How Howard University Students Are Hoping to Change the Future of Quantum Computing
A group of computer engineering students at Howard University may have only just begun their quantum computing journey, but their work has the potential to make some big impacts — both for their own futures and for the field as a whole.
This past September, IBM Quantum announced the new IBM-HBCU Quantum Center, a collaboration with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to welcome these students into the future of quantum computing and to foster quantum computing research at these institutions. This program connects students and researchers to IBM expertise and offers access to real quantum computing hardware via the IBM Cloud. The Center already has students at Howard University learning Qiskit and working on important problems in the field of quantum hardware, while opening up quantum computing as a potential career path.
“With quantum computing being such an interdisciplinary field, I can see potential applications for it in many of my future career focuses,” said Erin Strickland, a senior computer engineering major and physics minor. Strickland plans to apply to graduate programs focusing on quantum computing concepts and applications.
Strickland first chose to work on quantum-focused research as part of Howard associate professor in physics Thomas Searles’ Searles Applied & Materials Physics Laboratory (SAMPL). Thanks to her and her fellow students’ performance, their academic advisor, assistant professor in electrical engineering and computer science Michaela Amoo, chose them to partake in her own quantum computing project.
Amoo’s interests are primarily in application-specific hardware design with a focus on quantum controls including classical and quantum instrumentation, control, and readout. Today’s control electronics typically employ machine learning algorithms, since they’re quicker and less computationally intense than classical control algorithms. As a precursor to a project centered on machine learning and controls, the team is looking at the classical games used to train machine learning algorithms, such as chess, go, and even tic tac toe — and seeing if they can replace these games with non-deterministic quantum counterparts. Or, in short, they’re developing quantum testbeds for machine learning algorithms.
“This work is different from anything the students have done before,” Amoo said. “The biggest hurdle is understanding quantum mechanics, but they have the electrical and computer engineering skills to solve the problems.”
The students use Qiskit in order to help overcome that hurdle, Amoo explained. “Qiskit has opened a world of possibilities where I can tell an undergraduate research group, ‘hey, let’s see if we can develop quantum models using an actual quantum computer,’ and then they get their hands dirty.”
In just a few months, the students have begun learning the basics of quantum computing and blueprinting out their project plan. And, while it may not have been long, the experience is already having an impact. “Before this program, I wasn’t familiar with quantum mechanics or quantum computers at all,” said Jordan Aley, senior majoring in computer engineering at Howard. “This experience has allowed me to take the initiative and learn on my own how to incorporate these topics into programming.”
The students are already considering quantum computing for their futures. “My plans are still to attend graduate school, but quantum computing has opened up potential new applications for my future study,” said Robert Coleman, senior majoring in computer engineering at Howard.
While these students are graduating soon, this isn’t a short-term project, explained Jonathan Williams, another senior on the team. The group hopes to lay a robust groundwork this final semester and pass it down to the underclassmen who will take their place.
And of course, the team is excited to be a part of the overall quantum community. “We would not have had this opportunity to learn about and research quantum computing without the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center and Quantum Coalition,” said Strickland. “We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to work on groundbreaking, exciting research in such a collaborative, innovation- and community-focused environment and look forward to both watching and participating in its growth!”
This experience will hopefully push quantum computing to improve in more ways than just the technological. Black Americans only received 3.5 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in physics in 2003 according to a 2006 article, and this statistic hasn’t changed much since then. Last year, the American Institute of Physics’ National Task Force to Elevate African American representation in Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy, or TEAM-UP, released a report stating that increased funding to and engagement with HBCUs will be crucial to increasing the percentage of Black researchers in the field of physics, quantum computing included.
“I hope that we aren’t just providing representation in the field,” said Coleman, “but that we will make an impact for the potential employers and institutions looking for students willing and able to fill quantum computing roles. Me and my classmates can produce these kinds of results.”
