Quantum Mechanics for Science and Engineering

Bob Colwell

Harpreet Singh, Simran Kaur, Manjit Gill, Navdeep Sandhu, Pooja Bedi

Quantum mechanics has emerged as one of the most transformative scientific revolutions of the 20th and 21st centuries, extending far beyond its initial theoretical foundations into practical applications across engineering, materials science, information technology, and nanotechnology. Its principles, such as wave�particle duality, superposition, and entanglement, form the backbone of modern innovations like quantum computing, quantum cryptography, semiconductor devices, and energy-efficient nanomaterials. This paper investigates the role of quantum mechanics in advancing technological frontiers, with an emphasis on engineering domains such as electronics, computing, and material design. A detailed discussion on quantum principles, their mathematical representation, and their translation into applied engineering technologies is presented. By linking theoretical constructs to real-world devices and emerging applications, this work highlights the significance of quantum mechanics as not only a fundamental science but also as a driver of future innovation.

Miguel A. Alonso, Henry S. Valk

A. R. Piña, Shams El-Adawy, Mike Verostek +8 more

Quantum information science and engineering (QISE) is rapidly gaining interest from those within many disciplines, and higher education needs to adapt to the changing landscape. Although QISE education still has a strong presence and roots in physics, the field is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. There is a need to understand the presence of QISE instruction and quantum-related instruction across all disciplines in order to figure out where QISE education is already happening and where it could be expanded. Although there is recent work that characterizes introductory QISE courses, there is no holistic picture of the landscape of QISE and quantum-related education in the United States. To understand how QISE education is evolving, we analyzed course catalogs from 1456 U.S. institutions. We found 61 institutions offering QISE degree programs, mostly at Ph.D.-granting schools, with interdisciplinary programs being the most common. Physics, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science are the primary contributors to these programs. Across all institutions, we identified over 8000 courses mentioning “quantum,” mainly in physics and chemistry departments, but about one-third of institutions in our study had none. We also found over 500 dedicated QISE courses, concentrated in Ph.D.-granting institutions, primarily in physics, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science. Physics leads in offering both general quantum-related courses ( ∼ 4700 ) and QISE-specific courses ( ∼ 200 ). While quantum knowledge is often a prerequisite for QISE, there are efforts to make QISE education more accessible to students with less background in quantum mechanics. Across multiple disciplines, we also see that QISE topics are being introduced in courses not fully dedicated to QISE, which may be a productive strategy for increasing students’ access to QISE education. Our dataset and analysis provide the most comprehensive overview to date of quantum education across U.S. higher education. Additionally, this work is the first to address, in detail, the landscape of quantum content in two-year and community colleges and examines the largest set of MSIs in this context. We hope these findings will support and guide future efforts in curriculum design, workforce development, and education policy across the quantum ecosystem.

David B. Beard, G. B. Beard, Garrison Sposito