Integrative Training in Quantum Assembly and Technology

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Future advances in quantum science and technology will require the combination of insights and techniques from multiple fields and will benefit from recruiting talent from diverse areas. Achieving the promise of a “quantum leap” will require moving beyond the siloed and specialized instruction in separate departments that is the dominant model for graduate education today. Future discovery and development will be driven by the emerging generation of quantum scientists, making the development of truly interdisciplinary training programs in quantum science an urgent national priority. The Integrative Training in Quantum Assembly & Technology (InTriQATe) project aims to build a well-trained, creative, and welcoming interdisciplinary quantum science community. InTriQATe is an intrinsically multidisciplinary traineeship program focused on the central theme of quantum assembly: the integration of disparate quantum elements, and the bringing together of a diverse team of quantum scientists, to achieve new functionalities and behaviors. This NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) award will prepare students for leadership in a diverse quantum workforce. The project anticipates training 75 Ph.D. students, including 30 funded trainees, from Physics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Molecular Biology, Chemistry, and Materials. The InTriQATe NRT project will transform the graduate curriculum with new courses on the modern toolset of convergent quantum science; professional training in oral and written communication, collaboration, and research ethics; and pro-active and coordinated mentoring. The new courses will be at the core of a new Ph.D. emphasis in Quantum Science & Technology, open to all doctoral candidates in participating departments. Trainees will form an interdisciplinary quantum community, hosting regular campus-wide workshops, student-led seminars, and informal lunches. Trainees will gain collaborative experience through team research projects and build leadership and communication skills by engaging in a reciprocal “superexchange” program with other institutions. Finally, trainees will network with representatives from the quantum industry through a Quantum Career Day to gain a broader perspective on opportunities in the quantum workforce. A central goal of this project is to accelerate advances in quantum science by combining insights and techniques from multiple fields. Physicists, engineers, chemists and biochemists, materials scientists, and others will be working together to create the quantum devices of the future and give trainees the technical skills, professional training, confidence, and interdisciplinary perspective necessary to lead this revolution. A threefold focus on biomolecular, metamaterial-based, and trapped-atom approaches to quantum assembly will ensure interdisciplinarity and nucleate convergent approaches to open scientific questions. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. Because of its alignment with the research thrusts within the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), the project is receiving co-funding from the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities.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.