Last week, I visited Fairfield University to guest-lecture a physics elective designed specifically for non-science majors. Teaching quantum computing to a room full of students who aren’t necessarily pursuing STEM degrees is a powerful exercise in clarity. It strips away the comfort of technical jargon and forces a speaker to answer one fundamental question: “So what?”
The goal of our session was to explore how emerging forms of computation are transforming our collective ability to understand the world and innovate within it. As scientific and societal challenges grow more complex, we are finding that traditional computers are reaching their functional limits. We are now entering an era where evolving computational architectures are reshaping the nature of discovery itself.
One of the most rewarding “lightbulb moments” during the session happened during a discussion on careers. Many students assumed that working in quantum computing required a PhD in Physics. I was able to share that the field desperately needs expertise outside of STEM—in policy, business, and strategy. Several students left the room realizing that they could have a seat at the table in the quantum era without being the ones writing the code or building the hardware.
