Presented by Amira Abbas, University of KwaZulu-Natal (note special time) Classical neural networks have proven to be extremely powerful models that learn from data. Proposing a quantum variation of these already-so-successful models requires good reason. As such, researchers have been investigating whether quantum computation can, in any way, aid classical neural networks through higher expressivity or faster trainability. In this talk, we will discuss how to quantify these properties and demonstrate that quantum neural networks can show potential on these fronts, but many open questions remain.

At this quantum tech event, we have Prof Michael J Biercuk, CEO & Founder of Q-CTRL and one of the world's leading authorities on quantum physics and technology, present a keynote on 'Starting Up the Quantum Future'. Quantum technology, harnessing quantum physics as a resource, promises to be as transformational in the 21st century as harnessing electricity was in the 19th century. In this presentation, Michael will introduce the emerging field of quantum tech and describe how he and colleagues around the world are working to build a greenfield industry. Beginning with an intuitive picture of how quantum technology expands on the technological state-of-the-art, this presentation will inform about the potential and promise of exploiting quantum physics in computing and sensing. Michael will also introduce Q-CTRL, a global quantum tech startup headquartered in Australia, focused on making quantum technologies useful through quantum control engineering. This presentation will conclude with lessons for the deep tech founder seeking to transition from fundamental research to entrepreneurship. Following his presentation, Michael will join a panel discussion on an overview of the global quantum economy and the future of quantum software, as well as why the focus on quantum software when quantum computers are not yet ready. Date: 8 December 2020, Tuesday Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm (Singapore Time, UTC+8) Programme Details: 11:00am - 11:05am: Opening Remarks 11:05am - 11:25am: Keynote Presentation on 'Starting Up the Quantum Future' by Prof Michael J Biercuk, CEO & Founder, Q-CTRL 11:25am - 12:00pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A with: Prof Michael J Biercuk, CEO & Founder, Q-CTRL Dr Joe Fitzsimons, CEO & Founder, Horizon Quantum Computing Dr Ng Hui Khoon, Associate Professor, Yale-NUS College and the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore Speakers' Profiles: Prof Michael J Biercuk, CEO & Founder, Q-CTRL image Prof Michael J Biercuk is a Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology at The University of Sydney. He leads a team working to develop advanced technology powered by quantum physics. He is also Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. Out of his academic research, Michael saw a gap in the market for a company which made his team's specialist knowledge and capabilities available outside of the lab; he founded Q-CTRL in 2017 with venture capital backing from some of the world's leading investors. Michael completed his Master's and PhD at Harvard University and his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. After university, he held a research fellowship in the Ion Storage Group at NIST Boulder under the supervision of 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics Dr David Wineland. He has also worked as a consultant to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), helping steer government investments in quantum information and next-generation computer architectures. As one of the world's leading authorities on quantum physics and technology, Michael is a regular contributor to both the technical literature and the popular press. He is a TEDx and South by Southwest (SXSW) speaking alumnus and winner of the 2015 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher. Dr Ng Hui Khoon, Associate Professor (Physics), Head of Studies, Physical Sciences, Yale-NUS College and the Centre for Quantum Technologies Dr Ng Hui Khoon did her undergraduate in Cornell University, and then completed her PhD (2009) in the group of John Preskill at the California Institute of Technology, on the subject of theoretical quantum information and computation. Upon graduation, she returned to Singapore as a postdoctoral researcher at the DSO National Laboratories of Singapore, spending part of her time at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), within the group of Berge Englert. In 2013, she joined, as an Assistant Professor, the newly founded Yale-NUS College in Singapore, a joint liberal arts and sciences college set up by Yale University and NUS. She has maintained a joint position in CQT, becoming a CQT Fellow in 2019. Her research focuses on theoretical aspects of quantum computation, particularly on noise control, quantum error correction, and fault tolerance. Another productive area of research is in quantum tomography, and lately, noise tomography, drawing on both areas of her expertise. She is currently leading the quantum information and computation efforts within MajuLab, a French CNRS lab situated in Singapore, and maintains collaborations with well-known researchers around the world. Dr Joe Fitzsimons, Chief Executive Officer, Horizon Quantum Computing image Driven by the vision of quantum computing as a revolution in computing technology, Joe quit his tenured faculty position to found Horizon Quantum Computing in 2018. Drawing on over 15 years' experience in quantum computing and computational complexity theory, today he fully dedicates his time to Horizon with the goal of making quantum computing a general purpose computing technology capable of addressing some of the world's most challenging computational problems. Joe received a BSc in Theoretical Physics from University College Dublin and a Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford, where he went on to become a fellow of Merton College. Prior to founding Horizon, he led the Quantum Information and Theory group at Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he was a tenured associate professor and was a principal investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies. He has published at the highest levels in both theoretical computer science (FOCS,STOC, CCC, ITCS) and physics (Science, Nature Physics, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review X), and has been named as a National Research Foundation Fellow and to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia list. Topics: Quantum Technologies

In our last meetup we went through phase kickback and spent a lot of time working through circuit calculations. Our next meetup will have a similar format as we tackle the Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm. Once again we'll use the Qiskit textbook as our guide. Feel free to read before we meet: https://qiskit.org/textbook/ch-algorithms/bernstein-vazirani.html

What? Shor's Algorithm watch party? What does that mean ? We've been learning about Quantum Cryptography the entire month of August and now we are on to CoCreation.(https://quantumcomputingindia.com/cryptography-august) What is CoCreation? Its a process through which a community learns. Hackathon/HackSeries sounds very brittle as a hack is never a sustainable solution. Who can attend? Anyone interested in contributing to #BreakRSA project. We start with understanding the Shor's algorithm then do a comparative study of its implementations across platforms then find ways to optimise the parameters under our control. When? 10-11 PM IST on Zoom - 8 & 9 September - 2020 Agenda: 1) 10-11 PM - 1 hour of the video by Qiskit Qummer School 2) 11-11:15 PM - Note Comparison RSVP here: https://forms.gle/8BqgGqwjsPpprG2R9 Come with popcorn & your fav note taking tool! See you all at 10PM today! Thank You!

https://home.cern/news/announcement/computing/online-introductory-lectures-quantum-computing-6-november General description of the course Quantum computing is one the most promising new trends in information processing. In this course, we will introduce from scratch the basic concepts of the quantum circuit model (qubits, gates and measures) and use them to study some of the most important quantum algorithms and protocols, including those that can be implemented with a few qubits (BB84, quantum teleportation, superdense coding...) as well as those that require multi-qubit systems (Deutsch-Jozsa, Grover, Shor..). We will also cover some of the most recent applications of quantum computing in the fields of optimization and simulation (with special emphasis on the use of quantum annealing, the quantum approximate optimization algorithm and the variational quantum eigensolver) and quantum machine learning (for instance, through the use of quantum support vector machines and quantum variational classifiers). We will also give examples of how these techniques can be used in chemistry simulations and high energy physics problems. The focus of the course will be on the practical aspects of quantum computing and on the implementation of algorithms in quantum simulators and actual quantum computers (as the ones available on the IBM Quantum Experience and D-Wave Leap). No previous knowledge of quantum physics is required and, from the mathematical point of view, only a good command of basic linear algebra is assumed. Some familiarity with the python programming language would be helpful, but is not required either. ==== Lecture 6: Quantum variational algorithms and quantum machine learning Variational Quantum Eigensolver. Introduction to Quantum Machine Learning (QSVM, QGAN, Quantum Classifiers...) === Biography of the speaker El?as F. Combarro holds degrees from the University of Oviedo (Spain) in both Mathematics (1997, award for second highest grades in the country) and Computer Science (2002, award for highest grades in the country). After some research stays at the Novosibirsk State University (Russia), he obtained a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Oviedo, 2001) with a dissertation on the properties of some computable predicates under the supervision of Prof. Andrey Morozov. Since 2009, El?as F. Combarro has been an associate professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of Oviedo. He has published more than 50 research papers in international journals on topics such as Computability Theory, Machine Learning, Fuzzy Measures and Computational Algebra. His current research focuses on the application Quantum Computing to algebraic, optimization and machine learning problems. From July 2020 he has been a Cooperation Associate at CERN openlab. A series of weekly lectures on the basics of quantum computing will be broadcast via webcast starting 6 November 2020 at 10.30 a.m. CET. New lectures will be broadcast each Friday of the next seven weeks. The talks will focus on the practical aspects of quantum computing and are organised by CERN openlab and the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative. They will be given by Elias Fernandez-Combarro Alvarez, an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Oviedo in Spain since 2009 and a cooperation associate at CERN since earlier this year. Quantum computing is one the most promising new trends in information processing. This course introduces basic concepts of the quantum circuit model (qubits, gates and measures) and important quantum algorithms and protocols, including those that can be implemented with a few qubits (BB84, quantum teleportation, superdense coding, etc.), as well as those that require multi-qubit systems (Deutsch-Jozsa, Grover, Shor, etc.). Some of the most recent applications of quantum computing in the fields of optimisation and simulation will be addressed (with special emphasis on the use of quantum annealing, the quantum approximate optimisation algorithm and the variational quantum eigensolver) along with quantum machine learning (for instance, through the use of quantum support vector machines and quantum variational classifiers). Examples of how these techniques can be used in chemistry simulations and high-energy physics problems will also be provided. Beyond the practical aspects of quantum computing, the course will cover the implementation of algorithms in quantum simulators and actual quantum computers (such as the ones available through the IBM Quantum Experience and D-Wave Leap). No previous knowledge of quantum physics is required and only a good command of basic linear algebra is necessary. Some familiarity with the Python programming language would be helpful, but is also not required. Individual links to each lecture are provided below. Lecture 1/7, Friday 6 November: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970903/ Lecture 2/7, Friday 13 November: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970904/ Lecture 3/7, Friday 20 November: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970905/ Lecture 4/7, Friday 27 November: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970906/ Lecture 5/7, Friday 4 December: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970907/ Lecture 6/7, Friday 11 December: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970908/ Lecture 7/7, Friday 18 December: https://indico.cern.ch/event/970909/

We announce our 3rd WIQ summit on December 14th - 16th sponsored by IonQ. We are still finalizing the speakers but as always it will be awesome and free, so please spread the news and reserve your spot here

The National Quantum Computing Centre: Quantum algorithms, applications and advantage Live Webinar In this webinar building on the prior series webinar from the Quantum Computing and Simulation Hub, the National Quantum Computing Centre will be introduced with an overview of its strategy and purpose. The Centre design and technical roadmap will be described in brief with the main focus of the talk around emerging applications and use case development given market deployment of quantum computing in the UK. In anticipation of application impact the uptake and challenges of creating a 'Quantum Ready' economy will be described. Case studies in mechanical engineering, materials science and financial services will be reviewed. Dr Michael Cuthbert Dr Michael Cuthbert Dr Cuthbert joined the National Quantum Computing Centre as its Interim Director in June 2020. He has a background in cryogenics, superconducting materials and solid state physics research before joining Oxford Instruments in 1998. He has held a number of technical and commercial leadership roles with Oxford Instruments over the past 22 years in Japan, the US and the UK, most recently as Head of Quantum Technologies across the Oxford Instruments Group. He is a member of the Institute of Physics and sits on several advisory panels including the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme Strategic Advisory Board.