Projects

This semester.

A quantum experiment you can stand next to, and a fab you can run.

On the bench

What we are building.

2-qubit quantum computer

We are building a hands-on hardware program so members can learn the physical side of quantum information. A Stern–Gerlach experiment will show spin quantization, state preparation, and measurement — and give people the work of building, aligning, and testing the setup.

By the end of the term the aim is a working demonstration, documentation for the next team, and members ready for more advanced quantum hardware. Longer term: photonic and chip-based systems, then more sophisticated quantum computing projects.

Chip fabrication lab

We are standing up a student fabrication lab with the Applied Engineering Laboratory, inspired by Carnegie Mellon’s HackerFab — a model for running semiconductor process on tools students can actually touch, rather than treating fabrication as something that only happens off campus.

The aim is a shared bench Chip Fab can inherit: a place to take a design through process and inspection, keep notes the next team can run, and make in-house fabrication ordinary. It sits beside the quantum work as the other half of the same idea — if Carolina is going to do computer engineering, someone has to run the process.

Last semester

What we built.

Microelectronics

The team built fabrication equipment, including a spin coater, so process work could happen in-house. Alongside that, members designed custom circuitry and PCBs for drone systems — hardware that had to leave the bench and fly.

Neuromorphics

Members designed PCB-based hardware for neuromorphic computing. The point was not a paper architecture. It was to give people the experience of developing electronics for machines that compute unlike a conventional processor.

Microfluidics

The team designed microfluidic chips for control at the microscale. That work did not stop at a prototype: it continues now through a collaboration with a private company.

The lab

Come build with us.

Applications are open to students who want a bench. One form covers every division of R.A.M. Engineering.

Apply