Montana State hosts event promoting job creation in quantum devices and systems field

BOZEMAN - More than 80 people from industry, government and academia gathered Friday at an event hosted by Montana State University to promote career paths and job creation in the emerging field of quantum devices and systems.

The New Frontiers in Quantum and Emerging Technologies meeting in Bozeman was the result of MSU's strong leadership in developing new technologies and in workforce development, said Alison Harmon, MSU's vice president for research and development.

"The meeting connects our expertise in quantum science with that in optics and photonics," she said. "Workforce development is a key outcome of MSU's two- and four-year programs, and an important aspect of our land-grant mission. It is also essential for economic development in Montana."

Suzi Taylor, director of MSU's Science Math Resource Center and the organizer of the meeting, said coupling education and workforce development with research has been part of the university's land-grant mission since its origin.

"Back then, it may have been advances in plows and threshers, and today we see innovations in quantum and photonics, but the mission is the same - to build collaborations that reach beyond Bozeman and support the entire state," she said.

Joe Shaw, director of MSU's Optical Technology Center, or OpTeC, said the meeting was a success and prompted discussions of what is needed to teach students how to succeed in quantum technology and other emerging fields. As an example, he pointed to past - and current - successes in optics and photonics.

"MSU has an incredible record of success in research-driven economic development in the field of optics and photonics," he said. These efforts, Shaw said, have had "spectacular success," with more than 40 optics and photonics companies now operating in Montana, mostly in and around Bozeman.

"In the 30 years since the creation of OpTeC, we went from having effectively zero high-tech jobs to being recognized worldwide for our unusually high concentration of optics and photonics educators, researchers and companies. We now are in the early stages of a diligent effort to repeat this success in the fledgling quantum field, which is closely allied to and deeply connected to optics and photonics."

Attendees at the meeting came from Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and other locations throughout the country, including representatives from tribal and community colleges, K-12 schools, the Montana Department of Commerce, the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Idaho National Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory and more.

Tim Akers, founder of the National Quantum Literacy Network, delivered one of two keynote addresses. Scott Halliday, from Navajo Technical University, delivered the second, discussing how that institution created the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in a rural area on the Navajo Nation.

MSU's Applied Quantum CORE and Science Math Resource Center, along with Reach Higher Montana, the Work-based Learning Initiative and MSU's NSF ENGINES program, hosted the daylong conference.

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