Category: News

Last Wednesday, Quantum Hub had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Dr. Arthur Kolb, Vice President for Internationalisation and Equal Opportunities from Kempten University of Applied Sciences (Germany). Prof. Kolb showed great interest in our agenda and goals, particularly in the means and strategies we’re using to achieve them. He was especially curious about our two quantum computers. It sounds like Kempten might be diving into the quantum world soon too!

Last Tuesday, GoForIT hosted their annual conference. This year’s topic was AI, geopolitics & twin transition. It was a pleasure to see that the quantum agenda was included too. Clearly, Mali Hole Skogen, Technology and sustainability director ICT-Norway and the head of GoForIT, had not forgotten that she was there when Norway went quantum a couple of years ago.

There are good reasons for arguing that quantum technology will play a key role in the twin transition – the combined digital and green transition, which is anticipated by many. Therefore, it was with great enthusiasm we noticed that the program featured Alessandro Curioni, the director IBM Research in Zurich. You see him in to the left in the above picture – with the Norwegian IBM quantum ambassador Lars Nordbryhn to his left, and our own Shuakat Ali to the left of him.

A packed, attentive and tech-optimistic audience at the Sommero Hotel was explained how emerging quantum technology may change the world. The audience featured IT experts and management from both businesses and academia – in addition to politicians.

Afterwards, we also got to share some ideas with Alessandro on how to bring about quantum awareness in Norway.

Recently our faculty received funding from Ministry of Education and Research for 8 PhD positions. We are happy to announce that one of these will be allocated to a quantum-related topic. The project is lead by Kazi Shah Nawaz Ripon. We let him explain what it is about:

Quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms (QEAs) are a type of optimization tool that have gained popularity in recent years due to their ability to solve complex problems more efficiently than traditional methods. QEAs use principles from quantum mechanics, such as qubits, superposition, entanglement, interference, coherence, and measurement, to improve their performance. However, most existing QEA implementations are designed for specialized quantum hardware, which is inaccessible to general users. Moreover, while traditional QEAs are effective for solving single-objective problems, most real-world optimization problems involve multiple interdependent objectives. Therefore, our aim is to develop a novel multi-objective QEA specifically designed for classical computing environments so that industries can use it to optimize their operations more efficiently. Ultimately, the goal is to advance optimization methodologies and facilitate broader access to cutting-edge problem-solving techniques in academic and industrial settings.

Sunday April 21st employees at the Oslo Metropolitan University had a very nice opportunity to give the rest of their families an impression of what goes on at their workplace. A lot of people, both young and old, found their way to Pilestredet 35 (P35), where they got served muffins, buns, chocolate milk, coffee and 3D printed pancakes. They also got to play with lots of fun and advanced toys. Among the activities where

• playing Beat Saber with VR goggles,
• creating funky beats and loops – and have small robots play them,
• constructing and shipping off small, rubber band driven boats,
• climbing the high wall in P35,
• making customized stickers and buttons.

And, last but not least, the visitors got to play Quantum Moves and program our first quantum computer Hugin – under the attentive guidance of our own Quantum Hub and ACIT master student Suleman Hersi.

Chances are that our familiy members are left with the impression that we who work at OsloMet are actually payed play all day. On a good day, that impression isn’t all wrong, I guess.

Again, we thank the Makerspace for putting together a wonderful event.

Read more about it here:

https://ansatt.oslomet.no/en/siste-nytt/-/nyhet/familiedag-til-inspirasjon-for-store-og-sma