The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in the near future. This project aims to develop an undergraduate curriculum that combines Quantum Information Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (QuSTEAM) to build a quantum smart workforce. The QuSTEAM curriculum will have a modular format with in-person, online, and hybrid delivery modalities. The modules will provide educational opportunities for a variety of stakeholders including members of the workforce, 2-year institutions, 4-year institutions, and minority-serving institutions. The project will leverage partnerships with industry and national labs to both identify critical skills and modes of thought, and to directly participate in education and pedagogy, ensuring that the curriculum will develop a diverse quantum smart workforce.
The QuSTEAM curriculum will rely on research-based educational best practices to provide a convergent and inclusive curriculum to develop a diverse quantum smart workforce. This curricular structure will be designed from the ground up to address structural barriers that have to date limited the diversity and inclusiveness of STEM training, and will include concurrent training in the societal impact of QIS technologies by incorporating content beyond traditional STEM disciplines. The project will engage with those conducting quantum research as well as STEAM education research to create a multi-tiered curriculum at the major, minor, and certificate level. Deliverables include (1) a schematic of interdisciplinary modules that details how the building blocks of QIS competency can be organized for different educational targets (BS, AD, certificate); (2) a map of steps taken to actively promote equity and inclusivity in the curriculum that will serve as a model for curricular development beyond QuSTEAM; and (3) individual course curricula that demonstrate the implementation of QuSTEAM. This curriculum will provide a framework for quantum information sciences (QIS) education that can be implemented at a national scale to develop a diverse quantum smart workforce.
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.
