Quantum engineering

Dr. Michal Bajcsy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and has an affiliation with the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo.

He earned his PhD in Applied Physics and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Dr. Bajcsy’s groundbreaking doctoral research, supervised by Mikhail Lukin, included the demonstration of stationary light pulses and studies of interactions between tightly confined cold atoms and few-photon pulses within hollow-core photonic-crystal fibers. He further enriched his research experience as a visiting student in Vladan Vuletić's group at MIT. Following his PhD, he completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University in the Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab under Jelena Vučković, focusing on solid-state cavity QED systems using quantum dots embedded in photonic crystals.

At the University of Waterloo, Dr. Bajcsy’s research centers on developing scalable photonic devices and quantum optics experimental platforms. His work leverages quantum emitters such as laser-cooled atoms, quantum dots, and color centers, integrated with nanophotonic structures, to advance the frontier of quantum technologies.
 

Dr. Bradley Hauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Institute of Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo. He completed his PhD at the University of Alberta in 2019, after which he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Advanced Microwave Photonics group at NIST in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Dr. Hauer's research focuses on studying cavity optomechanical systems and superconducting circuits, with applications in metrology, quantum information, and non-classical state preparation.

• experimental and theoretical physics
• optomechanics
• superconducting circuits
• quantum information
• nanomechanics

Dr. Na Young Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She is affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and holds cross-appointments in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, and Chemistry.

As the leader of the Quantum Innovation (QuIN) Laboratory, Dr. Kim drives cutting-edge research to develop large-scale quantum processors using novel materials and advanced technologies. Her team is currently spearheading two major projects:

1. Semiconductor Quantum Processors – This project explores controllable optical and electrical domains, unveiling the properties of exotic materials and the fundamental nature of symmetries.
2. Multi-Functional Classical and Quantum Device Arrays – This initiative aims to establish a planar architecture integrating nano-scale devices with electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical functionalities.

Before joining the University of Waterloo in 2016, Dr. Kim worked at Apple Inc., where she contributed to the development of small display products. She earned her BS in Physics from Seoul National University and completed her graduate studies at Stanford University’s Department of Applied Physics, focusing on mesoscopic transport properties in low-dimensional nanostructures. Her postgraduate research expanded into quantum optics and nanophotonics, encompassing both experimental and theoretical projects in collaboration with leading scholars.

Dr. Amir Hamed Majedi is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He leads the Integrated Quantum Optoelectronics Lab (IQOL) within the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.

Dr. Majedi’s research focuses on engineering quantum electrodynamics, with an emphasis on superconducting optoelectronics and quantum photonics. His key research areas include:

• Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
• Single-photon sources based on nanowire quantum dots
• Superconducting plasmonic detectors and waveguides
• Superconducting-based quantum dot LEDs for single and entangled photon sources
• Graphene photonics

The IQOL conducts theoretical and experimental investigations into quantum and electromagnetic phenomena in superconducting micro- and nanoscale structures. The lab aims to advance technologies in optoelectronic, millimeter-wave/THz, and photonic devices and systems. Their research seeks to establish theoretical foundations, innovative design methodologies, and device/system-level synthesis and characterization techniques.

Through this work, the lab is driving the development of superconducting quantum devices for cutting-edge applications, including ultrafast communications, quantum information processing, and bio-nanotechnology.

Dr. Guo-Xing Miao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, with an affiliation to the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC).

Dr. Miao’s research focuses on spintronics, utilizing precise electron spin manipulation to enable information processing. His work emphasizes nanodevices established on newly emerging spin platforms, such as synthetic diamonds and topological insulators, where information can be processed coherently on the quantum level, rather than digitally on the classical level. The interwined transport of electrons, spins and ions in solid-state devices establishes the forefront for developing semiconductor compatible materials platforms ready for chip integration.

• Topological quantum computing
• Tellurides MBE
• Spin memory and logic devices
• Spintronics
• Iontronics
• Memristor
• Neuromorphic computing

Dr. Michael Reimer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, with an affiliation to the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC).

After earning his BSc in Physics from the University of Waterloo, Dr. Reimer worked as an R&D Engineer at JDS Uniphase for two years before pursuing his MSc in Engineering Physics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He completed his PhD in Physics in 2010 at the University of Ottawa/National Research Council of Canada.

From 2009 to 2014, Dr. Reimer was a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Delft, where he worked in the quantum optics lab of Professor Val Zwiller. During this time, he made significant contributions to the development of solid-state quantum devices, including single photon and entangled photon sources based on shaped nanowire heterostructures, as well as nanowire-based single electron devices and efficient nanowire avalanche photodiodes. In 2013, Dr. Reimer also played a key role in the startup company Single Quantum, which focused on developing highly efficient single-photon detectors using superconducting nanowires.

At the University of Waterloo, Dr. Reimer's research focuses on advancing quantum technologies, including the development of a quantum repeater, creating efficient interfaces between stationary and flying quantum bits, performing quantum optics and algorithms on semiconductor chips, and developing a ‘plug and play’ tunable quantum light source.

• Semiconductor nanowire quantum light sources
• Hybrid nanowire quantum state converter
• Quantum memories
• Integrated quantum photonic circuits
• Highly efficient quantum detectors

Dr. Christopher Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

In 2004, Dr. Wilson moved to Sweden to work on a quantum computing project at Chalmers University of Technology, where he and his team began working on superconducting circuits for quantum computing. Around 2007, they realized their research could enable the measurement of virtual photons inside a vacuum. These virtual photons, which are generated and annihilated in pairs, had been theorized to be detectable under specific conditions. Around 40 years prior, it had been suggested that a mirror moving near the speed of light could capture these photons. However, the effect had never been observed due to the challenge of moving a massive object at such high speeds. Dr. Wilson and his team created an electronic 'mirror' that could be moved at one-quarter the speed of light using magnetic fields. This breakthrough allowed them to separate the photon pairs, prevent their annihilation, and convert them into real photons that could be observed.

Dr. Wilson continues his work on quantum information, microwave quantum optics, and nonlinear dynamics at the University of Waterloo. He has received numerous accolades for his research, including the 2012 Wallmark Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy for his work on the Dynamical Casimir Effect (DCE). His groundbreaking work on DCE was named one of the Top 5 Breakthroughs of 2011 by Physics World and earned the #1 Reader's Choice spot on Nature News.

Dr. En-Hui Yang is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the founding Director of the Leitch-University of Waterloo Multimedia Communications Lab. He is also the co-founder of SlipStream Data Inc. (now a subsidiary of BlackBerry Inc., formerly known as Research In Motion) and a former associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He previously held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Information Theory and Multimedia Data Compression.

Dr. Yang is known for co-developing the Yang-Kieffer algorithm, a numerical set of rules that use grammar-based coding to achieve lossless compression of text and image files. He is also the co-inventor of soft decision quantization (rate distortion optimization quantization or trellis quantization), an efficient coding technology used in image and video applications to improve compression, with widespread use in products like smartphones and web browsers.

His research interests span multimedia compression, information theory, digital communications, image and video coding, image understanding and management, big data analytics, information security, and deep learning. His work aims to develop technologies that enhance storage capacity of computers, accelerate and improve reliability of data transmission, improve data security, and make big data more understandable.

Dr. Yang is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2024, he was honored with the title of 'University Professor' by the University of Waterloo in recognition of his exceptional scholarly achievements and international pre-eminence.

Dr. Youngki Yoon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on understanding the physics of non-equilibrium phenomena in nanosystems, with particular relevance to device applications, using modeling and simulations. Building on a rigorous fundamental understanding, Dr. Yoon has developed his own quantum transport simulator based on the Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function (NEGF) method. His atomistic simulations enable predictive analysis of nanoscale devices, providing insights where direct experimental investigation is often extremely challenging and prohibitively expensive.

Dr. Yoon earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 2008, where his research primarily focused on ballistic transport in carbon nanotube devices. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, where he made pioneering contributions to non-equilibrium quantum transport. His work included the first demonstration of dissipative simulations using the NEGF formalism for realistic device sizes (>200 nm) and the first-ever attempt to incorporate both phonon and roughness scattering in graphene nanoribbon transistors.

• Nanoscale transistors and sensors
• Computer simulations for emerging devices
• Engineering tool development for analysis and optimization

Sujeet K. Chaudhuri is a distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo. In recognition of his sustained outstanding scholarship and academic leadership, Professor Chaudhuri was installed in 2004 as the O’Donovan Research Chair of RF/Microwaves and Photonics at the university. He was the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1993 - 1998 and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 1998-2003.

Under Professor Chaudhuri’s leadership, initially as the Chair, and later as the Dean, the university experienced unprecedented growth. The research budget of the faculty tripled, new buildings were added, and new undergraduate programs like Software Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering were successfully introduced. Several graduate/research programs were also new additions to the university. As the Chair of the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Sciences (NCDEAS), Professor Chaudhuri provided new visions and progressive leadership to the Engineering Profession in Canada. Due to his initiatives, NCDEAS now enjoys a prominent consultative role with governments and the private sector in North America.

Current research interests of Professor Chaudhuri include guided-wave/electro-optic structures, planar microwave structures, dielectric resonators, optical and EM imaging, fiber based broadband network and the emerging technologies based on the EBG/PBG-nanostructures. Additionally, Professor Chaudhuri is a member of URSI Commission B, and Sigma Xi.