QSI Seminar Series

Alex Khan will go over a landscape of different quantum computing technologies, algorithms, use cases and near term quantum-inspired approaches that he has been involved in. He will discuss quantum annealer, gate-based quantum computing, superconducting, ion traps, neutral atom systems, heuristic solvers and simulators. On the use case side he will discuss Grover’s algorithm, Shor’s algorithm, QAOA and QML.

Host: Prof. Todd Pittman

Lights, camera… quantum! In this interactive seminar, we’ll take a fast-paced tour of the history and basic principles of quantum key distribution (QKD), one of the pioneering technologies that helped launch the field of quantum information science. Following a 10-minute overview, the audience will become active participants in an interactive live demonstration using a functional QKD demo system. We’ll divide into two teams—“Alice” and “Bob”—to generate a secret key in real time, experiencing firsthand how quantum physics makes eavesdropping detectable and secure communication possible. This unique format blends lecture, audience participation, and experiment to bring the promise of quantum cryptography directly into the QSI seminar hall.

Host: Todd Pittman

This talk will provide an overview of the evolution of quantum information education in the United States—from its historical foundations to the rapid expansion of quantum-focused degrees and coursework following the rise of quantum computing in the 1990s. We will review the history of quantum teaching at UMBC, including several current quantum information courses, and highlight new offerings and educational trajectories being developed with support from the Quantum Science Institute (QSI). The talk will conclude with brief presentations on newly created courses and modules by five faculty members: Deffner and Pittman in Physics, Mohammadisiahroudi and Webster in Mathematics and Statistics, and Lomonaco in CSEE.

Host: Todd Pittman

Quantum information theory has promoted the distinct features of quantum mechanics – such as superposition, the uncertainty principle, and quantum correlation and entanglement – from philosophical curiosities to practical resources for quantum information-processing protocols with promising advantages over their classical counterparts. On the other hand, since the early days, there have been significant efforts to better understand the perplexing quantum statistics as some sort of modification of classical statistics. A powerful tool in this direction is quasiprobability, a quantum analogue of classical phase-space distributions that can have nonpositive (i.e., negative and/or nonreal) values. A natural question arises whether these anomalous values of quasiprobability can be used to quantify the amount of resourcefulness of a quantum system. In my talk, I will discuss our recent attempts to use the nonpositive values of the Kirkwood-Dirac quasiprobability, and also a related concept of strange nonreal weak value, to characterize and quantify quantum coherence, asymmetry, genuine quantum uncertainty, bipartite nonclassical correlation and entanglement, and a notion of quantum speed limit of observable.

Host: Sebastian Deffner

With the advancement of our understanding of thermodynamics of non-equilibrium quantum processes, there has been an ever-increasing interest in utilizing quantum systems as media to generate, store, and extract work. Nevertheless, all these tasks require certain degree of control over the manipulated quantum systems, in order to minimize the effects of irreversibility due to fast driving or spoiling of quantum properties due to interaction with the environment, to name a few. In this talk, spanning a series of different works, we will first explore how to devise more efficient quantum control techniques in the context of manipulating quantum heat engine cycles. We will then address the topic of how we learned to stop worrying and love the finite-temperature baths when charging quantum batteries built from ensembles of qubits.

Host: Sebastian Deffner

Abstract TBD

Host: Jason Kestner

Abstract TBD

Host: Matthew Pelton