Future graduate students

Thursday, September 13, 2018 7:00 pm - 7:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Entangled: The series – QUANTUM + Opportunity

Big Ideas for Little Minds

Chris Ferrie will take you through a historical journey of his own coming of age with digital software and what that experience has granted him. The lesson to be learned is that children will take advantage of the opportunities they are given, but only if their parents and teachers show genuine interest in the activities giving rise to those opportunities. 20 years from now, there will be a Quantum Technology equivalent of Bill Gates. That future leader is only a young child today.

Thursday, May 31, 2018 2:30 pm - 2:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Scaling up superconducting quantum computers

David P. Pappas, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

A brief history and overview of the requirements to guide the research and development for high-coherence superconducting quantum circuits will be given. The main focus will be on materials development at NIST. Topics will include identifying and mitigating loss due to amorphous two-level systems at interfaces and how to scale the fabrication of small aluminum-oxide tunnel junctions. The junctions were studied with atom probe microscopy to get an understanding of where the oxidation occurs.

Friday, June 1, 2018 11:45 am - 11:45 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

RAC1 Journal Club/Seminar Series

The number theory of quantum information

Jon YardJon Yard, IQC

Abstract: Quantum-mechanical amplitudes and unitaries are typically expressed over the complex numbers. Because there is a continuum of complex numbers, classical computations of quantum systems generally utilize finite-precision approximations by rational numbers.

Thursday, May 17, 2018 4:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Asymptotic limits in quantum frequency estimation

Jan Haase, Universität Ulm

Whenever one is tempted to employ a quantum system for any kind of applications, the focus usually lies on two properties setting it apart from a system described by a classical theory, namely the coherent superposition of different quantum states and entanglement between two ore more constituents forming the system.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018 1:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Quantum Computing - Dissipative Quantum Search

PhD Seminar

Chunhao Wang, PhD candidate

David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science

We give a dissipative quantum search algorithm that is based on a novel dissipative query model. If there are $N$ items and $M$ of them are marked, this algorithm performs a fixed-point quantum search using $O(\sqrt{N/M}\log(1/\epsilon))$ queries with error bounded by $\epsilon$. In addition, we present a continuous-time version of this algorithm in terms of Lindblad evolution.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018 2:00 pm - 2:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Quantum Computing - A Quantum Algorithm for Simulating Non-sparse Hamiltonians

PhD Seminar

Chunhao Wang, PhD candidate

David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science

We present a quantum algorithm for simulating the dynamics of Hamiltonians that are not necessarily sparse. Our algorithm is based on the assumption that the entries of the Hamiltonian are stored in a data structure that allows for the efficient preparation of states that encode the rows of the Hamiltonian. We use a linear combination of quantum walks to achieve a poly-logarithmic dependence on the precision. 

News Release

Government of Canada announces contract award to the University of Waterloo for research and development in support of Arctic surveillance

April 12, 2018 – Ottawa, Ont. – National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces

En français

Monday, April 30, 2018 2:30 pm - 2:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Asymptotic performance of port-based teleportation

Felix Leditzky, University of Colorado, Boulder

Port-based teleportation (PBT) is a variant of the well-known task of quantum teleportation in which Alice and Bob share multiple entangled states called "ports". While in the standard teleportation protocol using a single entangled state the receiver Bob has to apply a non-trivial correction unitary, in PBT he merely has to pick up the right quantum system at a port specified by the classical message he received from Alice.

Thursday, April 26, 2018 7:00 pm - 7:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Entangled: The series – QUANTUM + Literature

Chad Orzel, Union College
The invention of quantum physics in the early 20th century forced scientists to reconsider many cherished ideas from classical physics, leading to revolutionary changes in our scientific and philosophical understanding of the universe. Quantum phenomena have also proven to be a rich source of metaphors and inspiration for fiction.