New Mexico’s Quantum Information Science (QIS) Hub
The Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC), as part of the Interdisciplinary Science Co-op, is well positioned as an established hub for Quantum Information Science (QIS) collaboration activities that focus on theoretical and experimental research, education, and workforce development. CQuIC is instrumental in growing New Mexico’s participation in expanding the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) to extend the reach of QIS in pioneering new practical advances in quantum systems. CQuIC continues to strengthen partnerships with adjunct faculty from Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory who provide a broader focus for CQuIC’s QIS research as well as employment opportunities for CQuIC graduate students. CQuIC's interdisciplinary reach grows, with new activities in UNM Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. CQuIC’s goal is to promote and develop multidisciplinary research and education in QIS at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral level at UNM.
As a naturally interdisciplinary subject at the intersection of quantum physics and information science, QIS opens the door to a vast variety of research opportunities and applications. Newly designed complex quantum systems are being used for next generation information processing technologies including quantum computers, quantum communication networks, and quantum enhanced sensors. CQuIC's researchers are theorists and experimentalists, using mathematics and computer numerics to develop foundational concepts and applications, modeling physical devices, and performing laboratory experiments that include utilizing lasers and atoms to build quantum-optical based quantum information processing platforms.
CQuIC researchers collaborate on multi-institutional projects, including:
- CQuIC is one of two in the nation to host the National Science Foundation (NSF) Focused Research Hubs in Theoretical Physics (FRHTP) which includes collaboration with faculty and graduate students at the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Science.
- The NSF Software-Tailored Architecture for Quantum (STAQ) co-design project, NSF’s largest investment in quantum computing to date, consisting of an interdisciplinary team of theoretical and experimental physicists, engineers, and computer scientists from seven universities (Duke, UMD, UC Berkeley, Tufts, MIT, Chicago, and UNM).
- The Quantum Enhanced Optimization (QEO) project, an interdisciplinary collaboration working to design and build a next-generation quantum annealing (QA) processor with superconducting flux qubits, emphasizing rapid development cycles that connect the theory being done at UNM and other universities (including USC, UC Berkeley, MIT, Waterloo, and University College, London) to experimental testbeds fabricated at Northrop Grumman and MIT Lincoln Labs.
Extending CQuIC's reach
- CQuIC is a member of The Quantum Information Edge strategic alliance led by two of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Sandia National Laboratories. The alliance includes experts from the University of Maryland, Duke University, Harvard University, University of Colorado Boulder, UC Berkeley, Caltech, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of New Mexico bringing together an unprecedented breadth of world-leading expertise and capabilities in computer science, materials science, physics, mathematics, and engineering to pioneer practical advances in quantum systems.
- CQuIC is also the administrative home of Southwest Quantum Information and Technology (SQuInT) . SQuInT is a network of over 25 "node institutions" including research universities, national laboratories, industrial research centers, and undergraduate colleges. The SQuInT Annual Workshop, which is spearheaded by CQuIC, celebrated its 22nd year in 2020 with over 250 attendees and is one of the longest running Quantum Information Science conferences, covering the full interdisciplinary breadth of the subject. The annual workshop features invited talks by top international QIS researchers and provides opportunities for students and other early-career scientists to present contributed talks and posters in a professional setting.
