A new graduate program in quantum information will commence at the University of Waterloo in Fall 2010, offering students an unprecedented breadth of study in the emerging field.
Approved this week by the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies (OCGS), the graduate program will expose students to a wide range of advanced research projects and courses on the foundations, applications and implementations of quantum information processing.
Applications are now being accepted for the program, which was created with consultation and approval from six academic units, three faculties and the university Senate. Quantum information science promises to be one of the most important subjects in the near future, given its enormous potential impact on technology and communications. Learning how to harness and manipulate subatomic particles according to the rules of quantum physics will lead to information processing with power unrivalled by any present-day computers.
One particularly special feature of the new graduate program is its scope and breadth, encompassing both experimental and theoretical aspects of quantum information. Students will be required to take two key courses: Quantum Information Processing, and Implementation of Quantum Information Processing, and will have the opportunity to take a wide range of other specialized courses in the quantum information, ranging from Theory of Quantum Information to Quantum Algorithms to Nanoelectronics Implementations of Quantum Information Processing.
"I don't know of any other program in the world where students acquire this breadth and depth of background in both the theory and implementation of quantum information," said
Michele Mosca, Deputy Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing and chair of the committee overseeing the new graduate program. "Students will be part of a world-renowned multi-disciplinary team of researchers harnessing the power of quantum mechanics."
Students will be based in their home program and earn a Quantum Information qualification to their degrees; for instance, Master of Mathematics in Computer Science (Quantum Information), or Doctor of Philosophy of Science in Chemistry (Quantum Information). "The breakthroughs in quantum computing will likely happen across different disciplines," Mosca said. "We are sowing the seeds for that to happen. Big ideas tend to come from the cross-pollination of disciplines."
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About IQC: Founded in 2002, the mission of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is to aggressively explore and advance the application of quantum mechanical systems to a vast array of relevant information processing techniques.
A part of the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont., Canada, IQC creates a truly unique environment fostering cutting-edge research and collaboration between researchers in the areas of computer, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences.
At the time of this release, IQC has 17 faculty members, 22 postdoctoral fellows and over 55 students and research assistants, as well as a support staff of 18.
The Institute for Quantum Computing acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through Industry Canada and the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation.