Vasic and Zhuang Join Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center

ECE professor Bane Vasic and ECE assistant professor Quntao Zhuang are part of the newly established $115 million Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab. The center aims to build a quantum computer and develop quantum sensors that could lead to discoveries about dark matter and other elusive subatomic particles. 

"The SQMS Center will combine the theoretical and experimental expertise of individual research groups to advance long-term success of quantum technologies," Vasić said. 

Vasić, a pioneer in classical error correction and fault-tolerant decoders, is adapting his algorithms to ensure information processed in a quantum computer remains intact.

"It has been widely recognized that not only quantum computers but communications systems and networks fundamentally hinge upon quantum error correction, or QEC," said Vasić. "Designing good QEC codes and decoders is arguably the most important theoretical challenge facing scalable practical realizations of quantum-enabled information processing systems."

Along with Zheshen Zhang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and optical sciences, Zhuang will be focused on increasing the precision of quantum sensing. These highly precise sensing methods have applications including GPS systems, astronomy laboratories, biomedical imaging and fundamental physics.

"Error correction in sensing is fundamentally different from in computing," Zhuang said. "We developed codes particularly for sensing to allow the sensing advantage from entanglement and other quantum effects to survive even when there's loss or environmental imperfections."