Duration: 3 hours
Quantum technologies are increasingly influencing how electromagnetic systems are modelled, controlled and designed, from qubit devices and quantum sensors to programmable environments, wave-based computation and quantum-assisted optimisation. This short expert course introduces the emerging field of quantum electromagnetics from the perspective of applied electromagnetics, antenna theory, propagation, wave physics and computational modelling.
The course begins with a compact introduction to the quantum-mechanical principles most relevant to electromagnetics: states, observables, superposition, entanglement, measurement, open systems and dissipation. These concepts are then connected to electromagnetic wave phenomena through analogies with quantum evolution, modal expansions, scattering and resonances in both random media and coupled cavities. Particular attention is given to how qubits and quantum devices can be described using electromagnetic models, including circuit-QED, cavity-QED, radiative coupling, decoherence, noise and environmental interactions.
The course will then discuss the physical meaning of entanglement and its relevance to emerging applications in communication and sensing. Examples will include quantum-secure communications, quantum key distribution, quantum radar and quantum sensing, where non-classical correlations provide new ways of thinking about security, detection, information transfer and measurement under noise and uncertainty.
Quantum-mechanical effects with useful electromagnetic counterparts will also be introduced. One example is quantum tunnelling, which can be related to evanescent waves, sub-cutoff propagation, near-field coupling and the geometrical structure of wave information. This connection offers a bridge between quantum intuition and electromagnetic information theory, especially in understanding how spatial information is stored, transported, attenuated or recovered by wave fields.
The final part of the course will introduce quantum-assisted electromagnetic design, including quantum-inspired optimisation, hybrid quantum–classical frameworks and their possible use in large, complex, stochastic or reconfigurable electromagnetic systems.
The emphasis throughout the course will be on physical insight, modelling principles and emerging opportunities. The course is intended for researchers and engineers in antennas, propagation, scattering, computational electromagnetics, metamaterials and wireless systems who wish to understand how quantum concepts can enrich electromagnetic modelling and future design methodologies. No prior expertise in quantum computing is assumed.
Gabriele Gradoni earned his Ph.D. in electromagnetics from Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, in 2010. He was a Visiting Researcher with the Time, Quantum, and Electromagnetics Team at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, U.K., in 2008. In the period from 2010 to 2013 he was a Research Associate at the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. From 2013 to 2016, he was a Research Fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, U.K., where he became a Full Professor of Applied Mathematics and Electromagnetics Engineering in 2023.
From May 2023, he has been a Full Professor and Chair of Wireless Communications at the 6G Innovation Centre, Institute for Communication Systems, University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K. In Surrey, he leads the work area on Quantum Electromagnetics Theory and Practice. He was a Royal Society Industry Fellow from 2020 to 2024 at British Telecom, U.K. Since December 2022, he has held positions as a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, U.K., and as an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA. His research spans probabilistic and asymptotic methods for wave propagation in complex systems, metasurface modelling, wave chaos, and quantum computational electromagnetics, with applications in electromagnetic compatibility and modern wireless communication systems.
Prof. Gradoni is a member of the IEEE, URSI, and the Italian Electromagnetics Society. His work has been recognized with several international awards, including the URSI Commission B. Young Scientist Award in 2010 and 2016, the Italian Electromagnetics Society Gaetano Latmiral Prize in 2015, and an Honourable Mention for the IEEE TEMC Richard B. Schulz Transactions Prize Paper Award in 2020. Furthermore, he received multiple Best Paper awards at international conferences, including the Best Electromagnetics Award at EuCAP 2022.
Full Professor and Chair of Wireless Communications,
6G Innovation Centre, Institute for Communication Systems, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
In the history of Antenna Engineering, there has been only one universal method to steer the beam of any fixed-beam antenna. That’s physically tilting the antenna. This method has been implemented in many commercial antenna systems using motorised mechanical tilting and rotating systems. Now there is another way: Near-Field Meta-Steering, in which two flat phase-gradient metasurfaces (MS) are placed very close to the fixed-beam “base” antenna, in its near field, and are rotated independently. This way, the beam of the antenna can be steered over a large range of zenith angles and the complete azimuth range of 3600, without tilting or rotating the antenna. In fact, no part of the system is tilted.
A Meta-Steering antenna system is only slightly taller than the base antenna itself. Lack of tilting means it is much shorter than conventional tilting antennas. In the future, one electronically reconfigurable near-field metasurface may provide 2D beam steering without any mechanical rotation.
Since this method was introduced in the seminal paper in 2017, together with the concept of Near-Field Phase Transformation, it has been applied by many industry and academic researchers across the globe (e.g. Thales in France, WaveUp in Italy, TICRA in Denmark, UCLA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, San Diego State University, all in USA) to develop novel antenna systems, and to steer the beam of nearly all types of fixed-beam antennas, e.g. Fabry-Perot/resonant cavity antennas, reflector (dish) antennas, metasurface antennas, slot arrays, holographic antennas, and even some end-fire antennas, to name a few.
The method is also known in several names including Risley Prism Method and Near-Field Phase Transformation. The surfaces are also known in different names, e.g. meta lenses, flat lenses, transmitarrays, deflectors.
Several different types of metasurfaces have been developed, e.g. standard printed-circuit-board type, all dielectric, all metal, hybrid and 3D-printed, and some research outcomes have led to national prizes and awards. This short course will review the research conducted by the instructor’s team as well as others in this modern and growing area of research, provide an insight into the concept of Meta-Steering, and describe some ways of reducing metasurface development efforts.
The short course attendees are expected to have a basic understanding of antennas and electromagnetics but does not require expertise in these fields. It is suitable for PhD/master’s students, postdoctoral researchers, industry engineers and academics.
Karu Esselle, FRSN, FIEEE, FIEAust, is Distinguished Professor in Electromagnetic and Antenna Engineering at University of Technology Sydney. A large collection of awards Karu recently received include Academic Research Team of the Year (Team Leader) at 2025 Australian Space Awards, 2024 Premier’s Prize for Leadership in Innovation in New South Wales, Australia’s national 2023 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia (Team Leader), Australia’s national 2022 Professional Engineer of the Year, both the most prestigious space award in Australia – the “Winner of Winners” Excellence Award – as well as the Academic of Year Award at the 2022 Australian Space Awards, 2022 UTS Chancellor’s Medal, both the Excellence Award and the Academic of the Year Award at 2021 Australian Defence Industry Awards, and 2019 Motohisa Kanda Award (from IEEE USA) for the most cited paper in IEEE Transactions on EMC in the past five years.
Karu is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, IEEE and Engineers Australia. He has authored over 750 research publications, and his papers have been cited over 18,000 times. His h-index is 66. Karu is among the top 0.3% of active researchers in the world in the research area of Networking and Telecommunications, according to an analysis published in Elsevier, which considered only actively publishing researchers in this field.
Since 2002, his research income is over 35 million dollars. Karu has provided expert assistance to more than a dozen companies in USA, Europe and Australia. Among Karu’s many invited presentations are keynote speeches at 2026 IEEE IMWS-AMP, 2026 IEEE LACAP, 2025 IEEE MAPCON and 2024 IEEE CAMA. He was appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE AP Society in 2017 and has given 68 distinguished lectures in 23 countries around the world.
At present, Karu is the Representative of the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society (AP-S) for all Asia-Pacific countries excluding China and India. From 2018 to 2020, Karu chaired the prestigious Distinguished Lecturer Program Committee of the IEEE AP-S for 3+ years. He has served or is serving in 8 global committees of this IEEE society, including AdCom and Awards. In addition, Karu has been a Senior Editor of IEEE Access and has served as an Associate Editor for nearly all major journals in his fields including IEEE Transactions on Antennas Propagation, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IEEE Access and IET MAP. He is a Director of Innovations for Humanity Pty Ltd.
Karu was in the College of Expert Reviewers of the European Science Foundation. He has been invited to serve as an international expert/research grant assessor by many research funding bodies around the globe, and as an Assessor for professorial promotions by prestigious universities.
Previously Karu was a Director of WiMed Research Centre and Associate Dean – Higher Degree Research (HDR) at Macquarie University. He has also served as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council and the Division Executive. Karu is also the Chair of the Board of management of Australian Antenna Measurement Facility, and was the elected Chair of both IEEE New South Wales (NSW), and IEEE NSW AP/MTT Chapter, in 2016 and 2017.
His research activities are posted in the web at https://www.uts.edu.au/staff/karu.esselle and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karu_Esselle
Distinguished Professor in Electromagnetic and Antenna Engineering at University of Technology Sydney