Building the future of quantum engineering at Colorado School of Mines

By John Himes, Special to Mines Newsroom

In a laboratory in the basement of the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering on the Colorado School of Mines campus, the overhead lights lend a strong yellow cast to the entire room. 

It’s not mood lighting: the photolithography materials used in the lab to make integrated circuits – also known as microchips – are sensitive to the bluer parts of the light spectrum, said Meenakshi Singh, associate professor of physics at Mines. 

The lighting scheme isn’t the only thing special about the Quantum Clean Room. The density of particulate matter in the air is also tightly controlled – the room’s Class 1000 rating means there’s roughly 1,000 times fewer particles sized 0.5 micrometer and bigger per cubic meter of air than in ambient room air.

“Having access to a clean room is important because quantum devices are really small – the dust particles are of the sizes of the devices we are interested in,” Singh said. “If they stick to your substrate, they ruin your device.” 

The clean room is just one of the facilities on the Mines campus where faculty and student researchers are tackling the unique challenges faced by the quantum industry.

“Quantum has traditionally lived in the physics domain, but the problems preventing scaling are engineering problems,” Singh said. “They’re materials, chemical, electrical and computer science problems. So, we take an interdisciplinary approach where we teach students what they need to know about quantum fundamentals, but in a very different way than how a physics course approaches it. Linear algebra is the only prerequisite.”

Established in 2020, Mines’ Quantum Engineering Program – one of the first in the nation – is preparing students for the practical engineering challenges of building quantum technology and working within the quantum industry.

Students get hands-on experience troubleshooting a cryostat. They know how lithography and silicon fabrication work. They understand microwave electronics. 

These are the skills that industry is looking for because they enable engineers to work on components up and down the tech stack of a quantum system, said Singh, interim director of the program.

Training students for the quantum workforce

Quantum technology, ranging from computing to sensing to networking, could revolutionize the world just as digital technology has.

While long confined to the fringes, quantum has gained more mainstream interest in recent years. In 2023 alone, $2.35 billion in startup investment flowed into the space. That’s in addition to millions in federal funding through the CHIPS Act and the National Science Foundation in recent years.

But the U.S. currently has only one qualified quantum worker available for every three quantum job openings, according to a 2022 study by McKinsey, a critical workforce shortage that could hold back the industry – and technology – substantially. 

Students who go through the Quantum Engineering Program at Mines graduate well equipped to tackle hard problems in a field defined by precision engineering.

Even beyond the complications of quantum physics, this tech is notoriously difficult to engineer. Quantum states are fragile. For instance, many types of quantum processors need to be housed inside vacuum chambers and cooled to temperatures just above absolute zero—colder than interstellar space. 

At Mines, quantum students get access to advanced equipment, such as a quantum entanglement demonstrator, a 4.2-Kelvin cryostat and a diamond NV microscope. Students pursuing a thesis under a Mines professor also get hands-on experience working with everything from dilution refrigerators to vector network analyzers to optical imaging equipment.

Graduates from the program are finding jobs with Colorado-based startups, national and international labs and major corporations pursuing quantum R&D. They’re also embracing entrepreneurship and starting innovative companies that address real needs in the quantum marketplace. 

“Quantum computers promise a revolution in science and quality of life that’s on par with the silicon transistor, but the road to a useful quantum computer is far more difficult than the road to a classical computer,” said Connor Denney, a PhD student in the program. “If we want quantum advantage to be a reality, engineers and scientists of every discipline will have to rise to the challenge. I want to be one of those engineers.”

While working in the lab, Denney encountered an unmet need: an electronics system that goes into certain types of quantum computers. 

He needed one for his lab, so he built one. Recognizing that other companies may also need this technology, he founded a startup to commercialize the system he built and has begun the process of taking it to market.

“My experience with hardware has been great for industrial readiness,” said Denney. “Working in the cleanroom at Mines has also given me a new perspective on how to design and think about quantum chips.”

The program’s first alumni are also finding success in the field. After graduating with his MS in quantum engineering in 2022, Josh Moler started working at Maybell Quantum, a Denver-based developer of dilution refrigerators, which are used to cool quantum devices. 

His biggest takeaway from the program was the ability and confidence to solve complex problems that may seem impossible. 

“Mines students never say, ‘That’s impossible,’” Moler said. “Give me a laptop and enough time, and I can figure it out.”

His employer agrees. “Mines teaches folks to be thoughtful and flexible engineers,” said Corban Tillemann-Dick, CEO of Maybell. “I can count on my Mines engineers to figure things out that haven’t ever been figured out before.”

Interdisciplinary approach to quantum engineering

Elsewhere in the CoorsTek Center, Singh and her students are working on a dilution refrigerator that hangs from the lab’s ceiling like a golden chandelier.

The refrigerator is used to cool Josephson Junctions down to near absolute zero. This enables superconductivity, which is important for making solid-state qubits and quantum sensors. 

Singh’s research ranges from applied engineering to fundamental science.

“We’re trying to improve quantum computers by increasing the operating temperature of silicon-spin qubits by understanding photon-electron coupling,” Singh said. “We’re also conducting fundamental physics research, such as understanding chirality-induced spin selectivity. This gives us insight into spin-orbit coupling, which underpins many quantum effects.”

These projects, which aim to improve quantum technology and answer some of the most fundamental questions about the universe, are only a fraction of the quantum research happening at Mines. Other work ranges from exploring silicon clathrates as a potential quantum computing platform to testing the effectiveness of quantum algorithms to working with the Electrical Engineering Department on quantum interconnects.

All of this work is taking place within the larger context of Colorado’s emergence as a hub for quantum technology. Mines is a member of Elevate Quantum, a Mountain West consortium that was awarded $127 million in federal and state funding in 2024 with the mission to secure the U.S.’s lead in quantum technology. 

In collaboration with Elevate Quantum, Mines is investing in facilities like the Colorado Underground Research Institute (CURIE), a quantum research lab being built inside the Edgar Experimental Mine, and Quantum COmmons, a 70-acre technology park under construction in Arvada that will include office spaces, labs and fabrication/cleanroom facilities to support prototyping and low-volume manufacturing.

“The quantum tech industry will benefit from the scientific and technological expertise of Mines faculty and graduates,” said Fred Sarazin, professor and head of the Physics Department at Mines. “Mines has a long tradition of partnering with industry, and we look forward to contributing to Colorado’s thriving quantum ecosystem.”