“Un moment de convivialité” between the QSE Center and its community

The Assembly, which welcomed around 100 members of the EPFL quantum community, provided an opportunity for the EPFL quantum community to hear updates about the QSE Center and QSE Master’s Program, share research with one another through short scientific talks and poster sessions, and ask questions and give feedback to the QSE Center management.

The day began with a networking coffee and breakfast, where young researchers presented their research as part of a poster session. The meeting itself started with a presentation by QSE Center Academic and Executive Directors Vincenzo Savona and Philippe Caroff on the Center's activities and updates. Then Nicolas Macris spoke about the Master's program in Quantum Science and Engineering, with a testimonial from master's student Ghalia Dhaoui.

"It was an ideal occasion to present the QSE master program and get feedback from a mixed audience of students and researchers," says Macris. "For the master's students it was especially useful to get an overview of the ecosystem of labs and research done in quantum science in EPFL."

This was followed by an interactive exchange and Q&A between the EPFL quantum community and QSE Comex members.

The day then continued with six scientific presentations, two of which were made by postdoctoral researchers supported by the QSE Center through the postdoctoral fellowships, and one by a master’s student at EPFL funded by an INSPIRE grant:

1. Hugo Dil, SOIS: "Quantum interference of spin states as a measurement of time"
2. Marco Scigliuzzo, KLAB: "Exotic mechanical states in circuits optomechanics: from collective cooling to strong single-photon coupling"
3. Aurélien Fabre, LQG: "Microscopy of ultracold atomic gases with long-range photon-mediated interactions"
4. Armando Angrisani, QIC: "Noise-induced shallow circuits and absence of barren plateaus"
5. Kailyn Vaillancourt, HYLAB: "Intergrated photonics for quantum sensing"
6. Fabrizio Minganti, LTPN: "Dissipative Quantum Chaos"

In between these, there was a lunch, which provided ample opportunities for networking among quantum researchers and students of different domains who might not normally have the opportunity to meet and collaborate.

After the scientific presentations, there was a social coffee and poster session, during which time young researchers could present their work to one another and to the professors.

“This General Assembly meeting follows on the Scientific Exchange meeting which took place two years ago, but with a slightly different format where, thanks to inputs from our Deans, we dedicated the majority of the time to presentations by young researchers in the field, making it a mostly scientific event intended for all active EPFL researchers in quantum,” says QSE Center Executive Director Philippe Caroff.

Adds QSE Academic Director Vincenzo Savona, “our Executive Committee members, Philippe and I included, especially appreciated the informal Q&A session where we could get input and constructive criticism that will help us improve in our mission to serve the whole quantum community at EPFL.”

Full agenda