UMD, NIST Joint Center to Host Five-Day Workshop on Quantum Information Science

The Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS)—a partnership between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—will host a five-day workshop next week to explore new developments in the field of quantum information science.

The workshop brings together experts from around world to discuss topics including quantum algorithms, quantum complexity theory, quantum tomography, quantum information theory, and applications of quantum information to condensed matter physics.

Andrew Childs, co-director of QuICS and an associate professor in the computer science department, says he hopes the workshop will not only allow visitors to learn about the latest advances in the field, but also encourage them to explore completely new ideas down the road.

“We want the workshop to lead to further collaboration, and get people to think about problems they otherwise might not think about,” he says. “It’s also about introducing people to QuICS and the work we do at the center.”

The almost two-dozen workshop speakers currently lined up range from established leaders in the quantum community to younger members with promising new research.

“We have a great lineup of people who are doing very interesting work,” says Stephen Jordan, a QuICS Fellow and physicist at NIST. “Some people will be reporting on very new results that haven’t even been published yet, so that should be exciting.”

Currently, researchers in quantum information science often reside in different departments in academia—physics, computer science or mathematics, for example—which can lead to the impression of a fragmented research community, says Jacob Taylor, co-director of QuICS and a scientist at NIST.

“One intent of putting on these types of workshops is to gather together a community of quantum researchers on a regular basis, and then build a robust community around that research,” he says.

Taylor says the fall workshop will provide quantum information scientists an opportunity to plan for future research in the field.

“The main hope and goal is to outline what we as the community see as the real frontiers,” he says. “And then identify what the hardest challenges are, and where the biggest effort now will make the biggest difference.”

—Story by Joe Zimmermann