Quantum Club Visits Fermilab’s Quantum Garage
Quantum Club Visits Fermilab’s Quantum Garage
In March, Assistant Professor Zizwe Chase led a field trip to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia for students to visit The Quantum Garage in the laboratory’s Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center(SQMS).
The Quantum Garage is one of the largest quantum research laboratories in the country and hosts multiple experimental platforms at the forefront of quantum information science, technology and workforce development.
students visit Fermilab's quantum garage
The visit to The Quantum Garage was spearheaded by the president of UIC’s Quantum Club at UIC, Kalib McEuen, a junior double majoring in physics and mathematics. Undergraduate and graduate students from the quantum club, the physics club, and the Equity and Inclusion in Engineering Program attended.
“It was cool to see The Quantum Garage where they host their cryogenic devices, and we saw a chip that they used in quantum sensing experiments,” McEuen said. “We also visited the nanofabrication facility to see some of the machines where the create those chips, and the science that goes into designing them.”
Chase worked with Silvia Zorzetti to arrange the visit. She is a principal engineer at Fermilab, where she serves as deputy division head for the SQMS Division. Students heard presentations from Fermilab scientists, including Zorzetti.
quantum at fermi
McEuen was impressed with how the research allowed Fermilab’s researchers to increase coherence times in their qubits.
“One of the greatest challenges in quantum computing today is maintaining a coherent qubit for a long enough time to do useful quantum computations. They have made significant improvements,” McEuen said. “We were able to see the device that they used in that research.”
Chase thought the field trip went very well, and was happy to help arrange the visit.
“I’d like to thank the Quantum Club president, Mr. McEuen, for having the idea to have this trip for the students,” Chase said. “We encourage the students to continually challenge the faculty and ask us to help you organize and participate in activities that enrich your science and engineering acumen.”
UIC’s partnership with Fermilab
UIC is a partner in The Quantum Garage, and Professor Thomas Searles’ lab group began using the facility in 2023. Thanks to a $125 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science to Fermilab in 2025, UIC’s relationship to quantum will continue to grow.
UIC has greatly expanded its quantum computing program over the past few years, with five faculty members specializing in quantum: Searles, Chase, Assistant Professor Ian Mondragon-Shem, Assistant Professor Lane Gunderman, and Professor Adina Luican-Mayer.
UIC was the sixth Minority-Serving Institution selected to join the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded center focused on building the tools necessary to create scalable, distributed, and fault-tolerant quantum computer systems.
In 2023, UIC was tapped to lead a new endeavor, the ReACT-QISE Consortium. This DOE initiative includes Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and institutions serving predominantly female students. Searles, Chase, and Professor and Department Head Daniela Tuninetti lead the $4.8 million initiative.