iQuISE: Interdisciplinary Quantum Information Science and Engineering

This program is a new approach to educating and training students in quantum information science & engineering, based on a unified, interdisciplinary curriculum, crossing traditional barriers between science and engineering, with the goal of nurturing a new generation of students, from education through employment, and of providing a case for a future permanent doctoral program at MIT. The program involves 14 faculty members at MIT, across five departments, and offers Course Q, a comprehensive doctoral program in quantum information; the Fellowship of Quantum Information, a community of graduate students researchers in the field; QIS@MIT, a teaching and seminar program; and InQuIRE, an outreach program connecting government and industrial partners and quantum information research, for students and the public.

Support is provided by the Integrative Graduate Education, Research, and Training (IGERT) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). This IGERT has enrolled 18 graduate students as associates, and as of the Fall of 2009, it will fully support six or more students (three women; more applications are still in progress). The academic curriculum has also developed, with a new graduate course in Quantum Complexity Theory offered, and a consistent three-semester sequence in quantum information science being offered started in the Fall of 2009.

A new Quantum information Science Teaching Laboratory is also being established, which will offer hands-on experience with quantum optics experiments, including testing fundamental predictions separating quantum from classical mechanics, using entangled photons. And a summer course on Quantum Information Science for Undergraduates, QuISU, was offered for the first time, in June, 2009, and was attended by 21 students, including 4 women and 2 underrepresented minorities.