
Helium’s unexpected behavior offers promising platform for qubits
January 5, 2023
Helium is best known for making balloons buoyant. This second lightest and second most abundant element in the universe (after hydrogen) also has a high-tech side: It’s integral to manufacturing fiber-optic cables and semiconductors, and could be key to creating a new kind of quantum computer.

Faculty research tackles challenges in quantum computing
January 5, 2023
Princeton Engineering faculty members Hakan Türeci, Sarang Gopalakrishnan and Ran Raz are exploring new ways to achieve pristine quantum signals, track data in quantum systems, and define the theoretical capabilities of quantum computers.

Andrew Houck seeks a quieter quantum world
January 5, 2023
“We are trying to preserve these incredibly weak signals and isolate them from the world. At the same time, if we have a computer that’s completely isolated from the world, we can’t actually program it. We can’t use it.”

Computer scientists have a key role in shaping quantum systems
January 5, 2023
As new quantum systems are built, computer scientists will have to answer fundamental questions about how they will work.

Harnessing the power of single atoms for quantum computing
January 5, 2023
Jeff Thompson engineers the quantum behaviors of individual atoms for use in emerging computing, communications, and sensing technologies.

Art was folded with tech at the Origami Engineering show
January 4, 2023
Students unfolded creations from expandable boats to simulated muscles at the first annual Origami Engineering Trade Show. The event, organized by Professor Glaucio Paulino and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, showcases ways that engineers can apply the ancient art of folding to modern challenges.

New technique reveals changing shapes of magnetic noise in space and time
December 23, 2022
Electromagnetic noise poses a major problem for communications, prompting wireless carriers to invest heavily in technologies to overcome it. But for a team of scientists exploring the atomic realm, measuring tiny fluctuations in noise could hold the key to discovery. Using specially designed diamonds, researchers at Princeton and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a technique to measure noise in a material by studying correlations, and they can use this information to learn the spatial structure and time-varying nature of the noise.

Words prove their worth as teaching tools for robots
December 21, 2022
What is the best way to teach a robot? Sometimes it may simply be to speak to it clearly. Princeton researchers found that human-language descriptions of tools can accelerate the learning of a simulated robotic arm lifting and using a variety of tools.

Without guidance, Inflation Reduction Act tax credit may do more harm than good
December 20, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act established a tax credit to kick-start hydrogen production in the United States. But without careful implementation, the credit could backfire by inadvertently increasing nationwide carbon pollution, according to new research from Princeton’s ZERO Lab led by Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy the Environment.

How do you treat untreatable infections? Do what the microbes do.
December 15, 2022
In a discovery with implications for the drug-resistance crisis, Princeton Engineering researchers have isolated a compound that kills bacteria that can cause incurable infections, a group of microbes that public health officials have labeled an “urgent” threat.