Quantum information science and technology can fundamentally impact the way we live today: by leveraging the quantum properties of matter, quantum information technology can enable new drug design, discovery of materials, solve problems like traffic optimization and provide unconditional security for information transfer. While physicists have been leading the initial research of quantum phenomena and technology, to create practically impactful quantum technologies and build quantum systems, engineers must play a dominant role. With the realization of midscale quantum systems on the horizon, quantum technologies seemingly have approached a system-level stage of computation and communication. The challenges, however, are immense. The field still lacks the fundamental engineering tools and expertise needed to control and integrate midscale (let alone large-scale) quantum systems, such that there exists a ravine between stand-alone quantum devices and full-scale integrated quantum systems. Addressing these challenges lie squarely in the expertise of Electrical and Computer Engineering - both in innovating new ideas as well as workforce training for industry and national labs. With the support of the QCIS-FF program, the University of Washington (UW) Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department will recruit a tenure-track faculty member. This new-hire will join a university-wide effort to build a broad talent pool in quantum technologies, leveraging UW’s existing experimental strength in quantum information science and technology. This faculty fellow will also leverage UW's proximity to local industry and national labs with quantum research efforts to attract the needed expertise to bridge the device-system ravine.
With the support of the QCIS-FF program, the University of Washington (UW) Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) will recruit a tenure-track faculty member in quantum information science with expertise in the theory of quantum control, quantum security, quantum networks, and related fields. This theory hire will join a university-wide effort to build a broad talent pool in quantum technologies, leveraging UW's existing experimental strength in quantum materials, quantum devices (both electronic and optical), and small-scale quantum systems, spanning across ECE, Physics, and Material Science Departments. Additionally, this hire will work closely with researchers in the ECE and Computer Science departments in the area of interfacing quantum and classical computing systems and architectures.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
