Downtown Toronto Learning Night - Jan 21, 2016

1. Quantum Computing
A gentle-ish introduction!
Tony T. Tran
3/12/16 South Bay Learning Night

2. Who am I?

3. Warning!
• Quantum Mechanics is hard/weird/unintuitive!
• “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics”
(Richard Feynman)
• “Physics is really figuring out how to discover new things that are
counterintuitive, like quantum mechanics. It's really counterintuitive.”
(Elon Musk)
• “Quantum physics is a bit of a passion of mine. It's extraordinary. There's a
branch of mathematics that is based on lunacy, and that's wonderful.” (Bob
Hoskins)
• “OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!!!!”
(Tony Tran)

5. Classical Computers
• Bit string – The fundamental building blocks of a classical computer

6. Quantum Computers
• Quantum bit (qubit) - Fundamental building block of a quantum computer

7. Observing/Measuring a Qubit
0 or 1=+
Collapse of the state

8. Quantum Entanglement
Qubits can be entangled so that
they affect one another

9. Computation

10. So what is it good for?
• Cyber Security
 Most cryptographic protocols rely on integer factorization,
e.g., RSA-based public keys
 Relies on integer factorization being difficult
 No known classical algorithm that has polynomial complexity
(not easy)
• Shor’s Algorithm (Quantum)
 Finds prime factors for numbers in polynomial time (easy)
• A whole field of quantum cryptography exists!

11. Current State of
Quantum Computing
• No general quantum computer currently exists with a
practical number of qubits (~10 qubits)
D-Wave: Quantum Annealer
 1152 qubits (actually less)
 Anneal time: 20 microseconds
 15 millikelvin (colder than space)

12. Quantum Annealing
• Slowly let the system evolve over time so that it can search solutions
Adiabatic Quantum Computation

13. What do I do?
• Hybrid Quantum-Classical computing algorithms
Mars Lander Task Scheduling Satellite Resource Management

14. Come talk with me
after if you want to
get into more details!
Tony T. Tran