QuSeC-TAQS: Sensing-Intelligence on The Move: Quantum-Enhanced Optical Diagnosis of Crop Diseases

霜霉病是对瓜类作物最具威胁的病害之一，传统的传感技术很难在感染早期检测到。霜霉病发现晚会导致作物减产和过量使用杀菌剂，从而导致重大的经济和粮食损失以及环境污染。量子传感作为一项革命性的技术，由于其利用了纠缠和压缩光等非经典资源，已经证明了其超越经典传感极限的能力。该项目团队由来自物理学、计算机科学、光学、生物学和农业科学等不同学科的首席研究员组成，他们将合作开发用于快速准确诊断霜霉病的量子传感器。本项目有利于提高国家食品安全水平，促进基础和应用科学研究，符合国家利益。此外，通过当地的推广活动，该项目将使北卡罗来纳州的当地种植者、K-12学生和代表性不足的大学生受益。这个QuSeC-TAQS团队将专注于三个协同研究重点：(1)开发新的理论和算法，(2)优化团队预先建立的量子传感设备，以及(3)利用霜霉病感染的叶子样本进行实验评估。具体来说，pi将开发一种纠缠光子源，该光子源由声光光束转向装置定向到叶片样品中进行快速广角扫描。为了解决农业环境中光子损耗大的问题，将开发一种基于实时测量的自适应学习系统增强的量子接收器，该系统可以优化接收器电路配置。pi还将种植黄瓜，用霜霉孢子接种黄瓜，并收集叶片样本进行实验室量子传感实验。预期的结果是将霜霉病感染后的检测窗口从目前的4-5天缩短到1-2天的新记录。该团队的科学目标进一步得到了多元化劳动力培训的补充，优先考虑STEM中代表性不足的学生。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Downy mildew is one of the most threatening diseases to cucurbit crops, and it can be hardly detected at the early stage of infection using classical sensing technologies. The late detection of downy mildew can cause reduced crop yields and excessive fungicide application, thus leading to significant economic and food losses and environment pollution. Quantum sensing, as a revolutionary technology, has demonstrated its ability to surpass the limits of classical sensing, owing to its utilization of nonclassical resources such as entanglement and squeezed light. The project team, comprised of Principal Investigators from diverse disciplines including physics, computer science, optics, biology, and agricultural science, will collaborate to develop quantum sensors tailored for the fast and accurate diagnosis of downy mildew. This project serves the national interest for its advancement of national food safety and promotion of basic and applied scientific research. Moreover, through local outreach activities, this project will benefit local growers at North Carolina, K-12 students, and underrepresented college students. This QuSeC-TAQS team will focus on three synergistic research thrusts: (1) the development of new theories and algorithms, (2) the optimization of the team’s pre-established quantum sensing devices, and (3) the experimental evaluation utilizing the leaf samples infected by downy mildew. Specifically, PIs will develop an entangled photon source that is directed by an acousto-optic beam steering device to leaf samples for fast and wide-angle scanning. A quantum receiver enhanced by adaptive learning system that can optimize the receiver circuit configurations based on real-time measurements will be developed to remedy the problem of high photon losses in the agricultural environment. PIs will also grow cucumber plants, inoculate them with downy mildew spores, and collect leaf samples for in-lab quantum sensing experiments. The anticipated outcome is to shorten the detection window from the state-of-the-art of 4-5 days to a new record of 1-2 days following the downy mildew infection. The scientific thrusts of this team are further complemented with training of a diverse workforce, with priority given to underrepresented students in STEM.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.