QuantumX welcomed its fourth cohort of graduate students to the Accelerating Quantum-Enabled Technologies (AQET) program this fall. The 19 students studying electrical and computer engineering, materials science and engineering, physics, chemistry, and computer science and engineering are part of the next generation of scientists and engineers who are leveraging the quantum-mechanical properties of light and matter to enable new technologies in computation, communication, and sensing.
These students join 66 others in the program, established in 2020 as a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT). This cohort is the last to participate in the NRT, but the certificate program will continue beyond the NSF funding. Students in the program follow the graduate certificate in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) as a cohort and participate in professional development workshops and networking events.
“Taking the AQET courses helped fill in the gaps in my knowledge of QISE to enable me to communicate with other QISE scientists from different backgrounds effectively,” said Ritika Anundwade, a 2021 NSF AQET fellow. “The AQET seminar also introduced me to QISE research being done at UW and helped me find the research group I’m in currently. It’s also been nice to have a community of peers on campus interested in the same research.”
AQET students also have access to professional development workshops and networking events and must complete a capstone project with an industry partner.