- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Physics Education Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics undergraduates’ knowledge and interest in quantum careers: Barriers and opportunities to building a diverse quantum workforce

Jessica L. Rosenberg

Nancy Holincheck and Michele Colandene

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Virginia 22030, USA

  • School of Education, George Mason University, Virginia 22030, USA

PDF

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 20, 010138 – Published 8 May, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.20.010138

Abstract

Efforts to build the workforce in support of the second quantum revolution are growing, including the creation of education programs that will prepare students for jobs in this area. We surveyed 186 undergraduate students with majors across the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines and followed up with group interviews to understand their perspectives. The project was designed to understand what these STEM students know about quantum and quantum career opportunities and their level of interest in pursuing a career related to quantum. We found that most of the students know very little about quantum. Nevertheless, except for students in the life sciences, there was an interest in quantum careers. Across STEM majors, women were less likely to express interest in quantum careers than men, but this difference disappeared when we examined only physical and computer science majors. Of the few students who had knowledge of quantum concepts, most learned about this topic from online media, especially online videos. Some students reported learning about quantum in high school classes, where it was taught as an extension beyond the usual topics of the course. The undergraduate STEM students in our study identified multiple ways they would like to learn more about quantum, including short videos, seminars, courses, certificates, and degree programs.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (39)

  1. U. S. Department of Education, A Blueprint for Reform. The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Washington, DC, 2010).
  2. A. V. Maltese, C. S. Melki, and H. L. Wiebke, The nature of experiences responsible for the generation and maintenance of interest in STEM: Generation and maintenance of interest in STEM, Sci. Educ. 98, 937 (2014).
  3. L. Jaeger, The Second Quantum Revolution: From Entanglement to Quantum Computing and Other Super-Technologies (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2018).
  4. M. G. Raymer and C. Monroe, The U.S. National Quantum Initiative, Quantum Sci. Technol. 4, 020504 (2019).
  5. P. Stimers, The U.S. National Quantum Initiative, Computer 52, 24 (2019).
  6. Hyperion Research, LLC, The Global QC Market: Strong, and Steady Growth Ahead (2022), https://quantumconsortium.org/theglobalqcmarket2022/.
  7. M. F. J. Fox, B. M. Zwickl, and H. J. Lewandowski, Preparing for the quantum revolution: What is the role of higher education?, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 020131 (2020).
  8. C. Hughes, D. Finke, D.-A. German, C. Merzbacher, P. M. Vora, and H. J. Lewandowski, Assessing the needs of the quantum industry, arXiv:2109.03601.
  9. L. Bao and E. F. Redish, Understanding probabilistic interpretations of physical systems: A prerequisite to learning quantum physics, Am. J. Phys. 70, 210 (2002).
  10. L. Deslauriers and C. Wieman, Learning and retention of quantum concepts with different teaching methods, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 7, 010101 (2011).
  11. B. W. Dreyfus, E. R. Sohr, A. Gupta, and A. Elby, “Classical-Ish”: Negotiating the Boundary between Classical and Quantum Particles, in 2015 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings (American Association of Physics Teachers, College Park, MD, 2015), pp. 111–114.
  12. B. W. Dreyfus, A. Elby, A. Gupta, and E. R. Sohr, Mathematical sense-making in quantum mechanics: An initial peek, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13, 020141 (2017).
  13. C. Singh, Student understanding of quantum mechanics, Am. J. Phys. 69, 885 (2001).
  14. B. Cervantes, G. Passante, B. R. Wilcox, and S. J. Pollock, An overview of quantum information science courses at U.S. institutions, presented at PER Conf. 2021, virtual conference, 10.1119/perc.2021.pr.Cervantes.
  15. F. Gerke, R. Müller, P. Bitzenbauer, M. Ubben, and K.-A. Weber, Requirements for future quantum workforce—A Delphi study, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 2297, 012017 (2022).
  16. F. Greinert, R. Müller, P. Bitzenbauer, M. S. Ubben, and K.-A. Weber, Future quantum workforce: Competences, requirements, and forecasts, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 19, 010137 (2023).
  17. M. Hasanovic, C. Panayiotou, D. Silberman, P. Stimers, and C. Merzbacher, Quantum technician skills and competencies for the emerging quantum 2.0 industry, Opt. Eng. 61, 081803 (2022).
  18. Physics Bachelor’s Degrees: 2018, AIP, 2020.
  19. J. K. Perron, C. DeLeone, S. Sharif, T. Carter, J. M. Grossman, G. Passante, and J. Sack, Quantum undergraduate education and scientific training, arXiv:2109.13850.
  20. National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2021., No. Special Report NSF 21-321, National Science Foundation, 2021.
  21. J. W. Creswell and V. L. Plano Clark, Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2017).
  22. D. A. Dillman, J. D. Smyth, and L. M. Christian, Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2014).
  23. D. Verdín, A. Godwin, A. Kirn, L. Benson, and G. Potvin, Engineering women’s attitudes and goals in choosing disciplines with above and below average female representation, Soc. Sci. 7, 44 (2018).
  24. G. A. Woolverton and A. K. Marks, I just checked ‘other’: Evidence to support expanding the measurement inclusivity and equity of ethnicity/race and cultural identifications of US adolescents, Cult. Diversity Ethn. Minority Psychol. 29, 64 (2023).
  25. K. Krippendorff, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2018).
  26. J. Saldaña, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Sage Publishers, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2021).
  27. G. A. Buck, D. C. Francis, and K. G. Wilkins-Yel, Research on gender equity in STEM education, in Handbook of Research on STEM Education, edited by C. Johnson, M. J. Mohr-Schroeder, T. J. Moore, and L. D. English (Routledge, New York, 2020).
  28. S.-J. Leslie, A. Cimpian, M. Meyer, and E. Freeland, Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines, Science 347, 262 (2015).
  29. I. A. Toldson, Cultivating STEM Talent at Minority Serving Institutions: Challenges, and Opportunities To Broaden Participation in STEM at Historically Black Colleges, and Universities, in ACS Symposium Series, edited by L. L. Winfield, G. Thomas, L. M. Watkins, and Z. S. Wilson-Kennedy (American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 2019), Vol. 1328, pp. 1–8.
  30. T. Plunkett, T. L. Frantz, H. Khatri, P. Rajendran, and S. Midha, A survey of educational efforts to accelerate a growing quantum workforce, in 2020 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE) (IEEE, Denver, CO, 2020), pp. 330–336.
  31. J. C. Meyer, G. Passante, S. J. Pollock, and B. R. Wilcox, Today’s interdisciplinary quantum information classroom: Themes from a survey of quantum information science instructors, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 18, 010150 (2022).
  32. N. Aslam, H. Zhou, and E. K. Urbach, Quantum sensors for biomedical applications, Nat. Rev. Phys. 5, 157 (2023).
  33. R. Santagati, A. Aspuru-Guzik, R. Babbush, M. Degroote, L. González, E. Kyoseva, N. Moll, M. Oppel, R. M. Parrish, N. C. Rubin, M. Streif, C. S. Tautermann, H. Weiss, N. Weibe, and C. Utschig-Utschig, Drug design on quantum computers, Nat. Phys. 20, 549 (2024).
  34. T. Roberson, J. Leach, and S. Raman, Talking about public good for the second quantum revolution: Analysing quantum technology narratives in the context of national strategies, Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 025001 (2021).
  35. N. Holincheck, J. L. Rosenberg, X. Zhang, T. N. Butler, M. Colandene, and B. W. Dreyfus, Quantum science and technologies in K-12: Supporting teachers to integrate quantum in STEM classrooms, Educ. Sci. 14, 219 (2024).
  36. D. H. Clements, M. Vinh, C. I. Lim, and J. Sarama, STEM for inclusive excellence and equity, Early Educ. Dev. 32, 148 (2021).
  37. T. Rudolph, Q is for Quantum (2017), https://www.qisforquantum.org/.
  38. S. Dündar-Coecke, L. Yeh, C. Puca, S. M.-L. Pfaendler, W. H. Waseem, T. Cervoni, A. Kissinger, S. Gogioso, and B. Coecke, Quantum picturalism: Learning quantum theory in high school, in Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing, and Engineering (QCE), Bellevue, WA (IEEE, New York, 2023), pp. 21–32.
  39. S. E. Economou, T. Rudolph, and E. Barnes, Teaching quantum information science to high-school and early undergraduate students, arXiv:2005.07874.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 20, 010138– Published 8 May, 2024
  • Received 14 June 2023
  • Accepted 4 April 2024
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation