Leadership highlights investment and momentum for collaboration, new projects at quantum engineering lab ribbon cutting
Leaders from across the CU Boulder campus and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) gathered last week to celebrate the official launch of the Quantum Engineering Initiative Lab space within the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
The new state-of-the-art laboratory and collaboration space in the Engineering Center will connect quantum researchers across campus with NIST researchers and local industry around quantum communications, sensing and computing. The effort is part of the Quantum Engineering Initiative in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the campuswide to support research into an area of distinctive strength for CU Boulder and an increasingly important field globally, said Massimo Ruzzene, CU Boulder vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes.
“Opening a dedicated space for this research is the result of a lot of hard work by many people on campus over the last five years,” he said. “This new lab will greatly extend the university’s quantum footprint and expand on a successful partnership between the university and NIST that is now over 60 years old.”
The new lab space will host three collaborative projects starting this summer:
Engineering Dean Keith Molenaar called quantum a “critical” research area that has the potential for transformative findings across everyday life in Colorado and beyond. In addition to investing in the new lab space and newly available coursework, he said the college is also hiring world-class faculty in this area andlaunching a Quantum Scholars Program in partnership with the College of Arts and Sciences.
“That program is one of the key investments in the Quantum Engineering Initiative," Molenaar said. "The undergraduate and graduate students who will be part of this research will be leaders in the quantum workforce of tomorrow. This new lab provides a space for them to work with some of the best researchers at the national lab and across the broader Boulder research ecosystem.”
Professor Scott Diddams serves as the faculty director for the Quantum Engineering Initiative. He was hired by the college in 2021 after previously working at NIST and CU Boulderdoing experimental research inthe field of optical frequency combs and quantum metrology. With the space now fully open and activity underway, he will be leading and coordinating work between NIST and engineering faculty and students.
“The vision is what got me to engineering from NIST, but it is the commitment to that overall vision by the college and across campus that has really impressed me,” he said. “I look forward to learning and working in this new space and seeing how engineering can help enable the next generation of quantum technology, which will transform our lives in the coming years.”