What: Project presentations for qRaMP teams and talk with Kanav Setia with SOUP DUMPLINGS + NOODLES FROM NAN XIANG XIAOLONGBAO

When: Wednesday, November 20th, 6-8 PM

Where: Emerson Hall 104

Who: mandatory for qRaMP participants, all are welcome!

RSVP

Please RSVP at www.harvardquantum.com/pitchday so we can get enough food!

PITCH FORMAT

Every team will give a 3-4 minute pitch of their project, including each member of the team. The presentation should cover the following topics:

• What was your learning process through the challenges? What did you focus on, which resources did you look at?

• What problem does your project address?

• What ideas did your team come up with, what approaches have you tried, and (if applicable) do you have any experimental results?

We will open a Google Drive folder for you all to upload any slides you'd like to use a few days before the event!

AGENDA

6-6:45PM: Talk + Q&A with Kanav Setia, CEO and co-founder of qBraid

6:45-7PM: Break

7PM-8PM: qRaMP Team Pitches

Title: How much quantum computer (emulation) can 2½¢ buy?
[alt.: How much quantum computer (emulation) can two and half cents buy?]

Author: Dan Strano (Unitary Fund)

Abstract:

Upon a systematic comparison of costs for classical emulation with a state-of-the-art quantum computer emulator (Unitary Fund's Qrack library) vs. current-day on-demand pricing for genuine "noisy intermediate-scale quantum" ("NISQ") hardware usage, we find that current-generation NISQ might be economically advantageous even today for "structured" circuits (i.e., not following a strong anti-concentration condition) larger than about 50 qubits by 6 or 7 layers of circuit depth with nearest-neighbor connectivity, comparing by per-shot economic cost for emulation vs. NISQ services. All-to-all connectivity remains difficult to emulate at comparable cost above the limits of simple state vector simulation. At this nearest-neighbor scale or below, Qrack combines various established simulation techniques (like quantum binary decision diagrams and light-cone optimization) to achieve competitive emulation cost at high fidelity. For circuits with a strong anti-concentration condition, the patch and elided circuit approaches of 2019 Arute et al. (as executed by Qrack or other libraries) are found to be passable emulation approaches in themselves to the exact "quantum supremacy" circuits of that report and other related reports, with up to about 50% cross-entropy benchmark fidelity.

RSVP at www.harvardquantum.com/bonchon!

Tarini Hardikar, Quantum Research Scientist at qBraid, will be walking through how to run CPU/GPU/QPU jobs in qBraid Lab and releasing the first set of challenges for our research program participants!

Strongly recommended for qBraid x HUQCA Research Mentorships Program participants, and open to all!

RSVP at www.harvardquantum.com/qbraidstart! Dinner will be provided, and we’re taking food requests at the form :)

Connect with the qBraid research scientists who will be mentoring in the program, hear about the project, and connect with your prospective teammates! Attendance is mandatory to participate in the program.

Join us for our first social of the year! Come for the boba, stay to meet returning and new members of HUQCA.

HUQCA is very excited to be hosting Dr. Johannes Borregaard, a Research Associate at Harvard and Visiting Academic at the AWS Center for Quantum Networking, who will be giving a talk on The Opportunities of Quantum Networking!

The talk will take place on Tuesday, February 27th @ 5pm in Boylston 103! There will be free food from Saloniki!

We will also be raffling HUQCA backpacks to two attendees who RSVP for the talk and check in in-person at the talk!

Talk Abstract:

The internet has transformed the world in many ways not least by accelerating science and technology. Fast communication across the globe and access to vast amounts of both information and computing power has enabled new scientific breakthroughs and innovation. One of these is the idea of quantum networks capable of transmitting and processing not only classical information but also quantum information. In this seminar, I will discuss some of the opportunities that quantum networking may bring including recent work on secure elections, non-local interferometry, fundamental tests of nature, and modular quantum computing. 

HUQCA is very excited to be hosting a information session about Zapata AI's Summer 2024 internship program! Interns will have the opportunity to work on problems at the intersection of quantum computing/algorithms/hardware and generative AI alongside scientists and engineers at Zapata.

We will be joined by the internship program leads at Zapata this summer:

• Dalbir Singh, Chief People Officer

• Max Radin, Lead Software Engineer

• Marta Mauri, Research Manager, Quantum AI/ML

• Athena Caesura, Quantum Software Engineer

• Jacob Miller, Quantum Research Scientist

The info session will be on Wednesday, February 7th at 5pm in Boylston 105! There will be FREE JOE'S PIZZA!

Title: Quantum Simulations with Ultracold Alkaline-Earth-Metal-Like Atoms

Abstract: Quantum simulations with ultracold atoms provide a powerful platform for probing complex quantum dynamics in many-body systems. This talk underscores the unique advantages offered by alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms in the investigation of both short-range and long-range phenomena in SU(N) symmetric systems. While quantum gas microscopes enable direct exploration of system properties, the talk also explores the potential of non-single-site-resolved measurement methods for unveiling non-trivial correlations in a system.

Christopher Savoie, CEO and Co-Founder of Zapata Computing, will be giving a talk about founding the startup and the work they are doing in the field of quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms.

Come meet members of HUQCA and enjoy some FREE BOBA from Kung Fu Tea!

Eleanor leads the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the NASA Ames Research Center, and is a 2020 NASA Ames Associate Fellow. She joined NASA Ames Research Center in 2012 to work on the expanding quantum computing effort. Previously, she performed research in diverse fields at FXPAL, including quantum computation, applied cryptography, image-based geometric reconstruction of 3D scenes, bioinformatics, video surveillance, and automated control code generation for modular robotics. Her research interests include quantum heuristics, evaluation and utilization of near-term quantum hardware, fundamental resources for quantum computation, quantum error mitigation, and applications for quantum computing. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is best known for her 2011 book Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction with coauthor Wolfgang Polak and published by MIT press.

IonQ is a quantum computing hardware and software company based in College Park, Maryland. They are developing a general-purpose trapped ion quantum computer and software to generate, optimize, and execute quantum circuits.

Peter Chapman has been IonQ's president and CEO since May 2019. Prior to joining IonQ, Mr. Chapman was Director of Engineering for Amazon Prime, where he led the team responsible for Prime's 2-Day delivery.

There will also be free pizza and boba, sponsored by Kung Fu Tea!

Please completed the 10-second RSVP form below so we can get a headcount for food!

https://forms.gle/RAkXUHZKRgZp5TRA9

We are very excited to announce that we will be hosting an HCQCA-exclusive roundtable discussion with Professor Scott Aaronson on Thursday, March 9th, following his lecture "How much information is in a quantum state?"

Scott Aaronson is Schlumberger Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, and founding director of its Quantum Information Center.  He received his bachelor's from Cornell University and his PhD from UC Berkeley.  Before coming to UT Austin, he spent nine years as a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.  Aaronson's research in theoretical computer science has focused mainly on the capabilities and limits of quantum computers. His first book, Quantum Computing Since Democritus, was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press.  He received the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the United States PECASE Award, the Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics, and the ACM Prize in Computing, and is a Fellow of the ACM and the AAAS.

We are accepting up to 20 members of HCQCA to meet Professor Aaronson after his talk for a small-group discussion (with free boba sponsored by Kung Fu Tea!)

To participate in this exclusive opportunity, please fill out our 15-minute application form by Saturday, March 4th, at 11:59pm!

The first session of the HQRG will take place this Saturday, March 4th, from 5-6pm, tentatively in Boylston 103. We're thrilled to kick off the reading group with a discussion of the first few sections of the Qiskit textbook, up to section 1.3 "Representing Qubit States." Feel free to pre-read the material, and setting up a notebook environment beforehand will be very helpful!

Jake Taylor, Chief Science Officer of Riverlane, will be speaking to HCQCA about Riverlane’s work on quantum operating systems.

From 2017-2020, Jake led the U.S. effort in creating and implementing the National Quantum Initiative while at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. A fellow of the American Physical Society and of Optica (formerly OSA), Jake has also been awarded the silver and gold medals by the U.S. Department of Commerce for his research and his work in advancing quantum information science.

Mihir Bhaskar, Quantum Research Scientist at the AWS Center for Quantum Networking, will be speaking to us about the work that AWS is doing to advance the Quantum Internet, their collaboration with the Harvard Quantum Initiative, and more!

Panel Discussion and Networking Reception: 
The Roadmap to Useful Quantum Computing

   Location: Venture Cafe, One Broadway, Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02142
   Date: Wednesday 16 November 2022
   Time: 5:30pm (doors open), 6pm (panel), 6:45-730pm (networking)

To celebrate the expansion of Riverlane’s US headquarters in Cambridge, MA, we’ve assembled a panel of global quantum science and industry leaders to explore the pathway to ‘useful’ quantum computing at industrial scale beyond today’s ‘noisy’ intermediate-scale machines. In particular, we’ll explore the central role New England can play as global quantum innovation hub. 

Professor Robert Westervelt will be giving a talk introducing the NSF Science and Technology Center for Integrated Quantum Materials (http://ciqm.harvard.edu), a partnership between Harvard, Howard University, MIT, and the Museum of Science, Boston. The Center investigates Stacked 2D Materials, Topological Crystals, Topological Qubits, and Quantum Networks, and conducts activities to form a Science and Education Community.

Professor Robert Westervelt, Director of the Science & Technology Center for Integrated Quantum Materials and the Center for Nanoscale Systems, will be giving a tour of the Center for Nanoscale Systems’ (CNS) cutting edge research facilities under the LISE building to members of the HCQCA!

Come for the free boba, stay for the first Harvard Quantum Information Group Meeting to hear an overview of quantum computation and quantum information, and a talk about many-body quantum teleportation!