Context

In the recent years, an extremely dynamic and fruitful basic research effort has resulted in a first generation of quantum enabled devices making their way towards a viable market. These include not only systems to use quantum mechanics for secure optical fiber communication which are already available to the customer, but also devices for enhancing the efficiency of the computation of hard problems, such as the traveling salesman problem or factorization.

While first quantum enabled devices for addressing specific tasks appear on the market, a new generation of highly coherent quantum devices begin to emerge from laboratories around the world. Currently, these devices remain limited to harness the quantum properties of only a few quantum information carriers, so-called quantum bits or short qubits, at the same time. To enable the creation of quantum systems which are able to make use of hundreds or thousands of qubits in practical devices scientists and engineers need to address the challenge of developing the technology for their efficient control. The challenge of promoting the techniques which scientists have developed for one, two or three qubits to hundreds, or thousands, or even hundreds of thousands is an engineering one.

Scientists and engineers at ETH Zurich and in Switzerland are now presented with an important opportunity to be leading in a development of the technologies required for realizing the next generation of quantum devices. This is a complex, challenging and exciting task for a first generation of quantum engineers educated and working at ETH Zurich within the Quantum Engineering Initiative.

The Quantum Engineering Center aims at being the first to systematically address the challenges at the interface between quantum science and quantum engineering. These challenges fall into several categories each addressing a specific need for the development of complex quantum devices.

While different quantum systems currently under active development at ETH Zurich, such as super- or semiconducting circuits, NV-centers, atoms or ions, are technologically very different they all have similar demands for their control and read-out, which can be successfully addressed in a concerted effort within the Quantum Engineering Center.

The Quantum Engineering Center at ETH enables the realization of quantum systems consisting of thousands of active qubits through hardware and technology development. Main goals are the realization of analog and digital quantum simulation of systems with one or two orders of magnitude more degrees of freedom than available now. These challenges are addressed on a time scale of 5 to 10 years.

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