Researchers in Stony Brook University’s Department of Computer Science are leading a project funded by a $1.08 million grant from the National Science Foundation, conducted in collaboration with researchers at UCLA and The City University of New York (CUNY). The project aims to detect and measure signals far too subtle for today’s technologies — from enabling navigation without GPS to monitoring changes in the physical world that currently go unnoticed.
To pick up on such small signals, researchers use quantum sensors: devices that use the rules of quantum physics to make extremely precise measurements of things like magnetic fields, gravity or time. The challenge is that today’s quantum sensors are typically isolated, while many real-world applications require sensors spread over large distances that can work together as coordinated networks.
That’s where quantum sensor networks come in. By sharing information — and sometimes using a special quantum link called entanglement — multiple sensors can work together like a single, larger “super-sensor,” detecting faint signals that a single sensor might miss.
The project’s goal is to develop the core methods and tools needed to coordinate and optimize a distributed set of quantum sensors — from choosing the best shared quantum “starting state” and measurement strategies to running the necessary quantum circuits across imperfect hardware and noisy links.
“If it succeeds, the world would gain a new kind of sensing infrastructure: networks that can detect and localize extremely faint signals, such as magnetic, gravitational or timing changes, with far higher precision,” said Professor Himanshu Gupta, the project’s principal investigator. “This could potentially enable things like reliable navigation without GPS, earlier warning and monitoring of natural and built environments, and new medical or industrial measurement capabilities that are currently out of reach.”
The grant puts computer science “in the loop” of quantum sensing — not just building devices but also creating the algorithms, optimization methods, software frameworks and system-level evaluation tools needed to make quantum sensor networks practical.
In addition to Gupta, the Stony Brook team includes Professor C.R. Ramakrishnan, who will contribute to multiple components of the project and help develop a deductive programming framework for quantum sensor networks, and Associate Professor Eden Figueroa, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who brings quantum physics expertise and will help build a planned small-scale quantum sensor network testbed.
Quantum sensor networks are inherently interdisciplinary and multi-institutional: they require domain testbeds and hardware expertise in physics and electrical engineering, realistic use cases and facilities such as national labs, and platforms and deployment pathways in industry. The project brings together expertise from multiple institutions, with collaborators at UCLA contributing sensor design and simulation capabilities, and researchers at CUNY focusing on optimization of initial quantum sensor states. Graduate students at Stony Brook University will also be involved in the research, gaining hands-on experience at the intersection of computer science, physics and engineering.
Whether it’s navigating without GPS, monitoring subtle changes in the environment or enabling new kinds of precision measurement, the work points toward a future where sensors no longer operate alone. Instead, they work together — quietly and precisely — to reveal signals that were always there, but until now, beyond our ability to detect.