2025 REU Summer Program

 
Program Dates: June 2025 - August 2025
Applications open January 30 2025.

Apply Here

 

The Center for Quantum Networks (CQN) offers paid summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) to students interested in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE). 

CQN aims to provide a rich exposure to QISE by providing a select group of undergraduate students with mentorship and training at CQN labs over the summer. The program enables students to work on specific projects under the guidance and mentorship of faculty members and graduate students or post-doctoral mentors. In addition to their research, students will participate in both in-person and virtual events such as seminars/lectures, professional development workshops, and social activities.

At CQN we value how diverse backgrounds and experiences brings innovation and new ideas to quantum research. This program is designed to be a welcoming and supportive environment for all students traditionally underrepresented in STEM.

 

Highlights

  • REU fellows will:
    • Improve their understanding of the nature of research practice and scientific reasoning.
    • Learn the process of conducting research.
    • Gain hands-on experience in Quantum Information Science and Engineering.
    • Work with scientific mentors.
    • Network with researchers including graduate students, postdos, faculty, and industry.
    • Improve public speaking and communication skills.
    • Increase understanding of different career paths in QISE.
  • Free on-campus housing will be provided.
  • Travel expenses will be paid for roundtrip travel to REU post.
  • $6000 stipend issued for participation in programming (this is broken up throughout the summer).

 

Eligibility Criteria

All students who apply to the CQN REU must be:

  • U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the U.S.
  • 18 years of age by the start date of the program.
  • Enrolled in a degree program (part-time or full-time) leading to a baccalaureate or associate degree.

 

Potential Projects and Locations

University of Arizona || Dr. Matt Eichenfield

UA Project 1: Quantum Heterogeneous Integration Lab

In this lab, we are working on designing and testing photonic integrated circuits.

University of Maryland || Dr. Saikat Guha, Dr. Chaohan Cui

UMD Project 1: Integrated quantum photonics

University of Massachusetts - Amherst || Dr. Stefan Krastanov

UMA Project 1: Methods development in community open-source projects in numerical methods for Quantum Information Science

At CQN we develop many different tools, to facilitate the simulation work done by member institutions. Under the umbrella of this project you would define, together with your faculty mentor, how you can increase the capabilities of these tool by designing and/or implementing new modeling techniques. This could include anything under the umbrella of state-vector simulators, stabilizer state simulators, graph state simulators, symbolic computer algebra tools, discrete event networking simulators, tensor network toolkits, error-correction frameworks, and more. The faculty member will be Stefan Krastanov, the director of the virtual testbed within the center.

Required skills: Some knowledge of one of the many domains of quantum information science; average software engineering skills (minor familiarity with git, using a terminal, using an IDE)

UMA Project 2: Front-end development for the CQN simulation tools

At CQN we develop many different tools, to facilitate the simulation work done by member institutions. Under the umbrella of this project you would define, together with your faculty mentor, how you can increase the usability and accessibility of these tools. This could be front-end UI/UX development; benchmarking known techniques against each other and making public reports on their results; heavy bibliographical research to collate known techniques (e.g. for error correction) and make interactive comparisons between them; improving the current tools existing within the center. The domains to consider would be state-vector simulators, stabilizer state simulators, graph state simulators, symbolic computer algebra tools, discrete event networking simulators, tensor network toolkits, error-correction frameworks, and more. The faculty member will be Stefan Krastanov, the director of the virtual testbed within the center.

Required skills: Some knowledge of one of the many domains of quantum information science; minor software engineering skills (minor familiarity with git); front-end development skills or bibliographical research aptitude

Harvard University || Dr. Marko Loncar

Harvard Project 1: Periodically poled lithium tantalate for spontaneous down conversion 

Using computational methods to design a waveguide and poling period in periodically poled lithium tantalate to create correlated photon pairs vis spontaneous parametric down conversion.

Skills sets required of the student from the start: some experience on any data analysis platform (ie. Mathematica, Matlab, Python)

Lockheed Martin || Dr. Joseph Buck

LM Project 1: Single Photon Source Characterization

This is an ongoing project for quantum enhanced remote sensing and communication. There are several sub-systems for the demo hardware that need to be assembled and characterized, which provides a wonderful opportunity for undergraduates to be involved in an ongoing industrial research & development activity.  This proposal is for the construction and characterization of a single photon source.

LM Project 2: Bell State Tomography System Development

This is an ongoing project for quantum enhanced remote sensing and communication. There are several sub-systems for the demo hardware that need to be assembled and characterized, which provides a wonderful opportunity for undergraduates to be involved in an ongoing industrial research & development activity. This proposal is to design, build, and characterize a Bell state tomography system for the measurement and reconstruction of entangled two-qubit states.