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As quantum technologies transition out of the research lab and into commercial applications, it becomes important to better prepare students to enter this new and evolving workforce. To work toward this goal of preparing physics students for a career in the quantum industry, a senior capstone course called “Quantum Forge” was created at the University of Colorado Boulder. This course aims to provide students with a hands-on quantum experience and prepare them to enter the quantum workforce directly after their undergraduate studies. Some of the course’s goals are to have students understand what comprises the quantum industry and have them feel confident they could enter the industry if desired. To understand to what extent these goals are achieved, we followed the first cohort of Quantum Forge students through their year in the course in order to understand their perceptions of the quantum industry, including what it is, whether they feel that they could be successful in it, and whether or not they want to participate in it. The results of this work can assist educators in optimizing the design of future quantum-industry-focused courses and programs to better prepare students to be a part of this burgeoning industry. Published by the American Physical Society2025
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This content will become publicly available on November 1, 2025
Extending curricular analytics to analyze undergraduate physics programs
Curricular analytics (CA) is a quantitative method that analyzes the sequence of courses (curriculum) that students in an undergraduate academic program must complete to fulfill the requirements of the program. The main hypothesis of CA is that the less complex a curriculum is, the more likely it is that students complete the program. This study compares the curricular complexity of undergraduate physics programs at 60 institutions in the United States. The institutions were divided into three tiers based on national rankings of the physics graduate program, and the means of each tier were compared. No significant difference between the means of each tier was found, indicating that there is not a relationship between program curricular complexity and program ranking. Further analysis focused on the physics, chemistry, and mathematics courses, defined as the core courses of the curriculum. Significant differences in the number of required core courses and the complexity per core course were measured between the tiers; both were measured as large effects. Programs with the highest rankings required fewer core courses while having a higher complexity per core course. These institutions have more strict prerequisite requirements than lower ranking programs. This study also showed complexity was quantitatively related to curricular flexibility operationalized as the number of available eight-semester degree plans. The number of available degree plans exponentially decreased with increasing core complexity per course. Modifications to a curriculum at one institution were analyzed; a similar relationship between the number of available degree plans and increasing complexity per core course was found. Published by the American Physical Society2024
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- Award ID(s):
- 1834601
- PAR ID:
- 10577739
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Physical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Physics Education Research
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2469-9896
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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