"Quantum Futur Award" 2022 for Uday Chandrashekara 

_{Berlin | November 30, 2022}

Dedicated young researchers are an important building block for science and research. Young talents are particularly demanded in quantum technologies. With the "Quantum Futur Award", the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) therefore aims to honor outstanding final theses in the field of applied quantum technologies. Fraunhofer researcher Uday Chandrashekara achieved the first place in the "Master's Theses" category and won the audience award with his pitch at the award ceremony on November 25.

The first place was awarded to Chandrashekara for his master's thesis on "Polarization Based Quantum Bit Error Rate Optimization For Quantum Communication". He had worked on this topic as part of the QuNET initiative, a pilot project funded by the BMBF and coordinated at Fraunhofer IOF for research on highly secure quantum communication. The young up-and-coming scientist is thus one of the team of researchers who successfully exchanged quantum keys via free beam on a 1.7-kilometer test link between the Fraunhofer Institute on the Beutenberg Campus and the Jena public utilities ("Stadtwerke Jena"). Chandrashekara's investigations have already been applied on the test link.

The "Quantum Futur Award" is awarded by a jury of experts from politics, business, and science. In addition, the audience awarded a public prize for the best presentation via online voting. Here, too, Chandrashekara was able to convince and also received the special appreciation.

About the Quantum Futur Award

Quantum technologies have great potential for our future economy and society. The field is highly complex, as sub-areas of physics, mathematics and computer science are intertwined here. The requirements for the education of highly qualified specialists are accordingly high.

With the "Quantum Futur Award", the BMBF would therefore like to highlight and honor innovative approaches by young scientists. The award honors master's and doctoral theses that have a clear application reference to quantum technologies. The award winners receive study trips worth 6,000 euros (1st place) and 4,000 euros (2nd place). 

This year's "Quantum Futur Award" was presented on November 25 in Berlin.