Education & Outreach

Minor Quantum Science and Quantum Information

In 2020, the Minor Quantum Science and Quantum Information has been offered to 58 students coming from Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics or Computer Science. Students are introduced to the field of quantum science and technology, and are trained in a multidisciplinary setting to program quantum algorithms using both emulators and real quantum hardware (via QuTech’s Quantum Inspire).

MSc courses and courses for MSc/ PhD students

Since 2015, QuTech Academy has offered an MSc programme in Quantum Technologies for students of Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics. The two-year program at TU Delft consists of a set of courses in the first year, followed by a second-year MSc thesis project at QuTech. In 2020, several new courses were added to our offer. These included ‘Quantum Hardware 1 – Theoretical Concepts’; ‘Quantum Hardware 2 – Experimental State of the Art’; and ‘Modelling of Superconducting Devices’. QuTech is also collaborating in an online course sharing project with RWTH Aachen and TU Charmers, and offered the courses ‘Quantum Computation’ and ‘Quantum Optics’.

QuTech Scholarships

• At QuTech, we deeply value diversity as a prerequisite for real equality and inclusion. In particular, we are committed to working towards gender balance in our institute and in science. As part of our efforts to make this goal a reality, we strongly encourage female students to apply for our QuTech Scholarship.
  
  
• We awarded the QuTech Scholarship 2020 to four excellent international students (one out of these four students is a woman) covering their Master studies. Outstanding performances will be rewarded with PhD positions.

• The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) has awarded the second prize of the KNVI thesis prize for Computer Science and Information Technology to QuTech Scholarship student Matthew Skrzypcyk.

Annotation Quantum Technology

The Annotation Quantum Technology is awarded to students of selected Master programmes at TU Delft. It signifies that students followed 20 ECTS credits of compulsory course modules and performed a graduation project focused on quantum technology. Some students also carried out an additional project, approved by the coordinator of the annotation, and we were pleased to share their outstanding work on The School of Quantum, our new online learning platform.

QuTech aims to spark enthusiasm and curiosity for quantum technologies among a wider audience. We are keen to share our fascination with quantum science with anyone, including young people of all ages (notably primary and high school students), technology enthusiasts, professionals, politicians and future users.

Our principal investigators are widely recognized in the Netherlands and abroad as thought leaders in the field, and so are often asked to contribute their expert view on quantum technology to media productions, companies and institutions. Our QuTech Speakers are a group of young and highly motivated PhD students, engineers, and postdoctoral researchers. In 2020 they provided numerous podcasts, blogs, presentations and other activities for a broad audience.

Outreach highlights 2020

Quantum technologies featured in several podcasts, radio productions and interviews:

• In the podcast ‘NEMO weet raad!’ Sophie Hermans (PhD student) talks about the role quantum mechanics can play in the future of our banking business.
  
  
• Kian van der Enden (PhD student) was interviewed for the 'Understand Tomorrow Podcast' and ‘De wereld van Morgen Podcast’. He talks about quantum internet and quantum technologies.
  
  
• Anne-Marije Zwerver (PhD student) was a guest in the BNR podcast 'De Technoloog'. She speaks about quantum computers and the technology behind it.
  
  
• The Center for Data Innovation spoke with Freeke Heijman (Founding Director Quantum Delft & Quantum Delta NL) about quantum technology, its current applications, challenges and opportunities.

• Program manager Ingrid Romijn spoke with InnovationQuarter and Innovation Origins about the impact of quantum technology, with collaboration as an important starting point.
  
  
• Lieven Vandersypen (Director Research) addresses in this Radio Raccoons podcast where we are today with quantum computing and who is working on it.

• Sophie Hermans (PhD student) looks back at the event Physics@Veldhoven with a photo strip entitled ‘Van bliksemschichten tot #quantumtechnologie’.

QuTech representatives visited (online and offline) high-schools, companies and government events to discuss quantum technologies and their potential.

Eleven blogs from the QuTech ‘Bits of Quantum’ blog team appeared in 2020, discussing everything from technological developments and political aspects to the everyday life of QuTech researchers.

In 2020, the TU Delft Vision Team Quantum Computing was launched. With this initiative, TU Delft, in collaboration with QuTech, is putting its societal responsibilities into practice, by exploring the impact that quantum computing can have on society and industry. The approach followed by the team in this one-year project includes the studying of national and international reports on quantum computing, as well as speaking to people and organisations involved in identifying societal issues that may emerge following the introduction of quantum computing.