The ERN Quantum Education Alliance emerged from the ERN Summit 2025 as a collaborative effort among academic institutions, research organizations, and industry partners to facilitate quantum education and broaden career pathways. As a subcommittee of the Broadening the Reach Working group, the Alliance advances the ERN’s mission to strengthen multi-institutional collaborations across scientific domains, with particular emphasis on empowering non-R1 institutions to drive scientific innovation.
We aspire to cultivate a dynamic quantum workforce prepared to lead innovation. By integrating hands-on experiences, shared curricula, and cross-sector collaboration, the alliance will empower learners from all backgrounds with essential quantum knowledge and skills. ERN's convening role ensures cohesion and coordinated access to opportunities throughout the research community.
Uniting academia, industry, national labs, and non-profits in a shared mission to increase availability and participation in quantum education and expand career pathways across the ecosystem. This alliance focuses on building a well-prepared talent pipeline by aligning national strategies with regional strengths and community needs.
The Ecosystem for Research Networking and the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub (NEBDHub) have partnered to host a series of webinars focusing on Quantum Computing. This dynamic series will convene leading researchers, industry innovators, and educators to explore the evolving frontiers of quantum science and technology. These virtual events are designed for learners, educators, researchers, and professionals. Each interactive session will span topics from foundational principles to cutting-edge real-world application, bridging disciplines and sparking discovery.
These are free webinars, requiring registration.
May 15 2026 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
Bill Wistosky – Principal Quantum Systems Architect for Research and Development at SAS
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are often cited as application areas likely to benefit from quantum computing, but the timeline for realizing practical advantage remains an open question. Must meaningful quantum utility in machine learning wait for fault-tolerant hardware, or can it be explored in the current NISQ (Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum) era?
This talk introduces quantum computing and the state of quantum machine learning (QML) from an applied research perspective, focusing on how quantum utility is being defined and evaluated. Drawing on ongoing work at SAS, representative QML techniques and hybrid quantum-classical workflows that are being investigated against real-world, customer-motivated problems will be discussed. The discussion centers on how QML methods are benchmarked against classical approaches, which problem types show early promise, and how hybrid quantum-classical techniques are being applied in practice.
Bill Wisotsky began his academic career at SUNY Albany, graduating in 1994. While pursuing a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience at CUNY, he conducted biophysics research on neural pathways in the human visual system using visual evoked potentials. It was during this time, while studying photon absorption in the retina, that he first encountered the principles of quantum physics. Concepts like superposition and entanglement, initially explored out of necessity, quickly sparked a deep and lasting fascination.
This curiosity evolved into a passion as Bill delved into the emerging field of quantum computing. He immersed himself in the theoretical foundations and practical applications of quantum mechanics in computation, laying the groundwork for what would become a defining focus of his career.
Bill has been with SAS since 2002 as part of US Professional Services. Throughout this tenure, Bill continued to nurture his interest in quantum technologies. He actively pursued coursework, attended seminars, and experimented with various quantum environments. His hands-on exploration led to the development of several small-scale proofs of concept, that ultimately catalyzed the launch of the Applied Quantum AI Initiative at SAS. Today, Bill serves as the Principal Quantum Systems Architect in the Applied Architecture and Technology Practice of Research and Development, leading efforts to integrate quantum computing into real-world business solutions.
March 27, 2026 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
Dr. Bruno Abreu, Deputy Scientific Director, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Quantum computing promises to transform how we approach some of the most challenging computational problems, from molecular simulation to complex optimization. This talk introduces the core ideas of quantum information science at a high level and explains how they enable new computational models based on qubits, gates, and quantum circuits. We then explore key quantum algorithms, emerging application domains, and the current state of quantum hardware in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era. Finally, the talk discusses how quantum processors are likely to integrate with high-performance computing systems as specialized processing units, highlighting the importance of hybrid quantum–classical workflows and the opportunities this emerging paradigm presents for research and cyberinfrastructure.
February 20, 2026 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
Dr. Hanna Terletska – Professor of Physics at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), and Director of the Quantum Research, Interdisciplinary Science, and Education (QRISE) Center
December 5, 2025 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
Dr. Torey Battelle – Associate Director, Research Computing and Quantum Collaboration, Arizona State University
October 17, 2025 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
Dr. Monica VanDieren – Senior Technical Marketing Engineer for Quantum Computing and HPC, NVIDIA