Beyond the Comfort Zone: An Undergraduate’s Journey to Quantum Research
Portrait of Evan Clifford. Photo sourced from LinkedIn.
Through co-ops and research, Evan Clifford, BS’26, electrical engineering, discovered his passion for quantum computing—a realization that is now shaping his path to graduate school and led to his first publication in the Journal of Optics.
Evan Clifford is on track to completing his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering this year. Coming from a family of engineers, Clifford has always been interested in math and science. In addition, his favorite class in high school was AP Physics, so it felt very natural for him to go to college for engineering. With an interest in consumer electronics, he chose electrical engineering as an area of focus. Among the things that drew Clifford to Northeastern were its beautiful campus, situated in a walkable city with public transportation, and its nationally recognized high academic standards.
He was admitted to the NuIn Program, which offered the opportunity to study abroad in Dublin for the first semester before coming to Boston. While the program’s unique structure initially gave Clifford pause, learning about the university’s vibrant global culture quickly put him at ease. As he recalls, it “lessened my fears about going abroad my first semester.” Looking back, he’s grateful he took the leap—the experience proved invaluable.
Co-op at Insulet
With an intention of entering the workforce after graduation, he took his first co-op experience at Insulet as a supply engineer, validating new component suppliers. Clifford recalls that this co-op taught him a lot about “learning the norms of how you operate within a cooperative team,” as well as offered opportunities to develop his interpersonal skills, contributing to his ability to have a positive impact in future work environments.
According to Clifford, the highlight of his co-op was being given responsibility of electrical component projects by his supervisor, since at that time Insulet did not have a senior electrical engineer for the supplier engineering team. As he puts it, “It was cool because I became the point of contact for the suppliers of the company.” Clifford appreciates the rare opportunity of leadership so early in his career. The experience proved valuable in helping him discover that research, rather than management, was his true calling, leading him to pursue more research-based opportunities.
NEU AJ Merit Co-op and publication
While Clifford did not have any formal research experience going into his next co-op, as an AJC Merit Research Scholar at the Nano Structures Lab, he was grateful for the mentorship of Assistant Professor Marco Colangelo. According to Clifford, Professor Colangelo “placed a lot of confidence in me and allowed me to pursue research projects, supported me in that sense.” This position particularly excited Clifford because it was an externally funded research co-op, which offered him more autonomy than typical lab-funded positions. “These sorts of co-ops are nice because you are essentially becoming a graduate student for six months,” he explains. His role focused entirely on conducting research in the Nano Structures Lab, giving him the independence to dive deeply into his project, without administrative responsibilities.
Clifford and his lab colleagues recently published a research paper called “High polarization extinction superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors through grating engineering” in the Journal of Optics. Their research focused on superconducting nanowire that will produce a voltage spike when it absorbs a single photon. The lab’s primary task was to develop this research in a variety of applications. Specifically, they were trying to use the sensitivity in the nanowire detectors for quantum computing, which scales communications down to the single-photon level. They did this by creating a design that would only detect photons of a single polarization, promising “higher-fidelity polarization discrimination than previously possible.” Clifford adds that “this is useful for realizing high-speed quantum communications, where we can store information in the polarization of a photon.”
Clifford particularly valued the weekly cohort meetings in the AJC Merit Research Scholarship program, which bought together all the co-ops in the program. These meetings featured faculty guests who shared their career paths and experiences. As Clifford navigates the graduate school application process, he found these sessions invaluable for understanding “how people navigated that themselves.” The co-op also gave him firsthand insight into a graduate researcher’s daily life, helping him make informed decisions about his own academic future.
Advice and insight
As Clifford prepares to graduate this year, he reflects on how his path has evolved. When he started college as an electrical engineering major, he hadn’t given much thought to where his degree might lead. His experience at Insulet brought clarity—he realized the management track was not the career he wanted. So he took a strategic approach: he explored job postings to identify roles that truly excited him. He discovered that the positions he found most compelling required a PhD, which prompted him to begin the graduate application process. His goal is to specialize in quantum computing.
Interestingly, Clifford did not initially plan to complete a co-op when he arrived at Northeastern. He admits he likely would not have participated without the university’s strong co-op culture and expectations. Looking back, he is grateful he was pushed beyond his comfort zone—the experiences proved transformative. As he moves forward in his academic career, Clifford will carry the research skills, professional insights, and passion for quantum technologies he’s developed at Northeastern into his next chapter.