Kredit:CC0 Public Domain
Samtidigt som de har sina egna unika expertområden och resurser, är NQISRCs alla inriktade på samma uppdrag – framsteg inom kvantinformationsvetenskap.
Fem nationella forskningscentra för kvantinformationsvetenskap (NQISRC) utnyttjar naturens beteende i minsta skala för att utveckla teknik för vetenskapens mest komplexa problem. Med stöd av US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, har NQISRCs stöttat DOE:s uppdrag sedan 2020 för att främja energi, ekonomisk och nationell säkerhet i USA. Genom att bygga ett nationellt kvantekosystem och arbetsstyrka som består av forskare vid cirka 70 institutioner över hela USA, skapar centren en rik miljö för kvantinnovation och samdesign.
NQISRC:erna integrerar toppmoderna DOE-anläggningar, framstående talang vid nationella laboratorier och amerikanska universitet och amerikanska teknikföretags företagsamma uppfinningsrikedom.
Som ett resultat tänjer centren på gränsen för vad som är möjligt inom kvantdatorer, sensorer, enheter, material och mycket mer.
Varje nationellt centrum leds av ett DOE-nationellt laboratorium:
Ledande med vetenskap
"Varje center är en formidabel kraft för kvantinformationsvetenskap på egen hand, som tänjer på gränserna för databehandling, fysik, kemi och materialvetenskap för att föra fram transformerande ny teknologi till nationen", säger Q-NEXT-chefen David Awschalom. "Men tillsammans är de ett nationellt kraftpaket som lyfter kvantvetenskap och ingenjörskonst till särskild framträdande plats i USA och positionerar landet till att vara en global ledare på området."
Ett snabbt växande forskningsområde, kvantinformationsvetenskap (QIS) undersöker naturens kvantegenskaper för att bygga nya, kraftfulla sätt att bearbeta information inom så olika områden som medicin, energi och finans. Genom att manipulera materiens mest grundläggande egenskaper kunde forskare uppfinna nya sensorer med oöverträffad precision, kraftfulla datorer och säkra kommunikationsnätverk.
För detta ändamål arbetar centren med att prototyper och utvärdera prestandan och effekten av kvantdatorer och sensorer byggda med hjälp av olika tekniska plattformar och arkitekturer.
"Det finns många val och möjligheter att göra i utvecklingen av kvantberäkningar, och förståelsen av hur nuvarande enheter misslyckas avslöjar vägen framåt för oss", säger C 2 QA-direktör Andrew Houck. "NQISRC:erna kan ta sig an denna förvånansvärt svåra uppgift eftersom, trots stora framsteg på området, är nuvarande kvantdatorer fortfarande för bullriga och felbenägna för användbara beräkningar."
Att förstå materialens kvantbeteende är avgörande för att övervinna dessa bullerbegränsningar och för att förverkliga enheter som kommer att erbjuda en kvantfördel. De nationella labben är unikt positionerade för att erbjuda avancerade faciliteter och kunskap som vägleder förståelsen och övervinnandet av dessa begränsningar.
"DOE har investerat i åratal i banbrytande teknologier, verktyg och anläggningar vid nationella labb, som erbjuder unika möjligheter att möjliggöra ett språng i prestanda för kvantenheter", säger SQMS-direktör Anna Grasselino. "We are excited to offer world-leading expertise to make transformational advances in QIS, especially because QIS can help advance our mission of understanding the world at its most fundamental level."
Collaborating for quantum innovation
The interdisciplinary teams at the NQISRCs co-design quantum technologies to set the stage for future scientific discoveries. Advances in QIS will bring about societywide benefits, such as new materials and powerful quantum sensors that, when combined with medical imagers, could measure tissue at the individual-cell level, bringing far greater sensitivity to today's magnetic resonance imaging machines.
By understanding what enables and limits different quantum technologies and what tools need to be developed, the co-design effort across the NQISRCs could translate into faster drug and vaccine development, novel materials, improvements in transportation and logistics, and more secure financial networks.
As a national ecosystem, NQISRC researchers leverage world-class DOE Office of Science user facilities and programs, such as the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the superconducting technology facilities and technologies at Fermilab.
"Through the funding of these strategic quantum centers, DOE has given researchers an incredible opportunity to make impactful and world-changing discoveries in QIS," said QSC Director Travis Humble. "Based on the first two years of operation, there is every reason to believe these centers will make tremendous progress in the coming years in advancing QIS toward real-world innovation. We will see an increasing flow of discovery science through the innovation chain."
Similarly, laboratory and university scientists can leverage the market-driven technologies developed by their industry partners, such as test beds and simulation tools. Capitalizing on these networks, each center builds a pathway to commercializing quantum technologies and, eventually, bringing them to the public.
Preparing the quantum workforce and engaging with industry
The lasting impact of the NQISRCs' co-design efforts for science and technology will depend on a quantum workforce to carry it into the future. All national centers are committed to building a workforce with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion through institutional degree programs, cooperative training programs with industry and retraining certificate programs. This sets the stage for many more innovations and fundamental science questions to be explored.
"The centers have taken a multipronged approach to train the next generation of QIS scientists and researchers and to create new pipelines for underrepresented groups," expressed QSA Director Irfan Siddiqi. "We're all putting forth special efforts to support a diverse quantum workforce in a fast-growing field."
The QSC at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for example, held its second annual quantum summer school in May, a forum for sharing QIS topics with high schoolers, college students, postdocs and professionals. The event included panels on workforce development strategies with leading industry representatives as well as networking opportunities for students and staff.
C 2 QA recently held its second six-weeklong quantum computing summer school, QIS101, for undergraduate students this year, with a focus on building fundamental and practical skills and growing a diverse quantum workforce. 40% of the participants in C 2 QA's summer session were women, and nearly 44% were from communities underrepresented in QIS.
Q-NEXT partners with other quantum institutions to build a more diverse and inclusive quantum workforce through the Open Quantum Initiative, a group led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange. One key effort was the creation of an undergraduate fellowship program for underrepresented, racially minoritized quantum scientists. This summer, the fellowship participants worked side-by-side with scientists at collaborating institutions on challenging projects in QIS.
QSA works closely with several regional and international companies with strong records in diversity and inclusion programs. Furthermore, it is partnering with local economic development boards already active in the industry to establish internship and apprenticeship programs and accelerate startups. QSA hosted in 2021 its industry and investor roundtable events, attended by dozens of founders, investors, CEOs, senior scientists and engineers from across the United States and worldwide.
SQMS has announced the recipient of the first Carolyn B. Parker Fellowship, named for Carolyn Beatrice Parker, who was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics. The center is currently recruiting for a second Parker fellow and is wrapping up the second annual undergraduate internship program as well as the SQMS QIS Summer School, co-hosted by the Galileo Galilei Institute in Florence, Italy.
On Sept. 14, Brookhaven National Laboratory will host the second NQISRC Virtual Quantum Career Fair. The event aims to make undergraduate, graduate and postdoc communities more aware of the DOE Office of Science's NQISRCs and the different types of careers in QIS at the centers—from technical to non-STEM careers. The first NQISRC career fair, held in fall 2021, attracted close to 400 participants, with 12% representation from minority-serving institutions.
Advances in quantum information science have the potential to revolutionize research and society. The NQISRCs are at the forefront of this emerging field by developing technologies that go beyond what's previously possible. + Utforska vidare
