(SydneyHerald) Montana State University has received a $6 Million dollar, two-year grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory to support research focused on developing the quantum internet.
“We’re looking a decade or more ahead, and this is where the internet is going,” said project leader John Roudas, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. “This is a very good opportunity for MSU to play a leading role in this arena.”
The project will involve installing an experimental network on MSU’s Bozeman campus to test whether existing, specialized, multicore fiber optic cables, which were originally designed for high-capacity internet communication, can also convey the delicate quantum signals. “There are only a few other field trials like this in the world right now,” said Roudas, the department’s Gilhousen Telecommunications Chair.
“There’s a huge worldwide effort on this, and there aren’t many labs that can do this kind of work,” said project member Krishna Rupavatharam, associate director of MSU’s Spectrum Lab, a photonics research lab under MSU’s Vice President for Research, Economic Development, and Graduate Education. Although some quantum networks are already operating, the technology is in its infancy, and MSU is uniquely positioned to develop some of the missing pieces, he said.
Since 1999, Spectrum Lab has served as a hub for advanced physics and engineering research that has spun off many of the private companies that make up Bozeman’s optics and photonics industry.
Montana State University Receives $6 M Grant to Support Research Focused on Quantum Internet
