IQC Director Raymond Laflamme explored the power of curiosity during his talk at the inaugural TEDxWaterloo conference this week. "Curiosity is a thread that runs through all of us," Laflamme told an audience of roughly 350 at The Gig Theatre in downtown Kitchener.
TEDx is a locally organized offshoot of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences, which feature interesting and inspiring speakers and have become a viral Internet phenomenon. Among the diverse group of a dozen renowned speakers at the day-long TEDx event, curiosity was indeed the common element. Other speakers included advertising visionary Terry O'Reilly, artistic chocolatier Michael Sacco and UW architecture professor Philip Beesley.
Laflamme's speech, titled "Sparked By Curiosity: The Quantum Frontier," followed the chain of human discovery from the prehistoric harnessing of fire to the present-day exploration of quantum information technology. A live webcast brought TEDx to a wide online audience, and Twitter was abuzz with positive and often humorous comments about Laflamme's talk, such as:
"Ray Laflamme on quantam computing. Wow. He's smarter than the rest of us combined...lol."
"Brain has exploded. Thanks a lot Ray Laflamme."
"Amazing way to spend a Thursday afternoon. Ray Laflamme talking about quantum computing right now."
About IQC: Founded in 2002, the mission of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is to aggressively explore and advance the application of quantum mechanical systems to a vast array of relevant information processing techniques.
A part of the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont., Canada, IQC creates a truly unique environment fostering cutting-edge research and collaboration between researchers in the areas of computer, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences.
At the time of this release, IQC has 17 faculty members, 22 postdoctoral fellows and over 55 students and research assistants, as well as a support staff of 18.
The Institute for Quantum Computing acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through Industry Canada and the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation.