Gary Steele's lab works on quantum circuits and mechanical quantum systems, exploring quantum phenomena in nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) and superconducting circuit systems. Research includes: (1) superconducting qubit-membrane optomechanics and electromechanics; (2) circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) — coupling superconducting qubits to phonons; (3) analog quantum simulation with quantum circuits; (4) probing quantum materials (graphene, 2D materials) with superconducting circuits. The group develops novel quantum sensors for mechanical forces and electromagnetic fields.

Yang works on the systems-level physics of silicon spin qubits: operating qubits at elevated temperatures (above one kelvin, where cryo-CMOS control electronics can be co-integrated), valley and spin-orbit engineering, and the electrical control of spin qubits without micromagnets. The 'hot qubit' programme in particular is an engineering argument about where the classical/quantum boundary should sit in a real machine. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — raising the operating temperature of a spin sensor while preserving coherence is the same trade a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble makes implicitly by working at room temperature; Yang's work is the silicon community's attempt to buy back some of that convenience. Borderline inclusion — this is quantum computing rather than sensing — retained under the inclusive rubric.