2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Investigating Opportunities for Diversity and Growth in the Landscape of Quantum Information Science Engineering Education in the U.S.

Presented at Engineering Physics and Physics Division (EP2D) Technical Session 2

Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) is rapidly gaining interest across a wide range of disciplines.
As QISE continues to evolve, engineering will play an increasingly critical role in advancing quantum technologies.
While efforts to characterize introductory QISE courses are underway, a comprehensive understanding of QISE education across the United States remains lacking.
Developing a broad understanding of the QISE education landscape is crucial for addressing the needs of the growing quantum industry and ensuring equitable access for a diverse range of participants.
This paper presents part of an ongoing effort to characterize the current landscape of QISE courses and degree programs in higher education in the US.
To achieve this, we used publicly available information from university and college websites to capture information on over 8000 courses that address quantum in some way and nearly 90 QISE specific programs (e.g., degrees, minors, certificates).
The majority of these programs are interdisciplinary and include engineering; 14 of them are housed exclusively in engineering departments.
We find most programs are offered at research intensive institutions.
Our results showcase an opportunity for program developers at non-research intensive institutions to justify the creation of QISE programs, which would also address calls from different stakeholders in QISE education for a more diverse QISE workforce.
We suggest strategies based on the findings of this study such as integrating QISE into existing courses, investing in the development of QISE courses and programs at non-PhD-granting institutions, and making courses with QISE content accessible to students from a variety of majors.

Authors

Dr. Andi Pina Rochester Institute of Technology [biography]

Andi Pina is a postdoctoral researcher at Rochester Institute of Technology. They earned a B.S. in Physics from California State University Fullerton in 2019 and their Physics Ph.D. in 2024 from University of Maine where they did research in physics education.
Shams El-Adawy University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Shams El-Adawy is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her B.A. in Physics and French from American University in 2018, her M.S. in Physics from DePaul University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from Kansas State University in 2023.
Dr. Michael James Verostek Jr Rochester Institute of Technology [biography]

Mike earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Rochester in June, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he is working on multiple projects designed to support and measure cultural change in graduate physics programs. His prior work has focused on several other key issues in physics graduate education, ranging from the use of GRE scores in admissions to investigating how physics graduate students find research groups.
Dr. Heather Lewandowski University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Heather Lewandowski is a professor of physics and Fellow of JILA at the University of Colorado Boulder. She also serves as the Faculty Director of the CUbit Quantum Initiative focused on Education and Workforce. She leads two research programs, one in experimental molecular physics, and the other in physics education research.
Benjamin M Zwickl Rochester Institute of Technology [biography]

Ben Zwickl is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy and a member of the Physics Education Research Group at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Center for Computing in Science Education at the University of Oslo. He received a PhD in physics doing experiments related to quantum optomechanical sensors, which was followed by a postdoc in physics education research at the University of Colorado Boulder. Since that time, Ben has pursued research on the nature of physics expertise, how expertise is developed, and the relationship between formal education and professional success. This has included research on graduate education, career preparation for optics and quantum jobs, and laboratory education. Ben regularly teaches courses that integrate computation, laboratory work, and projects.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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