Robert Niffenegger
Assistant Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Adjunct Professor Physics Dept.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Office: Marcus 215B
rniffenegger@umass.edu

Robert completed his post-doc at MIT Lincoln Laboratory working on trapped ions and integrated photonics and demonstrated full photonic control of a trapped ion qubit. Before that he worked at Intel as a 7nm Integration and Yield Engineer and patented a new metal gate process. He received his PhD in Physics from Purdue University where he performed quantum simulations with Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs).

Chris Caron
Graduate Research Assistant

Chris is a Master’s student studying electrical engineering. As an undergraduate at UMass, Chris majored in EE and physics, and is drawn to research where the two meet. His long-term goal is a career in academic research and teaching. Before starting as a Master’s student, Chris was a staff member for the UMass Amherst M5 ECE makerspace and is currently the graduate TA for the senior design project course.

Nishat Mahzabin
Graduate Research Assistant

Nishat graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Bangladesh University of Technology (BUET). Prior to joining UMass, she was a Lecturer at BRAC University and a recipient of a Vice chancellor research fellowship. Her long-term ambition is to begin her career in industry and then transition to teaching and research. She is currently a teaching assistant for the Introduction to Quantum Computing course. Outside lab, she loves to hike, and karate.

Zhenyu Wei
Graduate Research Assistant

Zhenyu is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at UMass. His work mainly focuses on scalable quantum information processor. He aspires to perpetuate his endeavors within the realm of quantum. He loves playing Go after work.

Jacob Myers
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Jacob is a junior majoring in electrical engineering and physics. With a strong passion for both, he finds quantum computing research to to be the perfect meeting point of his interests. He is a proud advocate for open-source development and has other interests including robotics, programming, 3d printing, and 3D modeling. His long term goal is a career in the quantum computing field.

Zack Gotobed
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Zack is majoring in Physics and working on optical layouts to deliver light to trapped ions.

Contact us if you’re interested in joining the lab.
We are seeking students to help build a state-of-the-art trapped ion quantum computer.