Quantum Engineering Initiative

Quantum Engineering Initiative

Building and expanding our efforts in quantum research while also strengthening connections with our partners.

About the Quantum Engineering Initiative

atom and gear illustration The Quantum Engineering Initiative (QEI) will build and expand internal efforts in quantum research while also strengthening connections to local and regional partners. Created in 2021, the initiative is a significant and strategic investment into translational quantum engineering research – especially in quantum sensing, which has been a strength in the college for years. QEI specifically includes educational components, faculty hiring efforts, and dedicated lab space for collaboration with partners both on and off CU Boulder’s campus.

QEI was created to:

Organize and support engineering faculty expertise and foster new and ongoing collaboration opportunities with external partners including national laboratories in and around Boulder, Colorado.
Develop and define quantum engineering science and technology toward the next generation of discoveries.
Cultivate and grow the quantum workforce through educational and interdisciplinary research opportunities.

Sean Shaheen and a student working in a lab
CU Boulder Professor Sean Shaheen, at left, whose group studies quantum materials, works with a student in the lab.

Why quantum now

Quantum information science and engineering is at a tipping point. Researchers exploring the farthest edges of classical physics are beginning to tap into the fundamental capabilities of the quantum world to open new frontiers of possibility.

Drawing on quantum entanglement, investigators are poised to drastically improve the acquisition, processing and transmission of information. Advances across quantum science are combining with classical engineering advancement to transform laboratory demonstration into technological reality. This leap from the lab to real-world impact requires an environment that drives fundamental advances, develops engineering and technical expertise, provides enabling infrastructure, cultivates the next generation workforce, and supports integration with the private sector.

QEI is our answer to that call with the specific goal of creating next-generation quantum sensors and sensor networks for real world systems.

A student in an electrical engineering lab

A student works in an electrical engineering lab at CU Boulder.

Quantum engineering education for tomorrow's needs

The QEI initiative includes several education activities running in parallel to the primary research goals. Primarily, the initiative is linked to a new minor in quantum engineering that provides a foundation in quantum technologies.

Quantum technologies have applications in quantum-enhanced sensors, quantum communications, and quantum computing. The goal is to introduce students to the fundamentals of quantum theory and explore all the major hardware platforms. This will allow graduates to easily adapt to the variety of technologies seen in industry.

Quantum Engineering Minor

Growing our CU Boulder quantum impact

QEI is a new arm of the campus wide CUbit Quantum Initiative, which supports the university and state of Colorado’s prominence in quantum information science and technology. QEI’s roots date back to 2019, when the College of Engineering and Applied Science created an Interdisciplinary Research Theme around quantum to provide seed grants, help with team formation, and hire additional faculty members towards developing translational research. Initial work done by that group helped campus land Q-SEnSe in 2020, a $25 million center to advance quantum science funded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with 11 other organizations around the U.S. and abroad. The college took another bold step forward in the field in 2021 by hiring Professor Scott Diddams and several other prominent quantum researchers into faculty roles. Diddams has served at NIST for the past two decades and conducted prominent experimental research in the field of optical frequency combs and quantum metrology with application to atomic clocks and sensors.

Other recent hires into the college in the field of quantum include Assistant Professor András Gyenis and Assistant Professor Josh Combes. All three professors are based in the Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering and are part of a multi-year faculty recruitment plan.

About CUbit Quantum Initiative