TENNESSEE TECH UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES $2.1M QUANTUM COMMUNICATIONS TESTBED CONNECTING COOKEVILLE AND CROSSVILLE
Tennessee Tech University has officially broken ground on a two-year, $2.1 million initiative funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to build a regional quantum communications testbed linking Cookeville and Crossville, Tennessee.
Led by Dr. Muhammad Ismail and Dr. Anthony Skjellum from the university’s Department of Computer Science, the Quantum Cookeville-Crossville project aims to transition quantum networking out of controlled laboratory settings and into real-world operational environments.
Key Highlights of the Project:
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Real-World Infrastructure: The testbed spans geographically separated locations to evaluate how entangled photons behave under actual environmental and operating conditions.
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Core Capabilities: Planned systems include entangled-photon generation and detection, polarization stabilization, precision timing and synchronization, and quantum-classical network coordination.
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Research & Education: The initiative will serve as an advanced research platform while offering undergraduate and graduate students hands-on training with next-generation quantum hardware.
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Timeline: Running from October 2026 through September 2028, the project leverages the combined expertise of Tennessee Tech’s CEROC and ASCEND research centers.
This infrastructure is expected to lay the groundwork for future advancements in secure communication, quantum cryptography, and scalable quantum-classical network integration.
