Physics departments should teach quantum sensing for quantum information science

The emergence of quantum information science presents many opportunities for physics departments to extend the reach of quantum mechanics training beyond their own undergraduates. While there are many efforts to incorporate instruction on quantum computing, there has been much less effort on developing materials for the quantum sensing side of quantum information science. Many departments may think that those interested in quantum sensing should just take the standard physics quantum mechanics class. In this talk, I will describe why such thinking is fraught with peril. Quantum sensing is likely to be taught within engineering disciplines. Physics departments have an opportunity to capture these students, but only if they teach a course that will be friendly to students beyond the conventional physics major, and which emphasizes ideas related to sensing and applications. At Georgetown University, we have created just such a course (also available as a MOOC on edX). In this course, we focus on conceptual ideas, on algebraic methods for solving qauntum problems, and on ideas related to measurement and experiments. This allows us to introduce modern experiments and ideas not normally part of the conventional curriculum. I will describe how you can do the same in your department.