Virginia high school to install quantum computer
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By
Chris Teale
Skyview High School in Fairfax County, Virginia is expected to allow students to start using the machine, which is the size of a small refrigerator, in the spring.
One of the nation’s biggest public-school systems announced last month it will install a quantum computer at one of its high schools, in what partners called a “first-of-its-kind opportunity.”
Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools, alongside the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, regional economic development body Connected DMV and others said they would install the computer from quantum company XeedQ at the end of this year at Skyview High School, a just-opened campus in Herndon.
Students will be able to gain hands-on experience with quantum computing, including exploring its fundamental concepts, testing problems, comparing its abilities with traditional computing and learning its limitations — current quantum computers still struggle to achieve the level of accuracy that would make them fully fault-tolerant.
Those who use it are expected to develop skills in coding, mathematics, experimentation, data analysis, problem solving, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.
The computer, which officials said will be “about the size of a small refrigerator,” will be installed in December after about a year of planning, with students expected to start using it for educational purposes in the spring.
George Thomas, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, compared the installation and use of the quantum computer to “looking at a picture of a great dish in a three-star Michelin restaurant versus actually smelling and tasting it.”
“That's really the difference,” he added, noting that it may be the first such installation in a public school in the world. “You just can't explain the difference between the two until you actually get in there.”
The new computer will be integrated into the school system’s curriculum, which Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid described as “both a science course and a workforce learning pathway course.”
“Physics is thought of sometimes as applied mathematics, but it'll require us to really think about more understanding of probability and statistics and those types of things,” Reid said. “But our students are really excited across the school division to actually have the opportunity to work with a diamond-based qubit machine.”
Quantum is projected to add hundreds of thousands of new jobs and careers in the next decade, and it has set off something of a scramble as states look to play a leadership role in the technology. Fairfax County and the Greater Washington area has positioned itself as one of those leaders, not only with this initiative but in collaborations and other efforts with nearby universities. Other states, including Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and more, have looked to take similar steps.
A critical part of Fairfax County calling itself a quantum leader is building a pipeline of future workers who can use the technology. Thomas said that planning has to start early in students’ education journey.
“If you think about a talent pipeline like a big funnel, we always start, whenever a new technology comes, at, ‘How many PhDs do we need?’” he said. “But to get to PhDs, you need master’s students, you need undergrads. Which means you then need to have a right amount of pipeline feeding into that, and that means it has to be broad enough that you're capturing the right skill sets in 9-12th grade to guide it.”
And from an economic development perspective, that pipeline and partnerships like this one make Fairfax County even more attractive to quantum companies, which Thomas said are already expressing great interest in opening there.
“Greater Washington as a whole is one of the most significant hubs of anything frontier tech,” Thomas said. “[Global] aerospace, defense, national security, cyber, data — it's all here. It has one of the most highly educated workforces anywhere, the maximum number of PhDs — all of that kind of sits together. Anything frontier tech that comes along has a very natural seeding to get built here.”
Reid said this new quantum computer will help the next generation be ready for new kinds of jobs, which in many cases have yet to be fully developed. Already, there are discussions about letting students from other county schools use it, as well as partnering with industry and academia.
“It's really incumbent on us to prepare our children for their future, not our past,” she said. “Right now, 65% of the children sitting in our classrooms in the United States are preparing for a career that doesn't exist yet. I think this is going to be one of those foundational skills and understanding of quantum physics that will really be important for our young people to understand.”
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