Author: sergiyde

On Friday, September 19, school kids gathered at Deichman Holmlia where OsloMet’s Quantum Hub organized a research square — for the third year in a row.

Our Master’s and doctoral students invited their younger colleagues into the world of quantum physics. With simple examples intended to spark curiosity, they explained quantum physics using something as everyday as coins (funny but there are also quantum bills… perhaps they should be used next time at Homlia). High-school kids were also introduced to concepts such as “entanglement” and “quantum encryption”, and how this can be used to send messages even more securely than today.

Also read here and here.

On October 5, OsloMet’s Quantum Hub welcomed a delegation from the Universidad Central del Valle del Cauca (UCEVA, Columbia), that included Juan Carlos Urriago Fontal (Rector), and Diana Katherine González (Director of Internationalization), together with José David Patón-Romero from the Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering (SimulaMet).

OsloMet leadership, including Rector Christen Krogh, TKD Dean Laurence Habib, and Head of the Computer Science Department André Brodtkorb, attended the meeting. Our rector provided an overview of OsloMet’s activities, while we presented the Quantum Hub’s initiatives and achievements. It was a pleasure to see the genuine interest expressed by Dr. Fontal and Ms. González, and we look forward to collaboration!

Last week, we were visited by Anna Kramar from Tekna (short for Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig forening, English: Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals) that is a professional association with more than 110 000 scientists, technologists, and other graduate technical and scientific professionals in Norway.

It was inspiring to learn that Tekna also recognizes the need to enhance ‘quantum literacy’ and emphasize the significance of the upcoming Quantum Information Technology era.

We are excited to announce that we have agreed to organize a joint event at OsloMet in May, with the goal of highlighting the urgent need for Norway to advance in quantum technologies and join other countries that have already recognized their strategic importance.

The preparations are already underway!

During January and February, we enjoyed very productive visits (and stays!) from Pedro Ribeiro (University of Lisbon) and Lucas Sá (University of Cambridge).

We discussed the first experimental detection of “Donuts”—the distribution of complex spacing ratios, CSRs, for various quantum channels (see the theoretical plots below). Depending on symmetry and (non)integrability, quantum channels can display CSR distributions of different shapes, classified as “cake” (integrable case) and “bitten donuts” (the depth of the byte depends on the particular symmetry the channel obeys).

Just before the New Year, Kristian Wold, PhD candidate & member of the Quantum Hub, ran series of experiments on two different quantum computers (in Finland and China), leading to a pleasant surprise: Donuts and cake were detected!

On December 6, Are Magnus Bruaset, a member of the QH Hub and Adjunct Professor at OsloMet (and Research Director of Simula Lab), together with André Brodkorb, a founding member of the QH (and Head of the Department of Computer Science at OsloMet), provided input to the Research Council of Norway regarding the establishment of quantum technology centers.

They emphasized the importance of fostering innovation and collaboration to advance Norway’s position in the rapidly evolving field of quantum technology. Especially underlined was the need for interdisciplinary efforts to bridge academia and industry.

Also, specific suggestions were made: 5-10 million a year should be spent on access to cloud-based quantum resources, which can be advantageously managed through @Sigma2.

The remaining NOK 60-65 million provides the opportunity to establish 2-3 complementary centres for research on different aspects of quantum technology. Such centers should have a funding for 5 years, so that important expertise can be educated for a future quantum workforce. The centres should collaborate on outstanding quantum education and academic meeting places on a national scale.

The 3rd Krakow-Torun-Oslo workshop, “Beyond Quantum” (November 26–December 1), has now concluded. It was an intense brainstorming week (as always) where the main topic—What’s next?—was discussed. Holmenkollen and the weather provided the perfect conditions for day-long sessions, interspersed with coffee sips and lunch breaks.

The main topic this year was superchannels, quantum operations that map quantum channels onto quantum channels (where quantum channels, in turn, map quantum states onto quantum states). Perhaps the topic for next year’s workshop will be super-superchannels (metachannels?).

Professor Yves Rezus from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) joined the Quantum Hub last week for his one-year sabbatical. During his time, he will participate in various Quantum Hub activities, including outreach and teaching. Specifically, he will contribute to our course on Quantum Information Technology, which aligns perfectly with his efforts at the Hogeschool, where he is also establishing a practical course on Quantum Physics and Technologies. We anticipate many productive discussions on teaching strategies, methods, and approaches, enriched by his field experience!

Last but not least, as an expert in NMR technology, Yves can help to realize our dream to utilize our three-qubit machine as an experimental platform to explore NMR physics.