Entangled Things

In Episode 47, Patrick speaks with Dakshita Khurana of the University of Illinois.Among other topics, the team discuss theoretical cryptography, multiparty computation, and simulation in cryptography.Dakshita Khurana received a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering (Power) from IIT Delhi in 2012 and a PhD in Computer Science from UCLA in 2018. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft from 2018-19 before joining UIUC as an Assistant Professor in 2019.  Her research focuses on theoretical cryptography. She has contributed to the foundations of cryptographic protocols, including to privacy-preserving proof systems, and to preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. Her more recent work investigates the foundations of quantum cryptography. Her research has been recognized as a long plenary talk at QIP and been published by invitation at the SIAM Journal on Computing.  Dakshita's research has been funded through grants from the NSF and DARPA, and gifts from Visa Research, C3AI and Jump Arches. She was named to the Forbes List of 30 under 30 in Science. She was also a Google Research Fellow at the Simons Institute, Berkeley. Previously, her thesis work was recognized with a UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship, a UCLA CS Outstanding Graduating PhD Award and Graduate Student Research Awards from Symantec and CISCO. 

In Episode 46, Patrick and Ciprian speak with Diana Franklin of the University of Chicago.Among other topics, the team discuss K-12 education in Quantum, suspension of disbelief, and ways to communicate Quantum topics to broader audiences.Diana Franklin is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Chicago. When she received her Ph.D. at UC Davis, 2002, her research focus was computer architecture, especially new technologies. She has done research in intelligent memories, memristors, and quantum computers. In 2008, she began her transition to computer science education research. She now leads the CANON (Computing for ANyONe) Lab, specializing in both 3rd-8th grade computer science interventions and quantum computing education for novices of any age with a particular focus towards moving towards more equitable learning experiences. She is currently the co-lead of the Q-12 Partnership, a new initiative by the Office of Science and Technology Programs, the National Science Foundation, industry, and professional organizations to bootstrap K-12 quantum information science education. In addition, she serves on the CRA (Computing Research Association) Board and is the author of "A Practical Guide to Gender Diversity for CS Faculty," from Morgan Claypool. Zines: https://www.epiqc.cs.uchicago.edu/zinesOther resources:https://www.epiqc.cs.uchicago.edu/resourcesInfo about quantum games:  https://www.canonlab.org/quanderCANON research lab with classical CS resources: http://canonlab.orgInterested in participating in a quantum activity in a K-12 classroom during World Quantum Day on April 14th? Quantime will have activities posted for middle and high school classrooms with no expectations of teacher background in QIS. https://q12education.org/quantime

In Episode 45, Patrick and Ciprian speak with returning guest Elisabetta Valiante of 1QBit.Among other topics, the team discuss the need to create a standard benchmark for quantum computers, and the varying approaches of private business and the public sector.Elisabetta Valiante has been a member of the Optimization Solutions Team at 1QBit since 2018. She is experienced in optimization problems in chemistry, biochemistry, and finance, as well as benchmarking quantum and quantum-inspired optimization algorithms and hardware. Elisabetta graduated in Physics in her home country at the Sapienza University of Rome. She earned a PhD from the Ludwig Maximilian University with a dissertation on galaxy evolution, and had postdoctoral appointments at the University of British Columbia and Cardiff University. She was the leader of the first major world data release of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS). Elisabetta has published and co-authored scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has presented at many international conferences (for example, the XXIX International Astronomical Union General Assembly) and colloquia.A passionate mentor, she recently participated in the “Girls and STEAM” event at Science World in Vancouver, BC.Elisabetta currently resides in Vancouver, BC with her partner and her cat.

In Episode 44, Patrick and Ciprian take a retrospective look at Entangled Things.The team discuss the journey so far, the excitement and challenges of podcasting, and the joy of gaining and sharing knowledge of guests from within the industry.

In Episode 43, Patrick and Ciprian speak regarding Microsoft Quantum advancements.Among other topics, the team discuss Azure Quantum, languages, and intergrations with other existing hardware and software platforms.

In Episode 42, Patrick and Ciprian speak with returning guest Noson Yanofsky, of Brooklyn College.The team discuss the algorithms of quantum, error correction, resilience, and np and np complete problems.Noson S. Yanofsky has a Ph.D. in mathematics from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. He held a post-doctoral research position in McGill University in Montreal. Currently, he is a professor of computer science at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center. In addition to writing research papers, he has authored Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists with Mirco Mannucci (Cambridge University Press), The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us (MIT Press), and Theoretical Computer Science for the Working Category Theorist (accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press). He is currently working on a book titled Monoidal Categories: A Unifying Concept in Mathematics, Physics, and Computers. Noson lives in Brooklyn with his wife and four children.To hear more from Noson, please check out his book, Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists, or his many other publications.Links to the books can be found here. http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~noson/

In Episode 41, Patrick and Ciprian speak with returning guest Fred Chong of the University of Chicago. Among other topics, the team discuss the acquisition of Super.tech by ColdQuanta, the benefits of software development companies working directly with hardware manufacturers, and neutral atom architecture.Fred Chong is the Seymour Goodman Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago and the Chief Scientist at Super.tech.  His work focuses on accelerating the timeline for practical quantum computing by developing software techniques that optimize for the physical properties of quantum hardware.  He leads the EPiQC Project (Enabling Practical-scale Quantum Computing), a $10M flagship national research project funded by the National Science Foundation's Expeditions in Computing program.  Chong received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1996 and is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award, and 10 best paper awards. 

In Episode 40, Patrick and Ciprian speak with Rob Freeman, language and Artificial Intelligence enthusiast.The team discuss linguistics, machine learning, and defining grammar across all languages from first principals.Rob Freeman is from New Zealand where he studied physics. But a passion to understand thought, in the first place as personally experienced by speaking diverse languages,  led him to spend most of the last 30 years in Asia. There he combined his background in physics with his passion to understand thought by working on machine translation in Japan, and the computational analysis of grammar in Hong Kong. For most of the last 20 years he has been pushing a somewhat different quantum inspired perspective on machine learning, emphasizing aspects of complexity theory, even chaos. Which, quantum included, he sees as potentially being manifestations of properties of distributed representations. And that as a consequence of this, the immediate solution to continuing puzzles of AI may be as simple as turning the "learning" problem upside down. So that, instead of thinking of AI as a process of compressing or "learning" structure, we think of it as being an expansion or generation of structure, which it turns out is more powerful and entangled than we suspected. He believes this offers the key to understanding firstly perception, but also the big questions: creativity, freewill, consciousness. And even suggests a quantum like character and solution for contemporary political fragmentation and social conflict!

In Episode 39, Patrick and Ciprian speak with Bob Liscouski, CEO, and Bill McGann, CTO and COO of Quantum Computing Inc. The team discuss, the different approaches to QPUs, optimization, predictive analytics, plus a special announcement at the end of the episode.Robert Liscouski  has served as president, CEO, and chairman of QCI since February 2018, bringing to the company more than 35 years of executive experience at public and private companies, and federal agencies. He has extensive experience developing critical programs for protecting national security interests and essential infrastructure, as well as in crisis management, organizational development, and strategic planning.  Robert’s public sector experience includes time in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of State, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, and served on the Intelligence ScienceBoard supporting the CIA and NIA. On the private sector side, Robert held roles at Implant Sciences, Coca-Cola Company, and Orion Scientific Systems.  Robert currently serves on the board of technical advisors for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the board of the National Child Protection Task Force.  He received his Bachelor of Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. William J. McGann Ph.D.  is the Chief Operating and Technology Officer (COO/CTO) for QCI, responsible for technical and product engineering. Prior to joining QCI's executive team, Bill served as a member of the Board of Directors for the company.  Prior to joining QCI, Bill served as the Chief Technology Officer for the Security, Detection and Automation business at Leidos Corporation. Central to his role was the creation of innovative customer solutions driven by a strong portfolio of Physics, Chemistry and Software-based products. Bill has a strong, directed passion for transforming credible science into practical technology solutions in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges.  Prior to joining Leidos, Bill held numerous business and technology leadership positions and roles including; (a) Founder of the first explosives trace detection company, Ion Track Instruments, (b) Chief Technology Officer for GE Security, (c) VP of Engineering for United Technologies Fire and Security business, (d) CEO (and board member) of Implant Sciences Corp. and (e) Chief Technology Officer at L3Harris Aviation Security and Detection business.  Bill holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from University of Connecticut and Undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Biology. 

In Episode 38, Patrick and Ciprian speak with Mariia Mykhailova, Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft.The team discuss, Q#, perceived barriers, how to get started in Quantum Computing, and what kinds of problems could be solved with Quantum Computing in the future.Mariia Mykhailova is a principal software engineer at Azure Quantum, focusing on education and developer outreach. Mariia is the author and maintainer of the Quantum Katas project – an open-source collection of hands-on tutorials and exercises for learning quantum computing using Microsoft Quantum Development Kit, a part-time lecturer at Northeastern University, teaching an “Introduction to Quantum Computing” course, and the author of the O’Reilly book “Q# Pocket Guide”.