Kamal Receives Early Career Awards from NSF, Air Force
Image by Edwin Aguirre
04/06/2021
Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
LOWELL, Mass. 鈥� 51视频 researcher Archana Kamal has won two early career development awards totaling more than $1 million from the U.S. Air Force and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her research in the emerging field of quantum information processing (QIP) with open quantum systems.
QIP is based on the principles of quantum mechanics, which mathematically describe the behavior and interaction of matter and light on the atomic and subatomic scale.
While today鈥檚 digital computers encode data in the form of binary digits, or 鈥渂its,鈥� which are a series of zeros and ones, quantum computers convert information into quantum bits, or 鈥渜ubits.鈥� A qubit, which is the basic unit of quantum information, represents a two-state, or two-level, quantum system, such as the up and down spin of an electron or the horizontal and vertical polarization of a photon.
Scientists worldwide, including Kamal, an assistant professor in 51视频鈥檚 Department of Physics and Applied Physics, are developing next-generation technologies with processors that can solve large, highly complex problems much faster than existing supercomputers using the best-known algorithms. This is the reason why for more than a decade, tech giants like Google, IBM and Microsoft have been investing heavily in quantum computer hardware research.
The biggest challenge to realizing usable quantum processors is 鈥渄ecoherence,鈥� the loss and erasure of quantum information due to strong interactions between qubits and the uncontrolled, 鈥渘oisy鈥� environment around them. This is the central issue that Kamal is addressing in her research.
Aside from quantum computing, Kamal鈥檚 projects could lead to advances in QIP applications and other innovative technologies, including quantum sensing, quantum communication and quantum cryptography (using quantum mechanical properties to store and transmit data securely).
Kamal was recognized by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research with a Young Investigator Program grant 鈥� worth $450,000 over three years 鈥� for her work on tunable quantum dissipation, which can be used to develop autonomous, quantum error-correction protocols.
The grant is awarded to faculty researchers who 鈥渟how exceptional ability and promise鈥� in conducting creative, fundamental research in science and engineering, according to the Air Force.
鈥淢y project aims to develop self-correcting qubits using the new field of quantum reservoir engineering; that is, correcting quantum errors by controlling the environment seen by a quantum system instead of controlling the system directly,鈥� said Kamal, who lives in Lowell.
She said this approach turns the table on decoherence by designing environments that preserve 鈥渜uantumness鈥� instead of destroying it.
鈥淪pecifically, the Air Force project will focus on extending this unique approach to large, multi-qubit networks, and realizing scalable error correction,鈥� Kamal said.
Kamal鈥檚 five-year NSF CAREER grant totaling more than $557,000 will support her research into the entanglement dynamics of quantum systems in the presence of non-trivial noise.
The CAREER grant is the NSF鈥檚 鈥渕ost prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization,鈥� according to the agency.
Kamal鈥檚 project will explore how quantum reservoir engineering can be implemented for environments that retain 鈥渕emory鈥� of the quantum states of the system, or an environment that has a non-trivial quantum dynamic of its own that it can imprint to some degree on the system, causing the quantum system to be controlled in a way which was not possible if it were left alone.
鈥淭hese aspects of autonomous quantum control are interesting and uncharted territory, both theoretically and experimentally,鈥� said Kamal. 鈥淥ur ultimate goal is to enable quantum technologies that can form the backbone of future quantum computers, which hold out the promise of offering unprecedented advantages over their classical (non-quantum) counterparts, and to answer fundamental questions in quantum physics in the process.鈥�
The awards are the latest recognition for Kamal鈥檚 research. In 2018, she was named to MIT Technology Review鈥檚 prestigious annual list of Innovators Under 35 as a visionary. In September, Kamal was the co-presenter of a TEDx talk on the next quantum revolution as part of the TEDx 鈥淏reaking Barriers鈥� webinar series. The series featured women experts speaking on a range of fields, from social justice and activism to space exploration, science, technology, education, business and medicine.
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