Quantum Curriculum Committee

Image credit: Andrew Brodhead, aerial view of Stanford Engineering Quad

By Prof. Tsachy Weissman

At the start of this past academic year, the Q-FARM Curriculum Committee the -- ‘Qurriculum Committee’ -- was created in response to feedback from both students and faculty who are interested in improving and expanding the quantum curriculum at Stanford. The committee members include faculty representing several departments, including myself who served as Chair, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, and staff. The charge of the Committee is to better understand the current landscape of Stanford quantum curriculum in order to meet the goal of addressing any gaps and ensure Stanford remains at the forefront of education in QSE (Quantum Science and Engineering). We quickly learned this meant setting out to accomplish two specific goals:

1. Coordination and development of quantum curricula across departments, and
2. Utilization of Q-FARM as a central resource where students and faculty can find information about quantum education at Stanford, including course information, and various quantum pathways students can follow in order to meet their educational goals. 

The Committee held its first workshop in early September, comprising presentations from faculty across Stanford, who shared information on their courses, including what aspects have worked well and where opportunities exist for improving quantum education at Stanford. Some of the courses discussed included those from: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Symbolic Systems, Chemistry, Physics, Applied Physics, and Materials Science and Engineering. We also heard from our student members, who shared the findings of a student survey on the QSE curriculum and degree program. The results from the workshop formed the basis for the work that we set out to accomplish this past year. 

The Committee held multiple meetings and more members were invited to join where we saw that valuable contributions could be made as the work progressed. Fast forward to now, and we are excited to announce that much progress has been made and we are nearing the finish line to meeting our two goals. We hope to publish something soon on the Q-FARM website that will help students and faculty find the information they seek regarding the quantum curriculum at Stanford in one central location. There is still some work to be done this summer which will involve more collaboration among faculty, who will work on identifying potential course overlaps in order to refine and streamline their course offerings. Mapping out the courses will also allow us to help faculty understand what course material might be missing and where the potential for new course offerings can be made. 

I thank all the Committee members for their contributions this past year. Please feel free to contact Q-FARM’s program manager, Lancy Nazaroff, or me, if you have any comments/suggestions, or would be interested in participating in our Qurriculum work!