One of the strangest features of quantum mechanics is also potentially its most useful: entanglement. By harnessing the ability for two particles to be intimately intertwined across great distances, researchers are working to create technologies that even Einstein could not imagine, from quantum computers that can run millions of calculations in parallel, to new forms of cryptography that may be impossible to crack. Join us as we explore the coming age of quantum technology, which promises to bring with it a far deeper understanding of fundamental physics.
Topics Covered:
- Introduction of Participants
- Program Begins: Quantum mechanics, weird or unfamiliar?
- How much power is 20 Qubit’s?
- What are the pros and cons of Superconducting quantum computing?
- The factorization problem
- Is there a relationship between quantum computing and machine learning?
- Q & A
Moderator: George Musser | Author
George Musser is a contributing editor at Scientific American and Nautilus magazines, a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT for 2014–2015, and the author of Spooky Action at a Distance (2015) and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory (2008). He has won numerous awards for his writing, including the 2011 Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics and 2010 Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award from the American Astronomical Society.
Participants:
Jerry Chow | Physicist
Dr. Jerry M. Chow is the Manager of the Experimental Quantum Computing group at IBM and a Distinguished Research Staff Member. His technical expertise is in the area of design, measurement, and integration of superconducting qubits. Chow graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in physics and M.S. in applied mathematics from Harvard University (2005) and subsequently a Ph.D. in physics from Yale University (2010). He was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for his study at Yale, where he worked on implementing the first quantum processor with superconducting qubits in Professor Rob Schoelkopf’s group. He joined IBM Research as a Research Staff Member in 2010. In 2012 he was recognized in the Forbes 30 under 30 Technology list. Chow is the Primary Investigator for the IBM team on the IARPA Logical Qubits program since 2015. In 2016 he co-lead the IBM Quantum Experience project, placing a real quantum processor accessible to anyone over the Cloud.
Julia Kempe | Mathematician
Julia Kempe is a mathematician, physicist, and computer scientist. Her research has focused on the interdisciplinary theory of quantum computers and quantum information. She has contributed to the theory of quantum codes and the understanding of quantum entanglement and quantum algorithms, in particular, quantum walks, a new way to harness the power of quantum superpositions. She was a Professor at Tel Aviv University from 2007-2012 and has been a Senior Researcher at the CNRS in Paris, France, since 2001. For her contributions to science, she was knighted in the French Order of Merit and won her the CNRS Bronze Medal and the Irene-Joliot-Curie Prize. In recent years she has taken a leave to increasingly work in data science and machine learning in the private sector while keeping an active interest in all things quantum.
Seth Lloyd | Mechanical Engineer, Author
Seth Lloyd is currently the professor of quantum-mechanical engineering at MIT and the director of the W.M. Keck Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory. Working with a variety of groups to construct and operate quantum computers and quantum communication systems, Lloyd is the first person to develop a realizable model for quantum computation. His research focuses on the role of information in complex systems and the quantum mechanics of living systems (known as ‘quantum life’), economics, and cosmology. Lloyd is the author of more than 200 scientific papers, including the publication Programming the Universe.
Kathy-Anne Soderberg | Physicist
Dr. Kathy-Anne (Brickman) Soderberg, Senior Research Scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate, is the primary investigator for AFRL’s Trapped-Ion Quantum Networking group. Soderberg received a B.S. in physics from the College of William and Mary, an M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago.
