Pivoting the undergraduate quantum mechanics class to support training in quantum sensing

While many universities and colleges are thinking of updating their curriculum to better support training in quantum information science to prepare students for the second quantum revolution, the efforts in providing a foundation for work in quantum sensing seems to be far less than those to help prepare students for quantum computing or quantum communication. There is a challenge with making such a course accessible to a wide range of students (hence with a reduced set of math prerequisites), while also providing thorough discussions of quantum experiments from the second quantum revolution (manipulating, controlling, and measuring single quanta). At Georgetown University (and in collaboration with edX), we have developed a modernized quantum mechanics class for undergraduates (science majors and engineers) that achieves this goal. We employ a representation-independent formalism that reduces the mathematical load (and prerequisites) for the students and allows us to cover far more applications to experiment than are commonly done in conventional courses. This new course focuses on the conceptual ideas of superposition, entanglement, and complementarity before moving into formalism development and applications. More than two dozen advanced experiments are discussed including advanced sensing experiments (such as interaction-free experiments and the laser interferometry gravitational wave observatory). The class is offered both as a flipped class and as a fully on-line class. Lectures and advanced visualizations are available on youtube and github, respectively. I will describe both the content of the course and the challenges one must overcome to produce deep learning amongst the students.