Session 1 – Opening Webinar: Frictionless quantum software development

2pm CET / 1pm GMT / 9am EST

When you program a traditional computer you don’t have to deal with transistors, logic gates, machine code, and so on. So, why do we force developers to only interact with quantum computers at these basic levels? To lower barriers to entry for a broader community we need to develop higher-level interfaces that enable easier experimentation in the applications domain. In this session, IBM’s Blake Johnson, tech lead for quantum control systems, will discuss advances in Qiskit and the IBM Quantum execution stack that begins to deliver on a frictionless development experience.

Speaker: Blake Johnson is the Tech Lead for quantum control systems at IBM.
His team is responsible for the hardware and software components involved in execution of a quantum program, including converting the program into the signals that actuate operations on quantum processors. Blake has previously worked across many elements of the quantum computing stack, including research into characterization protocols, quantum programming languages, device design, and system architecture. Prior to joining IBM, Blake served as Chief Quantum Engineer at Rigetti Computing and Senior Scientist at Raytheon BBN Technologies. Blake earned his PhD in physics from Yale University under advisor Rob Schoelkopf, where he helped develop superconducting transmon qubits and apply them to novel quantum optics tasks, including invention of an absorptionless single-photon detector.

Session 2 – Panel discussion: Progress in quantum software development across industry and academia

2:50pm CET / 1:50pm GMT / 9:50am EST

During this panel discussion quantum computing leaders from industry and academia will share perspectives on the current and future state of quantum software development and applications.

Moderator: Sebastian Hassinger, Team Leader, Research and Ecosystem Partnerships. Sebastian leads the research and ecosystem partner team for IBM Quantum. He has been building early stage technologies and markets since the mid-90s when he created the first customer support website for Apple, Inc. He joined IBM in 1997 providing product and market strategy leadership for Tivoli and then the mobile computing incubation team until 2005. He has worked at Oracle and a number of startups before rejoining IBM in 2016. He holds an MBA from Columbia University and London Business School.

Panelists:
Goldman Sachs - Will Zeng
Zapata - Yudong Cao
Harvard/Aliro Quantum - Pri Narang

Session 3 - Quick Fire Demos: Integrating quantum into application workflows

3:55pm CET / 2:55pm GMT / 10:55am EST

Follow along with developers of Qiskit application modules as they give a brief overview of how to seamlessly integrate quantum into chemistry simulation and optimization workflows.

Demo 1
Abstraction Without Trivialization – Developments in Qiskit Application Modules – Chemistry

Speaker: Dr. Panagiotis Barkoutsos is a research staff member at IBM Research – Zurich working on foundations of quantum computing and the theoretical aspects of quantum computation/simulation. The main interest lies in simulations of quantum chemistry and combinatorial optimization in near term quantum computers. Panagiotis holds a PhD from ETH Zurich, group of Prof. M. Troyer,Department of Theoretical Physics, in the field of quantum computing and applications of near term quantum computers for quantum chemistry. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from NTUA and a Master’s degree in Process Engineering from ETH Zurich. He is currently working in the interface of quantum computing with industrial applications and the development of open source software for near term quantum computers.

Demo 2
Abstraction Without Trivialization – Developments in Qiskit Application Modules – Gradients

Speaker: Christa Zoufal is a Ph.D. candidate working in the Quantum Technology group of the Science & Technology department at IBM Research-Zurich. She received a B.Sc. as well as an M.Sc. degree in physics from ETH Zurich. During her studies, she focused on quantum information theory and computational methods. Her master thesis on "The quantum SWITCH and its causal simulations" focused on an indefinite causal quantum structure which leads to advantages in several information processing tasks. As part of the Quantum Finance & Optimization group her current research focuses on the exploitation of quantum information processing within the context of machine learning and optimization problems.

Free Sign Up

Quantum Thursdays August Survey

Organised by :

QUESTIONS?