Education

In 2022, 39 Bachelor’s students enrolled in the Minor Quantum Science and Quantum Information. Majoring in Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or Computer Science, the students were introduced to the field of quantum science and technology, and trained in a multidisciplinary setting to program quantum algorithms using both emulators and real quantum hardware (via QuTech’s Quantum Inspire). This year, the minor was graded by the students with an 8.7/10 mark.

The two-year MSc program at TU Delft consists of a set of courses in the first year, followed by a second-year MSc thesis project at QuTech. Since 2015, QuTech Academy has offered multiple MSc courses in Quantum Technologies for students of Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics. Among the QuTech Academy courses, Fundamentals of Quantum Information was taken by 105 students this year.

QuTech offers scholarships for excellent, international applicants interested in a Master’s track in quantum. A QuTech Scholarship covers full tuition fees for the TU Delft MSc program and contributes to living expenses for two years. Students with outstanding performance are offered a PhD position at QuTech. As part of our efforts to achieve gender balance in our institute and in science, we strongly encouraged female students and members of other groups that are underrepresented in (quantum) sciences and engineering to apply. For the period 2022-2024, six QuTech scholarships were awarded (3 women and 3 men).

QuTech has been developing a portfolio of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and contributed to online learning for more than 100,000 learners so far. The courses are available on edX.org, where we have built a measurable community, including industry, which is stimulating demand for new content. The strong performance of our portfolio is also confirmed by its high standing within the online professional education market.

The School of Quantum is an online learning platform developed by QuTech Academy to educate people interested in quantum science and technology – across all levels of expertise and backgrounds. The content is organized by topic and offers learners the opportunity to dive in via videos, suggested exercises, and further reading. The School of Quantum platform has also proven valuable for TU Delft students and students from other universities who use it as an additional learning tool. Over the next few years, we will continue developing new high-quality content to feed curious minds.

The EU Quantum Flagship funded project (DIGITAL-2022-TRAINING-02) QTIndu aims at developing the nucleus for a harmonized pan-European short-term training program in Quantum Technologies, tailored for companies and SMEs from different business sectors, and at providing guidelines and routes for scaling up to a comprehensive pan-European level.

QuTech Academy leads the dissemination efforts of IGNITE, an EU Quantum Flagship funded project (HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-30) that aims at developing a quantum processor based on a large-scale germanium qubit system using standard manufacturing techniques that can demonstrate a quantum advantage and to design a blueprint for a large-scale quantum computer.

Among our activities, we are developing pan-European training and education on germanium quantum technology for stakeholders, including industry, academics, and society.

Quantum for Business (QFB) is a European initiative aiming to increase the market’s adoption of quantum technology by transferring academic knowledge and expertise to businesses who are interested in leveraging the potential of quantum. QFB is an agnostic and non-profit platform founded in 2021 by QuTech, TNO, and The Cronos Group, supported by Quantum Delta and InnovationQuarter. QFB offers opportunities for inspiration, education, and community building around quantum technology by bringing together knowledge from different players in the field such as knowledge institutions, hardware/software vendors, consultancy firms, and quantum start-ups.

The EU Quantum Flagship funded project (FETFLAG-07-2020 Training and Education on Quantum Technologies) QTEdu assists the European Quantum Flagship, creating the learning ecosystem necessary to inform and educate society about quantum technologies. Within the consortium, we accomplished the following goals:

• Build a community (375 members from 43 countries) and infrastructure support (open database of programs, courses, trainings, evaluation, and material tools for all audiences).
• Kick-start 11 pan-European pilot programs (129 members from 25 countries) for school and university students, industry, and the general public.

Construct from the bottom up a roadmap towards a pan-European quantum workforce.

Since April 2021, QuTech Academy has organized 15 so-called QuTech360 seminars, where experts from all QuTech divisions and colleagues from the faculties of Applied Sciences and Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science of TU Delft can learn about the wide range of topics studied at QuTech. Most of the QuTech360 seminars are also published on our YouTube channel.