UW Quantum Summer School Hosts Leading Experts

The University of Wyoming Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering (C-QISE) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted Quantum Summer School June 1-3, bringing together physics and computing researchers from across the country to hear from leading experts in quantum information science and engineering.

The conference is supported by a National Science Foundation ExpandQISE grant and was organized by Department of Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Alexander Petrović and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Hasan Iqbal.

“This year, we predominantly invited scientists and engineers whose interests and expertise are closely aligned with active C-QISE research areas. In this way, our students and faculty were able to make direct links between the presented material and their own projects,” Petrović says. “This led to plenty of lively debate with the speakers, both during and after their talks.”

Topics of discussion included quantum computing -- including new materials for superconducting qubits, decoherence mitigation and material simulations on NISQ hardware -- spin topology, emergent electrodynamics, transport phenomena in noncollinear quantum magnets, topological quantum computation and quantum cryptography.

The 74 attendees included community college, undergraduate and graduate students; postdoctoral researchers; research scientists; faculty members; a high school student; and several scientifically curious members of the public. 

Students mainly came from universities and colleges across Wyoming and Colorado, with one motivated undergraduate even flying in from South Carolina. Petrović called it “an encouraging sign of the rising profile of C-QISE on a national stage.”

Conference attendees not only benefited from formal presentations on cutting-edge developments in the field but also were invited to tour UW’s state-of-the-art research labs, as well as to take advantage of informal opportunities to learn and collaborate.

“It was the best conference I have ever attended,” says one graduate student who had been to multiple conferences on the subject, including focus sessions at the American Physical Society’s March meeting. “I got the most out of this one.”

Guest speakers included William Oliver, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lara Faoro, Lev Ioffe and Ashley Huff, of Google Quantum AI; Takashi Kurumaji, of Caltech; Shi-Zeng Lin, of Los Alamos National Laboratory; Eric Samperton, of Purdue University; and Walter Krawec, of the University of Connecticut.

Jifa Tian, the director of C-QISE, thanks UW President Ed Seidel, Vice President for Research and Economic Development Parag Chitnis and College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Interim Dean Danny Dale for their remarks and active engagement at the conference.

For more information, see www.uwyo.edu/physics/quantum-summer-school.html.