IQUIST celebrates World Quantum Day

Last weekend marked World Quantum Day – celebrated on 4/14 (Planck’s constant rounded to two post-decimal digits) since 2021. For this year’s celebration, the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) coordinated laboratory tours, science demonstrations, poster presentations, and a guest lecture, attracting community members with diverse backgrounds.

On Saturday, the events were kicked off by Chad Orzel, guest speaker, author, and professor at Union College in Schenectady, NY. Orzel started his talk entitled “Quantum Physics of an Ordinary Morning” (based on his book Breakfast with Einstein) by commenting that the half-day head start was fitting as Planck’s constant is in fact 4.135…x10^-15 eV∙s. He then entertained attendees with a humorous recounting of the various quantum physics concepts he encounters on a regular morning, from making toast (blackbody radiation) to scrolling through social media (photoelectric effect).

“Explanations I give for physics phenomena are frequently something that started with needing to explain a concept in a physics class,” Orzel explained after the talk. “But sometimes I think about a non-math explanation first and insert the math later.”

In addition to being central to World Quantum Day, Orzel’s talk and subsequent book signing were featured as part of the Grainger College of Engineering’s “Saturday Physics & Engineering for Everyone” series. The Physics department hosts physics-related talks in the fall semester and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department hosts engineering-focused talks in the spring. Both are free and open to the public.

“I come to all of the talks that are offered,” said Jim Sutton, a retired helicopter pilot who lives in the area and humorously connected quantum science (in which quantum states may be destroyed upon measurement) with his technical background. “When I was a test pilot we had different ways of testing materials – most of it was destructive testing.”

Fortunately for organizers, World Quantum Day received additional publicity by falling during Mom’s Weekend, which invites the mothers of students to take part in any number of private and public events with their sons and daughters. These included another IQUIST outreach effort, LabEscape, which offered free missions the whole weekend. Mothers were thus a major catalyst in increasing World Quantum Day beyond its usual scope.

“Mom brought me, but I recognized physics concepts I’ve learned about in the talk,” explained Dhruv, a freshman environmental engineering major. “I’ve always been interested in science, and I am very proud that Dhruv has inherited that curiosity about the world in which we live,” adds his mother.

After the talk, attendees interacted with a variety of interactive quantum physics demonstrations and spoke with graduate students, presenting posters about their research.

“The demo tables were really fun, especially the one involving diffraction gratings and light. The student presenting the topic was really passionate about it,” said Amarisa Chalermratananon, a first-year student majoring in math. Amarisa was accompanied by her friend, junior interdisciplinary health sciences student Abbey Paik, who brought her mother as well: “I really wanted to utilize the time with my mom well – this was one of the more fun things to do in the morning.”

The reward for engaging with all the activities was several scoops of ice cream, prepared using liquid nitrogen and served in a bowl that changed color with temperature. Making the sweet treat were undergraduate students Christian Pyteo, Henry Bonzak and Will Vargo, members of the Physics Van.

“We do outreach with different youth organizations at different events across campus – we make liquid nitrogen ice cream, do demos, and even perform physics magic shows,” said Christian, who also does quantum science research as part of the Kwiat Group, of the organization.

While the ice cream was geared toward all attendees, several stations engaged the youngest ones in particular. These included video games exploring concepts like entanglement. The games are developed by Quander, a University of Chicago initiative to educate children about quantum science which includes IQUIST Member Emily Edwards. 

“There’s a lot of engagement for little kids to understand science and technology through play,” says mom Monica of the event while her son and daughter are making “quantum” bookmarks by intertwining yarn of different colors. “As an individual with a curious mind, I think it’s a great opportunity for my children to learn.”

Another learning opportunity at World Quantum Day came through lab tours, organized as a scavenger hunt. Several tours led by graduate students had small groups of people touring various laboratories that use cooling techniques, like dilution refrigerators, to cool the matter they study or even use cold matter as a measuring device. It is often only at cold temperatures that quantum effects are observed.

“I want to get more involved with outreach as a first-year graduate student, so I was really happy when she reached out,” says IQUIST Director Brian DeMarco's student Jennifer Lopez, who joined the scavenger hunt coordination at the request of fellow grad student Shraddha Agrawal.

For the scavenger hunt participants, besides occupying non-moms during Mom’s Day, there were deeper reasons for joining the lab tours.

“It’s neat to look at posters and presentations, but I prefer to look at where science actually happens,” said Jonathan Pugh, who brought his daughter to World Quantum Day. “It’s important for her to see that it’s not just something that boys do.”

That the day’s events were accessible to all attendees was an explicit priority for organizers.

“I hope this event will expose quantum science to K-12 students in a way accessible to them,” said Michael Smith, IQUIST’s Outreach and Education Coordinator, who was pleased to see some local school students attend. “Ensuring the activities are suitable for a diverse audience was a priority when planning World Quantum Day.”

The event clearly exceeded these ambitions, attracting additional attendees in unforeseen ways, including bioengineering graduate student Alex Ho. Alex is no stranger to quantum science—his research involves incorporating quantum effects into the creation of imaging technologies for biological samples—but he did not previously hear about the event.

“I work at the Beckman Institute and, therefore, walk through the ECE building every day on my way to work. I saw the talk that way this morning and it seemed cool,” Ho explained.

At the end of the day, however, as for most attendees, the best part was: “Ice cream.”