quantum computing

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 11:00 am - 11:00 am EST (GMT -05:00)

A microwave optomechanical circuit with parametric mechanical driving

Shun Yanai, Delft University of Technology

Microwave optomechanical circuits have been demonstrated in the past years to be powerful tools for both, exploring fundamental physics of macroscopic and massive quantum objects as well as being promising candidates for novel on-chip quantum limited microwave devices. In this work, we explore a microwave optomechanical device consisting of a coplanar microwave cavity coupled to a mechanical high quality factor nanobeam resonator.

Friday, February 8, 2019 2:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

The potential applications of quantum computation in exploration geophysics

IQC and the Department of Physics at the University of Waterloo welcome Shahpoor Moradi, University of Calgary

Quantum computation has been developed as a computationally efficient paradigm to solve problems that are intractable with conventional classical computers. Quantum computers have the potential to support the simulation and modeling of many complex physical systems, not just quantum ones, significantly more rapidly than conventional supercomputers.

Friday, December 7, 2018 2:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

Quantum Advantage in Learning Parity with Noise

Daniel Kyungdeock Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Machine learning is an interesting family of problems for which near-term quantum devices can provide considerable advantages. In particular, exponential quantum speedup is recently demonstrated in learning a Boolean function that calculates the parity of a randomly chosen input bit string and a hidden bit string in the presence of noise, the problem known as learning parity with noise (LPN).

Tuesday, October 2, 2018 1:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Client-friendly continuous-variable blind and verifiable quantum computing

Nana Liu, Centre for Quantum Technologies

We present a verifiable and blind protocol for assisted universal quantum computing on continuous-variable (CV) platforms. This protocol is highly experimentally-friendly to the client, as it only requires Gaussianoperation capabilities from the latter. Moreover, the server is not required universal quantum-computational power either, its only function being to supply the client with copies of a single-mode non-Gaussian state. Universality is attained based on state-injection of the serverʼs non-Gaussian supplies.

Thursday, August 9, 2018 1:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Quantum computing at Alibaba Group

Yaoyun Shi, Director, Alibaba Quantum Laboratory (AQL)

I will take this opportunity to share with the Waterloo quantum community the thinkings behind Alibaba Group's quantum computing program and our main activities. Questions and comments from the audience are welcome.

About the speaker: Yaoyun Shi is a computer scientist trained at Beijing University, Princeton, and Caltech. He taught at University of Michigan before moving to Alibaba to launch its quantum computing program.

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.

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. 

Friday, April 20, 2018 11:45 am - 11:45 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

RAC1 Journal Club/Seminar Series

Keysight's Quantum Engineering Toolkit: A commercial, customizable integrated control and test system

Presented by guest speaker Nizar Messaoudi, Keysight Technologies Application Engineer

With traditional classical complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) computing struggling to keep up with Moore’s law, interest in quantum computing has exploded and the University of Waterloo is at the centre of this technological revolution.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018 1:30 pm - 1:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Spatial noise filtering through error correction for quantum sensing

David Layden - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Sensors based on quantum effects can measure various external quantities, such as magnetic fields, with high precision. Moreover, their sensitivity can scale more favourably with their size than is allowed classically — a property analogous to quantum speedups in computing. As with quantum computers, the performance of quantum sensors is limited by decoherence. Quantum error correction (QEC) has recently emerged as a promising approach to mitigate this decoherence, and therefore, to enhance sensitivity.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 10:30 am - 10:30 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

‘Free-space’ Chiral Quantum Optics and a ‘Few-Atom’ Quantum Antenna

Peter Zoller - University of Innsbruck

We start with an overview of chiral quantum optics as quantum light-atom interfaces with broken left- right symmetry and associated quantum optical phenomena and applications. While chiral quantum optics is traditionally discussed in context of nano-photonics and nano fibers , we propose here a novel ‘free-space’ chiral quantum optics realized as atoms in free space coupled to a ‘few-atom’ quantum antenna. In particular, we discuss free space photonic quantum links between atoms (qubits) equipped with sending and receiving quantum antennas.