UT at Chattanooga receives nearly $800,000 for quantum computing initiative
In collaboration with Texas A&M University, the project leverages UTC's position as the first academic node on the EPB Quantum Network powered by Qubitekk.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on Thursday that the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) houses one of 23 research projects that will share a total of $39 million being invested to help grow quantum research activities at more institutions across America.
Part of the NSF’s “Expanding Capacity in Quantum Information Science and Engineering” (ExpandQISE) program, the funding aims to break new ground in fields such as quantum computing, sensors and materials. The dollars – $792,705 for UTC over a three-year period starting October 1 – will directly support research, training, and educational activities through partnerships between established QISE programs at research-intensive institutions and up-and-coming programs at institutions seeking to build their quantum research and development infrastructure.
The UTC project is titled “Demonstration of Distributed Quantum Sensing with Heisenberg Scaling by Creating Multipartite Entanglement among Eight Nodes on a Commercial Quantum Network.” The Principal Investigator is Tian Li, Assistant Professor of Physics and Chief Technology Officer of UTC’s Quantum Center.
According to the NSF announcement, the goal is to establish a comprehensive Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) program on campus. Focusing on research, education, workforce development, and community participation in quantum technologies, the project is a partnership with Texas A&M University (TAMU) to investigate a novel theoretical and experimental scheme for demonstrating distributed quantum sensing on a metropolitan-scale fiber-optic quantum network in downtown Chattanooga. The research focuses on creating and distributing multi-photon entangled states across multiple distant nodes on the quantum network and demonstrating distributed quantum sensing with Heisenberg scaling with the number of involved nodes on the network.
In collaboration with several industry partners, UTC has established a Quantum Node Lab connected to the world’s first software-reconfigurable commercial quantum network known as the EPB Quantum Network powered by Qubitekk. That announcement came in December 2023, about a year after the Network was first announced. The lab serves as the testbed for the project on the deployed fiber network infrastructure. This cross-sector interdisciplinary collaboration among UTC, TAMU, Qubitekk, and EPB significantly expands UTC’s QISE research capacity and broadens surrounding communities’ participation in QISE. The research findings and results will be used to enhance experiential learning for students enrolled in the newly launched QISE certificate program at UTC, developed for upskilling technology professionals in surrounding communities.
The NSF made five awards of up to $5 million each over a three-year period. Those went to: (1) Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (two different projects); (2) Northern Arizona University; (3) South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; and (4) Bryn Mawr College.
To see if the full list of awardees, click here.
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