Saturday, June  28, 2025

(Session 1) Invited Talk: Zeki C. Seskir (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany)

2025 and beyond: exploring the role of outreach in quantum technologies

Zeki C. Seskir

Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

With increasing public investment and growing recognition from a diverse range of stakeholders, from defence to civil society, quantum technologies (QT) have been attracting the attention of a broader public. In recent years, significant efforts have been made to raise awareness and inform people about what QT is (and isn't), culminating in the declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). These initiatives are crucial in preparing the public to engage in informed debates about the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of QT. The coming decade is likely to raise many socially significant questions, including the future of the quantum internet, equitable access to quantum computing, and the responsible use of quantum sensing in defence and surveillance. Despite a relatively well-developed ecosystem in education research, outreach remains an underexplored area. Outreach research is often treated as an extension of informal education and handled by education researchers, which overlooks aspects of outreach that are not strictly educational. This talk will make the case for dedicated outreach research in QT, review what has been accomplished so far, and explore how the IYQ can serve as a springboard for advancing this field. Special attention will be given to the roles of art and games, as well as the potential tensions that may arise when artists are involved in promoting technology, highlighting how such collaborations can produce both compelling and contradictory outcomes.