---
title: Quantum Engine Sculpture Melds Past and Future of Physics
date: 2025-03-25T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/quantum-engine-sculpture-melds-past-and-future-of-physics"
section: Articles
---
# Quantum Engine Sculpture Melds Past and Future of Physics

*March 25, 2025* — by [Georgia Jiang](/author/georgia-jiang)


> Steampunk-Inspired Artwork Evokes Devices That Convert Energy From One Form to Another

*Steampunnk collage 1920x1080 — From left, an illustration of a "quantum engine" sculpture and a small-scale realization of the work, partially created with 3D printing.*

Artist and designer Bruce Rosenbaum has made a career out of melding new tech and old gadgets in whimsical ways: an imagined “original Zoom machine,” a beer-dispensing aquarium tank, a time-traveling photo booth for a noted fantasy author.

He’s been dubbed “the steampunk guru” by The Wall Street Journal for his mastery of the genre that combines Victorian-era aesthetics like brass, gears and steam with modern technology. But he never tried imagining a device at the atomic scale until connecting with a University of Maryland scientist.

Nicole Yunger Halpern, who coined the term “quantum steampunk” to describe her retrofuturistic combination of 19<sup>th</sup> and 21<sup>st</sup> century physics, and Rosenbaum over the past five years led a team in crafting an artwork to represent the eclectic mashup: an 8-inch, metallic, partially 3D-printed sculpture of a quantum engine.

“It’s been a privilege to interact with someone who is based in such a different world. I’m in physics, Bruce is in art. And yet, we both have a very strong shared interest in connecting the steam-powered world of the Industrial Revolution to today,” said Yunger Halpern, a theoretical physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a fellow of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, and an adjunct assistant professor in UMD’s Department of Physics and Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

Supported by UMD’s [Arts for All](https://arts.umd.edu/) program, the sculpture made its debut last week at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in honor of the United Nations’ Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and is being brought to campus this week, where it will later go on display.


*Nicole Yunger Halpern with quantum steampunk sculpture in glass display case — Yunger Halpern at the Global Physics Summit.*




**Topics:** [Arts &amp; Culture](https://today.umd.edu/tags/arts-culture)


**Tags:** [Physics](https://today.umd.edu/topic/physics), [Quantum Science](https://today.umd.edu/topic/quantum-science), [Visual Arts](https://today.umd.edu/topic/visual-arts), [Arts](https://today.umd.edu/topic/arts)


**Units:** [College of Arts and Humanities](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-arts-and-humanities), [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)