Incorporating quantum technologies into engineering curriculum

Abstract

This paper first reviews the present status of quantum technologies that are rapidly making inroads to various fields of science and engineering. The author then suggests, in light of these developments, how one may incorporate the key principles, ideas, and topics of new quantum technologies into undergraduate quantum mechanics courses and laboratories to prepare and equip future engineers. Concrete examples of curriculum changes in modern physics, quantum mechanics, and advanced quantum mechanics courses are presented based on three years of experimentation of a new curriculum. The author finds that these changes have an additional benefit to engineering students as the topics bring together a number of once disparate areas of science and technologies such as electronics, optics, atomic physics, and computer and information sciences.