Quantum showcase at the ArtScience Museum

CQT presented a one-day exhibition at the ArtScience Museum in collaboration with the NUS Science Demo Lab

CQT hosted a one-day public showcase at Singapore's ArtScience Museum on 19 December. Quantum Dot Dot Dot buzzed with a crowd of almost 400 visitors. View more photos in the Facebook album below.

The Centre for Quantum Technologies was proud to present Quantum Dot Dot Dot at Singapore's ArtScience museum on Saturday 19 December in collaboration with the NUS Science Demonstration Laboratory. This one-day event, open and free for the public to attend, showcased CQT experiments and creative works of film and fiction inspired by quantum physics.

Almost 400 visitors came to see the seven zones of exhibits, which included hands-on activities suitable for kids and adults. "Even my 5 year old enjoyed it. The presenters did a good job explaining on her level," said one visitor. The exhibit was staffed by some 40 volunteers coming from CQT and the "Young Educators in Science" programme run by the NUS Science Demo Lab.

"One of the fascinating aspects of such events is that we, as in both students at graduate and undergraduate level and more experienced researchers, learn how to look at some of our work through the eyes of interested non-specialists. It is amazing what new ways of of thinking about our work an innocent question of a four year old can trigger," says Christian Kurtsiefer, a CQT Principal Investigator who participated in the event with members of his group.

"We also learn better how our technology can work in the rough environments posed by curious kid's fingers on the optical systems in non-ideal lab conditions," says Christian.

CQT had been invited to present the exhibit in conjunction with the museum hosting Collider, an award-winning exhibition on the European particle physics facilities at CERN. It presented an opportunity to show some of the world-class physics research happening in Singapore too.

Quantum on show

The seven zones of the exhibit were as follows:

• Unconventional computing: Can you build a computer out of bubbles? How about billiard balls? We had demos to explore these questions. What happens if you use quantum particles? CQT computer scientists were there to talk about quantum computing.
• Virtual-reality lab visits: VR headsets showed panoramic photos of CQT labs give the experience of visiting a cutting-edge quantum research lab.
• The Quantum Bunny: we had a reading corner and colouring station featuring the comic book "Sir Fong's Adventures in Science Book 5: the Quantum Bunny" for kids aged 9-14 by Otto Fong, former Outreach Fellow at CQT.
• The rainbow of light: Activities explored the spectrum of visible light, including the opportunity to build a take-home 'rainbowscope' using card and diffraction grating.
• Secret messaging: An exhibit presenting a brief history of encryption. Visitors could make a cut-out-and-keep Caesar cipher, then advance to learning about quantum cryptography.
• Quantum magnetic sensors: On show were the world's smallest compass (a magnetometer based on an NV-centre in diamond), a SQUID device chilled in liquid nitrogen and quantum levitation!
• Quantum film screenings: We screened the documentary movie Reality Lost made by a former CQT outreach fellow and some of the short films that were finalists in CQT's Quantum Shorts competitions.

Visitors were given a postcard to collect stickers in each of the zones. Many returned with a full card to collect a Quantum dot dot dot badge.

CQT thanks the ArtScience Museum for the opportunity to exhibit and for their support in organising the event, and the NUS Science Demonostration Laboratory for partnering with us.