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