I’m in Tokyo (!!!) for the 2017 Adiabatic Quantum Computing Conference!
Today is one of the most exciting days of my life! I know I say that kind of thing a lot, but I’ve always wanted to visit Tokyo. Now I’m in this amazing city, with the added bonus of an invite to the 2017 Adiabatic Quantum Computing Conference. Received, I might add, from the amazing Hidetoshi Nishimori (Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology). Adiabatic means without heat transfer, by the way.
This conference promises to be one of the best events in quantum computing, with presentations by so. many. geniuses. William Oliver (MIT Lincoln Lab), Yu Chen (Google), David Ferguson (Northrop Grumman), Seth Lloyd (MIT), Helmut G. Katzgraber (Texas A&M Univ., 1QBit, Santa Fe Inst.), Salvatore Mandrà (NASA Ames Research Center, SGT), and many others.
One of the things that caught my eye on the schedule was the number of women that will be speaking. Given my efforts to promote women in STEM with programs like the U.N.’s EQUALS initiative, I couldn’t be happier. In particular, I’m looking forward to:
- Barbara Terhal (RWTH Aachen University)–“The Power and Use of Stoquastic Hamiltonian”
- Elizabeth Crosson (Caltech)–“Ground State Geometry and the Energy Spectrum of Local Hamiltonians”
- Eleanor Rieffel’s (NASA Ames Research Center)–“Investigations of Quantum Heuristics for Optimization”
The session I most looking forward to overall is the panel Eleanor Rieffel will be moderating called “What Will be the Future Society With Quantum Computers?” This all-star panel will include Helmut Katzgraber, Daniel Lidar, Seth Lloyd, Norio Murakami, Hartmut Neven, and Paul Warburton.
I hope videos will be available later. If so, I’ll be sharing them here. Until then, I’m off to enjoy the first day. More to follow! Possibly with pictures of yummy Japanese food. Or not.
