Preparing students to be leaders of the quantum information revolution

University of Pittsburgh students study quantum mechanics. Credit: Jeremy Levy

As the crowning technological inventions of the first quantum revolution—transistors, lasers, and computers—continue to enrich our lives, newfound excitement surrounds the use of quantum phenomena to create a second quantum revolution. Quantum computers will compute faster than existing classical ones and enable computations that were not previously possible. Quantum sensors will detect one-part-in-a-million variations in Earth’s gravitational field or tiny magnetic fields emanating from the human brain. Quantum communication technologies will send information securely over long distances, protected by fundamental laws of nature.

These technologies could dramatically improve society. But the current educational system isn’t prepared to meet the surging demand for workers, researchers, and teachers who understand and can teach the core concepts in quantum information science and technology (QIST), the field from which these advances are emerging. Quantum physicists and physics education researchers have the knowledge and experience to devise a QIST educational program that can help prepare students of all ages to participate in and lead the quantum information revolution.

In 2020, NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy assembled an interagency working group to develop Key Concepts for Future Quantum Information Science Learners—a workshop in which researchers and educators identified core concepts for QIST training, such as qubits, quantum measurement, entanglement, quantum computing, communication, and sensing. Identifying and building educational resources based on those core concepts will help K–12 and college students become quantum literate and join the growing quantum science and engineering workforce.

In addition to formal education, connecting students with research opportunities, internships, networking, and mentoring is vital for inspiring and nurturing the next generation. To successfully do so, current quantum industry leaders and educators will need to address the lack of representation of women and and students from racial and ethnic minority groups and devise approaches to attract demographic groups that are currently underrepresented in the field.

A common QIST curriculum

One challenge in teaching QIST is that there is no common curriculum, in large part because the field is highly interdisciplinary and relatively new. At a conference in February funded by NSF, educators across academia and industry reflected on the urgent need for bachelor’s degree programs, courses, and curricular materials for quantum information science and engineering.

Interdisciplinary bachelor’s and master’s programs are being developed at universities across the US and Europe. Those programs are based in physics departments, engineering schools, and interdisciplinary centers. Nearly all the programs have at least one course specifically focused on quantum computing or information. Such courses can rely on traditional textbooks, such as those by Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang, N. David Mermin, or Benjamin Schumacher and Michael Westmoreland, or can be designed around resources such as the open-source Qiskit textbook or other interactive textbooks.

Courses on quantum computing and information are invariably surrounded by a host of supporting courses designed to meet the highly interdisciplinary demands of QIST. Those classes cover topics such as programming or computer science foundations, linear algebra, or electrical engineering. Other courses span topics outside core QIST areas or delve into applications related to materials science, chemistry, drug design, machine learning, forecasting, communication, and sensing. The required levels of experience in labs, internships, and hands-on projects can depend on the emphasis of the program.

Improving QIST curricula

Thus far, research on the effectiveness of QIST-related courses, curricula, and pedagogies has been limited in scope (see the article by Chandralekha Singh, Mario Belloni, and Wolfgang Christian, Physics Today, August 2006, page 43). Postsecondary educators have investigated the nature of students’ learning difficulties in quantum courses. Educators have also developed modular QIST learning tools that can be adapted to courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

One such tool, a set of lessons called the Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorials (QuILTs), are designed to focus on the topics students have been shown to struggle with, such as the time evolution of quantum states, quantum measurements, and quantum key distribution. QuILTs use guided inquiry-based learning sequences that build concepts on one another. Common conceptual difficulties are brought out explicitly by, for example, a written dialogue between two hypothetical students in which one student understands a concept and the other doesn’t. Students working through the lesson contemplate which student is correct, and why, with the help of hints along the way.

Each unit starts with measurable learning objectives and then aligns the instruction and assessment with those objectives. The lessons are often supplemented with computer-based visualization tools. QuILT development is iterative: Data from each implementation with students are used to improve the tool.

Link：https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.5.20210927a/full/