Ashlesha Patil Honored as "Student Inventor of the Year" at Tech Launch Arizona's I-Squared Awards and Expo Event

On September 26, 2023, Tech Launch Arizona, the office of the University of Arizona that commercializes inventions stemming from research, will host its annual I-Squared Awards and Expo event. Along with honoring the top inventors, entrepreneurs, and community leaders dedicated to commercializing UArizona inventions, the evening will include an expo of innovations and startups stemming from UArizona hosted by entrepreneurial, inventive teams. Read the full article about the I-Squared Awards & Expo on the Tech Launch Arizona Website.

Among those recognized is Ashlesha Patil, graduate student in the Wyant College of Optical Sciences and researcher in the NSF-ERC Center for Quantum Networks. Ashlesha is being recognized as Student Innovator of the Year. 

The Student Innovator of the Year award is reserved for the student who over the last year has shown excellence in commercialization and intellectual property, with a focus on entrepreneurship. This past year Ashlesha Patil developed a computer game that teaches measurement-based quantum computation through using tangrams – puzzles where users have to fit together flat polygons. The project was supported initially by an Education and Workforce Development Fellowship funded by the CQN ERC. According to Patil, the game is helpful to learners of many levels, from middle school students all the way up to researchers.

She received an Integrated Master's Degree in electrical engineering with specialization in microelectronics from IIT Bombay, India, working on quantum transport in semiconductors and quantum sensing using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. She is currently a PhD student in the Wyant College of Optical Sciences studying cluster state models for linear optical quantum computing with Prof. Saikat Guha.

“I am very honored and grateful that TLA saw potential in our work,” said Patil. “To be named the Student Innovator of the Year means that I am on the right path to becoming a researcher who cares about not just the scientific value but also the societal impact of their work.”

Congratulations, Ashlesha!