Modernizing Mechatronics course with Quantum Engineering

Abstract Mechatronics is the synergistic application of mechanics, electronics, control engineering, and computer science in the development of electromechanical products and systems, through integrated design. This paper proposes to extend the mechatronics course beyond traditional engineering topics, and to modernize the mechatronics teaching material with complementary quantum engineering topics. With the recent and rapid advances in quantum technologies such as quantum communications, sensing, computers, and algorithms, it is imperative to train the next generation of engineers and prepare them for their future careers in the ever-changing industry in such areas. To address the educational needs of the future engineers in such important areas, quantum entanglement and quantum cryptography experiments, as two key topics in quantum mechanics, are brought into the mechatronics course in this initiative. The integrated quantum and mechatronics topics also provides opportunities for open discussions on exploring the interface of quantum technologies and classical engineering systems, which can potentially push the engineering boundaries beyond classical possibilities by accessing the quantum advantages. An innovative online remote demonstration of such quantum experiments are developed and presented to the students. This course has been offered to undergraduate students once with successful results. The students were able to remotely access the experiments, perform the experiments and collect data. The successful result of such quantum experiments is also reflected in a course survey, presented in this paper, even though the quantum mechanics topics offered in this course are unfamiliar to engineering students and hence more challenging. The paper reports, and aims to promote, the integration of selected quantum technology topics with the mechatronics course for training engineering students in this rapidly growing area.