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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

MCC Partners with University of Rochester on National Science Foundation Grant


The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $486,360 to the University of Rochester, MCC, Rochester Institute of Technology and Bryn Mawr College for the project Diverse Partnership for Teaching Quantum Mechanics and Modern Physics with Photon Counting Instrumentation. Paul D’Alessandris (Engineering Science and Physics) will serve as co-Principle Investigator on the project with representatives from the other institutions.

The project builds upon work begun last spring when students enrolled in MCC’s PHY 262 Modern Physics course conducted a portion of their laboratory activities on-site at UR’s Institute of Optics using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Students conducted a pair of experiments involving the manipulation of individual particles of light, photons. Both of these experiments have only recently been adapted from the research literature. The techniques developed in these experiments form the basis of the emerging technologies of quantum computing, quantum cryptography and quantum state teleportation.

The grant guarantees that MCC Modern Physics students will have access to UR's quantum optics laboratory facilities for four more years. Additionally, D’Alessandris will develop curricular materials to aid in the conceptual understanding of the laboratory procedures and conduct a more formal assessment of student learning outcomes.

Margarita Ortiz
Liberal Arts
10/22/2009