Sometimes, the greatest humanists are technologists. The scientists and engineers who solve problems for others bring light and life to people everywhere. The stories we are sharing in this note reflect a great passion for helping.
I am struck this year by the energy our RLE community commits to outreach. The enthusiasm of our students, staff, and faculty for sharing the foundations and the fruits of our mission connects RLE to diverse communities across the nation. The Infinite Corridor extends from coast to coast when we share our passion for understanding and solving problems.
One example:
QuERY (Quantum Engineering Research and You) is an outreach and mentorship program that introduces high school students of all backgrounds to scientific research and the ideas behind quantum engineering. Not an easily conveyed topic, but an important one. QuERY is organized by RLE graduate student Jennifer Wang (jwang17@mit.edu) and Harvard graduate student Matthew Yeh (myeh@g.harvard.edu). In this hybrid, semester-long program, graduate students from MIT RLE and Harvard present research and share their experiences as scientists, starting with a group of high school students in Bellaire, Texas. Student mentees gain a firsthand view into the lives of scientists and build lasting connections that serve them as they consider the future and apply to college.
Student participants gather once a week after school for lively conversation (and free pizza). The beginning of the program is focused on making the quantum world approachable by introducing key concepts in an intuition-focused way. The graduate student mentors have done a remarkable job designing and testing an introduction that is accessible to everyone, while covering important topics that will be revisited throughout the semester program. In subsequent weeks, students listen to talks about the frontiers of quantum research, participate in small group discussions about technical content and research culture, and work on a group project with the assistance of their graduate student mentors. Past projects have included simulations, journal clubs, and hands-on demos. The culmination of the program is a fully in-person poster session where the students have the opportunity to present their work.
You can read more about QuERY here:
https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2023/08/quantum-science-high-schoolers
And you can find out more about outreach in RLE through the website of our flagship facility for prototyping and building, the T.J. Rodgers RLE Laboratory:
https://tjr-lab.mit.edu/outreach/
Please help us keep these and other programs running! We would not be here without you!