Session A2: Invited Session: Teaching Quantum Information Science at Liberal Arts College

Doing quantum theory at a liberal arts college

An academic career at a liberal arts college poses some challenges for a researcher in quantum information and quantum foundations, most notably the lack of local collaborators and graduate students. Are there also complementary advantages and opportunities?   

Quantum Information in Non-physics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges

Quantum information and quantum computing have changed our thinking about the basic concepts of quantum physics. These fields have also introduced exciting new applications of quantum mechanics such as quantum cryptography and non-interactive measurement. It is standard to teach such topics only to advanced physics majors who have completed coursework in quantum mechanics. Recent encounters with teaching quantum cryptography to non-majors and a bout of textbook-writing suggest strategies for teaching this interesting material to those without the standard quantum mechanics background. This talk will share some of those strategies.   

Theoretical Research Fostered by an Undergraduate Environment

An undergraduate setting entails certain challenges for a faculty member doing research in theoretical physics, but it also offers particular opportunities. While it is possible to succeed in any area of theoretical research at an undergraduate institution, the experience of teaching at the undergraduate level and doing research with undergraduate students naturally leads one to think about problems that, though possibly very interesting, do not require a high level of technical expertise. Such problems tend to be ``close to the trunk of the tree of physics,'' as a colleague has suggested, meaning that they may be closer to the central ideas of physics than many highly specialized problems. In this talk I give examples of research projects in quantum information and quantum foundations that have been stimulated in part by undergraduate-level teaching and carried out with undergraduate collaborators.   

Fundamental Physics with Table-Top Optics

Experimental physics research at an undergraduate institution poses the challenge of requiring the production of publishable results while also being a suitable setting for mentoring undergraduates in research. It is tempting for young faculty to copy/adapt ``big-machine'' university research, but that is a tough enterprise that is hard to sustain. An option that suits the undergraduate setting better is a small, table-top, apparatus devoted to projects with promising potential. In optics I found such a setting, and a successful transition from big-machine to table-top setups. Optics is a fertile ground for student projects that does not involve heavy maintenance, can achieve substantial depth, and enables student independence. It also allows the creation of projects that match the abilities of the not-so-high achievers. At the conference I will present examples of recent projects involving the study of classical light beams that carry optical vortices and non-classical beams that encode qubits. This work has been funded by Research Corporation, NSF and Air Force.