In January, Skyview High School in Virginia will become the first high school in the US to have a quantum computer on its premises. Made by the quantum computing and sensing firm XeedQ, it will be a teaching device aimed at inspiring the next generation of quantum innovators.

The quantum computing industry is in a period of expansion and both governments and private investors are increasing their focus on the field. Yet, many of the industry’s leaders agree that, in addition to investing in quantum technology, there ought to be a concerted effort to grow the quantum workforce as well. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia aims to meet this challenge by providing its high school students with hands-on access to a working quantum computer. FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid says that this is a bet on a career pathway that is “globally exploding” and could set students up for pursuing one of the 800,000 quantum-related jobs projected to be created within the next decade.

The quantum computer, called XQ1, will contain four qubits, or basic building blocks of quantum computation, each of which will be based on a diamond imprinted with specifically designed defects. These types of qubits can operate at room temperature. Gopalakrishnan Balasubramanian at XeedQ says the firm designed XQ1 – which is about the size of a small refrigerator – to be robust enough to withstand the conditions of a classroom and run continuously for several years. He says that XQ1 will cost about $900,000. Reid says that this will still work out cheaper for FCPS than, for instance, a new programme to teach students welding skills.

The computational power of a quantum computer is related to its number of qubits, so XQ1 won’t enable students to run sophisticated programs. Instead, it will allow them to develop intuition for, for example, the probabilistic nature of qubits. Students will be able to test how repeatedly preparing a qubit in one quantum state, equivalent to giving the quantum computer the same inputs over and over, doesn’t necessarily always lead to the same result, or the same output, when the qubit is read out later, says Balasubramanian.

In this way, some of the most fundamental ways in which quantum computers behave differently from conventional computers will become intuitive to students way before they enroll in college and undergo a rigorous formal education in quantum physics, he says. Additionally, students will be able to change electromagnetic pulses that control qubits as well as study the impacts of environmental noise on their functioning. They will work in teams of two or three and learn the coding language Python in the process.

“We anticipate students will work directly with the system and observe the physics in action,” says Reid. She says that XQ1 will initially be part of mathematics and physics classes for students in their last or second to last year of high school, but that the curriculum might expand in future years. Students from other schools in Fairfax county will also have a chance to interact with the machine through weekend programmes, she says. “Our young people are so excited about it,” says Reid.