Transforming engineering education with Dr. Ilke Ercan

In this enlightening episode,  Dr. Ilke  Ercan and Samantha discussed preparing students for the quantum computing era and the importance of education in engineering. Quantum computing is a multidisciplinary upcoming field that will need both expertise in Physics and Electrical Engineering. Ilke explained what the initiatives are to bridge the gap. One of the initiatives is developing educational games explaining concepts such as quantum logic gates. Ilke and Samantha then discussed which level of abstraction of quantum physics is relevant to the users and for which age groups it's targeted.  Furthermore, they talked about the separation between computer science and electrical engineering and how the same trend is going to happen for quantum computing. Finally, Ilke recommended to Samantha the book 'Happy Teachers Change the World'.

Dr. Ilke Ercan is the Electrical Engineering Principal Educator in the department of Microelectronics at TU Delft. She has a background in electrical and computer engineering, physics, and philosophy of science. She has founded and directed the quantum and nano computing systems research group at Bogazici University and is involved with starting initiatives that empower minorities such as the Foundations development program and recently, the IEEE women+ in engineering at TU Delft.