Quantum Games

The Art of Questionable Provenance
Bend, Fold, Break
Curiosity: The Making of a Scientist
Entanglement
The Information Palace
Molecular Gastronomy
Quantum Games
The River Project
Symmetry

Click here to apply to join the Quantum Games Team!

Can cooperative and competitive game play help provide the imagination with an understanding of the core principles of quantum physics?

Led by Professor Kawalek, Dr. Russell Ceballos (Chicago Quantum Exchange), Biology and Game Design student Denise Fischer, and Chemistry and Game Design student Ahit Kaan Tarhan, the quantum games research group is an interdisciplinary team playing and analyzing existing games as well as inventing, prototyping and playtesting adaptations and original game ideas.

The research began with three papers focused on quantum information-adapted games:

Fuchs, Franz G. et al. "Quantum Poker-a game for quantum computers suitable for benchmarking error mitigation techniques on NISQ devices." The European Physical Journal Plus 135. 4 (2020).

Lin, Joseph X. et al. "Quantum blackjack: Advantages offered by quantum strategies in communication-limited games." Physical Review A 102. (2020): 012425.

Salimi, S. et al. "Investigation of quantum roulette." International Journal of Quantum Information Vol. 7, No. 3 615-626 (2009).

The team of postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates from aerospace engineering, biology, chemistry, computer science, neuroscience, physics, comparative literature, philosophy, psychology, theatre and visual arts is developing a series of analog, digital, and experiential games. The goal is to create engaging, interactive and memorable games that afford a first-hand experience with the concepts of wave-particle duality, measurement, superposition, randomness, tunneling, interference, coherence, quantum fidelity, and entanglement. The games aim to illuminate these concepts and inspire the player to utilize them as tools and strategies to overcome the challenges that arise in game play.

With a desire to make cutting-edge research and science accessible to everyone, the design philosophy of the games align with that of STAGE: instead of an explicit intent to teach a curriculum, the games aim to invoke curiosity, spark moments of playfulness and catalyze play-centric learning modalities.

Quantum Games Collaborators

Umang Bhatia
MS, Computer Science

Yaochu Bi
Sociology and Computer Science

Dr. Russell Ceballos
Chicago Quantum Exchange

Sanskriti Chitransh
Maurer Lab

Steele Citrone
Computer Science

Denise Fischer
Biology

Dustin Heffron
Software Engineer and Game Developer

Sara Hoggatt
Molecular Engineering

Yixin Hu
Economics

Sophia Horowicz
Neuroscience

Peng Hui How
PhD, Mathematics

Paul Jerger
Awschalom Group

Joshua Kirks
Aerospace Engineering
University of Alabama

Michelle Klosinski
Art Director and UX Designer

Dr. Berk Diler Kovos
Awschalom Group

Dr. Nicholas LaRacuente
IBM Postdoctoral Scholar
Chicago Quantum Exchange

Sergio Markin
Physics

Jessica Markman
Neuroscience & Creative Writing

Nathalie Martinez
Philosophy & Education Studies
Hamilton College

Melody Munitz
Musical Theatre & Psychology
Pennsylvania State University

Holly Newlands
Artist and Game Developer

Nikita Onizhuk
Galli Group

Riddhish Umesh Pandharkar
Gagliardi Group

Xiao-Ming Porter
Physics & Mathematics
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Rhys Povey
Cleland Lab

Jiaqi (Noame) Qin
MS, Computer Science

Dr. Filip Rozpedek
Jiang Group

Jacob Mordechai Serfaty
Physics

Mufan (Jon) Shao
Physics and TAPS

Caroline Sullivan
Comparative Literature

Yifeng Oliver Tang
Esser-Kahn Group & Ferguson Lab

Shobhit Verma
MS, Computer Science

Ahit Kaan Tarhan
Chemistry, Levin Group

Elle Thompson
Creative Writing and MADD

Anosh Wasker
Physics
Chicago State University

Atticus Yang
Computer Science and Linguistics

Lilith Yu
Visual Arts

Yuanyi Zhang
MS, Computer Science

Tian-Xing Zheng
Maurer Lab

Uri Zvi
Esser-Kahn Group & Maurer Lab

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