Dr. Sophia Economou, Virginia Tech
Title: Adaptive quantum simulation algorithms
Abstract: Variational quantum eigensolvers (VQEs) constitute a class of hybrid quantum-classical simulation algorithms that are envisioned as possibly appropriate for noisy intermediate scale quantum processors. For VQEs to be useful, it is important to reduce the size of the ansatz and the number of required measurements. I will present our work addressing these issues with an ADAPT-VQE, adaptive, problem tailored approach to ansatz construction. I will also discuss recent work showing how the overhead can be lowered in ADAPT-VQE.
Biography: Sophia Economou is a Professor and the T. Marshall Hahn Chair in Physics at Virginia Tech. She is also the director of the Virginia Tech Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering. She focuses on theoretical research in quantum information science, including quantum computing, quantum communications, and quantum simulation algorithms.
Dr. Thomas Baker, UVic
Title: What a quantum computing algorithm for quantum chemistry must do
Abstract: Quantum computing offers a host of ways that new algorithms can be used to simulate quantum chemistry. But there are heavy challenges that would need to be overcome in order to implement them. One major challenge is finding a suitable algorithm itself. Another is implementing quantum error-correction so that a solution can be accurate. I review current progress in the field, why traditional quantum chemistry methods can be improved on, and how far we might be from actually implementing a useful quantum chemistry algorithm with the quantum computer.
Biography: Thomas E. Baker holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Quantum Computing for Modelling of Molecules and Materials in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and also the Department of Chemistry at the University of Victoria. He is also an affiliate member of the Centre for Advanced Materials and Related Technologies (CAMTEC) at the University of Victoria. His research is focused on the design and use of a quantum computer, with research methods and techniques spanning all areas of quantum computing. He is the lead-developer of the DMRjulia entanglement renormalization library. Prof. Baker is a member of the education committee for the NSERC CREATE program in Quantum Computing affiliated with Quantum BC. He is the Principal Investigator of the quantum photonics, algorithms, light-matter interactions for technology (QuALITy) collaboration at the University of Victoria.