction with the American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Chicago, IL.
Also at the Quantum Education Open House, Mallory Conlon shared QuanTime, which is also participating in World Quantum Day. QuanTime includes online games for middle and high school students can learn about quantum principles such as entanglement and superposition.
Quantum games for the public
A full Quantum Casino has also recently been developed based on quantum concepts that are intended to make fundamental quantum ideas easier to grasp for non-scientists. The card and computer games include blackjack, Texas hold ‘em, and a quantum photo booth where selfies are securely exchanged using quantum key distribution on IBM’s quantum computing platform. The casino was developed by STAGE, a laboratory within the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering devoted to collaborations among scientists and artists.
“In an effort to make quantum science accessible and exciting to the general public, we decided to venture into the world of games based on core principles of the field,” said Nancy Kawalek, founder and director of STAGE. “Quantum mechanics defies traditional narrative, but I think the students created digital games and card games that offer an extremely engaging experience, one that does an exceedingly good job of explaining quantum phenomena such as superposition, entanglement, measurement, randomness, and more.”
Teaching quantum earlier in college
Once students get to college, many quantum concepts are not taught until students are in their later years, preventing many from learning about the field. A nationwide initiative, called QuSTEAM (Convergent Undergraduate Education in Quantum Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), is addressing these hurdles. At the Quantum Education Open House, Ohio State University Professor Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, who leads QuSTEAM, described efforts to bring quantum concepts to students earlier in their post-secondary careers, and supports minoritized students and those from diverse backgrounds.
Bridging industry and academia
Even in graduate school, there are opportunities to deepen the workforce opportunities for quantum graduate students. The Quantum Information Science and Engineering Network (QISE-NET) provides selected graduate students with support to work with advisors in academia, industry, or national laboratories. These crossover opportunities help students gain experience across different sectors of the national quantum ecosystem, preparing them for quantum careers. At the APS Quantum Education Open House, QISE-NET students presented posters of their research to attendees and engaged in discussions on their research topics that span from superconducting qubits and variational algorithms to scalable entanglement stabilization and quantum sensing for dark photons. More than 35 current and former QISE-NET students presented posters at the event.
These initiatives – which target teachers, K-12 students, the public and advanced students – aim to inspire a new generation of quantum scientists and engineers. Learn more about World Quantum Day.
Learn more about what the CQE is doing for World Quantum Day