Johannes Jakob Meyer, a student at TU Berlin, joined the research group of Professor Jens Eisert at Freie Universität for his master's project. In his master's thesis, he dealt with applications of parametrized quantum circuits on near-term quantum devices. He, besides, drew focus on quantum sensors that could refine such technologies as microscopes and MRIs in the future.

Since near-term quantum sensors are fraught with noise and platform limitations their design using classical computers is proving difficult. Johannes Meyer proposed to mitigate this problem through a hybrid approach: A classical controller is combined with a quantum device that models a quantum sensor. In an iterative feedback loop, the design parameters of the quantum sensor are updated until it shows satisfying performance. To quantify the performance, Johannes Meyer proposes to use a parameter that incorporates all aspects of the sensing scheme including measurements and post-processing. Such flexibility of the approach allows a wide range of applications to different systems, e.g. optical systems or spin systems.

Johannes Jakob Meyer presented his approach at the ceremony of the "Quantum Futur Award 2021", which was streamed online on August 26, 2021. The jury honoured his work with the first prize, which is endowed with six thousand euros for study trips. Johannes Jakob Meyer is now doing his PhD in Jens Eisert's research group and, due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, would like to spend the prize money on personal development and technical equipment.