Distinguished ECE Seminar Explores a New Path Toward More Reliable Quantum Computers

Quantum computing promises to solve problems that are far beyond the reach of today’s machines, but only if researchers can overcome one persistent challenge: error. On Friday, Feb. 20, NC State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will …

Quantum computing promises to solve problems that are far beyond the reach of today’s machines, but only if researchers can overcome one persistent challenge: error.

On Friday, Feb. 20, NC State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will welcome Steven M. Girvin, Sterling Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Yale University, for a Distinguished ECE Seminar exploring a powerful new approach to quantum hardware design.

Girvin’s talk, Dual-Rail Microwave Cavity Qubits, focuses on a way to encode quantum information using a single microwave photon shared between two superconducting cavities. Known as a dual-rail qubit, this approach borrows ideas from optical quantum computing and adapts them for microwave systems used in superconducting quantum computers.

Why does this matter? Because errors remain one of the biggest obstacles to building practical quantum machines. In dual-rail systems, the most common failure, losing the photon, can be converted into a detectable event called an erasure error. Since researchers know exactly when and where the error occurs, it becomes much easier to correct.

Recent experiments show that single-qubit operations in these systems can already be performed with very high accuracy using simple beam-splitter interactions between cavities. Girvin will also discuss progress toward two-qubit entangling gates, a critical step toward scalable quantum processors.

Girvin is a pioneer of circuit quantum electrodynamics, the leading architecture for superconducting quantum computers, which he co-developed alongside experimental physicists Michel Devoret and Robert Schoelkopf. His work has shaped the field for more than two decades and continues to influence how quantum systems are designed today.

The seminar is part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Colloquia series, which brings leading researchers to campus each Friday morning to share ideas and inspire new directions in engineering research.

Seminar details

Date: Friday, Feb. 20, 2026

Time: 10:15 a.m.

Location: Engineering Building II, Room 1231