Fourth Straight Win! EECS Researchers Take Best Poster Award at DoE Quantum Computing Forum

For the fourth year running, a team from the EECS Department has won the Best Poster Award at the Quantum Computing User Forum (QCUF) 2026, hosted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Led by Professor Esam El-Araby, the team tackled some of the toughest equations in science and engineering — the kind that describe how fluids flow or how nuclear reactors behave. These equations are so complex that even powerful traditional computers struggle to solve them quickly or accurately, especially as problems grow larger or more detailed.

Their solution: two new methods that use quantum computing to solve these equations more effectively. Compared to existing quantum approaches, which tend to struggle as problems scale up, take too long to run, or produce less reliable answers, the team's methods proved faster, more scalable, and more accurate. The approaches were tested on real-world-style problems, including simulating airflow around shapes like an aircraft wing, as well as modeling behavior inside nuclear reactors. The team validated their results using both quantum simulators and actual quantum hardware, bringing this technology a step closer to practical, everyday use.

The EECS department congratulates the entire team for once again raising the bar.