Events

The one-day workshop is the third in a series that brings together researchers at Institut de Recherche en Informatique Fondamentale (IRIF), Université Paris-Diderot and the Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo. It will feature a full day of talks on recent progress in quantum algorithms and complexity theory, and related areas, made by members of the two institutions, with the idea to foster collaboration.

The goal of the IQC Workshop on Quantum Illumination is to bring together a wide range of participants from these various domains to discuss the state of the art in laboratory research, the range of possible applications, and paths toward those applications.

Since its conception a decade ago, interest in Quantum Illumination, a form of long-range quantum sensing, has grown steadily.  Motivated by applications in defence, quantum communications and other areas, interest has now spread from academia to industry and government. The goal of the IQC Workshop on Quantum Illumination is to bring together a wide range of participants from these various domains to discuss the state of the art in laboratory research, the range of possible applications, and paths toward those applications.

Single-photon detectors for satellite-based quantum communications

Nigar Sultana

Special Colloquium Featuring Scott Aaronson University of Texas, Austin

Approximate counting -- given a black-box function f:[N]->{0,1}, multiplicatively estimate the number of x's such that f(x)=1 -- is one of the most basic problems in quantum algorithms. In 1998, Brassard, Hoyer, Mosca, and Tapp (BHMT) gave a fully quadratic quantum speedup for the problem, while Nayak and Wu showed that this speedup was optimal. What else is there to say?

Colloquium featuring Sergey Bravyi IBM Research

Variational quantum algorithms such as VQE or QAOA aim to simulate low-energy properties of quantum many-body systems or find approximate solutions of combinatorial optimization problems. Such algorithms employ variational states generated by low-depth quantum circuits to minimize the expected value of a quantum or classical Hamiltonian.

Due to the APS March Meeting being canceled, IQC has scheduled a mini-symposium for University of Waterloo students to give their accepted talks.

Talks are open for all to attend.

Colloquium featuring Carl Alexander Miller - QuICS and NIST

How can two parties carry out a fair coin flip across a noiseless quantum channel? In 2007, Carlos Mochon proved a tantalizing result: he showed that fair quantum coin flipping is possible in principle, but he used a protocol that required a huge (exponential) number of communication rounds. In the twelve years since, despite some continued deep theoretical work on the problem, no improvements to the efficiency of Mochon's protocol have been made.

Join us for an intimate conversation featuring IQC researchers. Our first guest is Professor Raymond Laflamme, interviewed by John Donohue. John and Raymond will have a conversation about research, careers, and life in quantum information science, followed by Q&A from the audience. Tune in Tuesday August 11 at 7:00pm Eastern Time.

Join us for casual conversations with researchers at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC).

Shayan Majidy, PhD candidate - Tuesday, September 29, 7:00 p.m.

This month, we welcome PhD student Shayan Majidy for a conversation about life as a graduate student, and what it's like to share quantum and science with a young audience.