Quantum at UB

Researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo are actively engaged in research that is laying the groundwork for future technologies, whose performance is accelerated by exploiting the strangeness of the quantum realm. 

This is the world of systems whose size is reduced towards the atomic scale, allowing new phenomena to emerge that are not anticipated by the conventional laws of physics. Wave-particle duality, quantum tunneling, and entanglement are just some of the exotic phenomena that emerge in this realm. With these discoveries, we have the potential to realize vastly superior technologies that accelerate over their conventional counterparts using quantum mechanics.

Among the technologies that are promised by such advancements include:

Realizing the potential of the quantum realm presents vast technological challenges, at a variety of different levels and which span a range of disciplines, including materials science, physics and chemistry, and electrical and computer science and engineering.

Underpinning all of these efforts is the tailored engineering of “designed materials”, whose electrical, optical and thermal properties are optimized to support robust quantum phenomena. Remaining at the microscopic scale, there is a critical need to understand and control the different quantum phenomena that are essential to quantum technology, and to assemble devices and circuits that are capable of exploiting these phenomena.

Finally, at the system level, there is a need to implement new algorithmic approaches that can take full advantage of the full functionality offered by quantum hardware.

The University at Buffalo and faculty within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are uniquely positioned to take on this revolutionary multidisciplinary research aimed at unlocking the quantum realm and accelerating quantum information science (QIS) and technology development.