We are pleased to see that the Kode24, and online magazine for developers, has taken an interest for quantum computing – again. Under the heading “Hva er greia med …” [What’s the deal with …], this interview, conducted by journalist Kurt Lekanger, introduces a few of the basics.
On Thursday 21st of September OsloMet’s QuntumHub and DQUANT hosted an introductory quantum science event called QuantumHub day – a free and open event for everyone!
The event is aimed to spark interest and educate people about arguably one of the most disruptive and influential technologies known to date.
Here, attendees were introduced to the quantum science field and got the chance to try Norway’s first quantum computers! Furthermore, the event included the experience of quantum dynamics at close range and the possibility to play Quantum Moves with wave functions. During the event, attendees were rewarded a free QuantumHub t-shirt.
QuntumHub day was an insightful and inspiring event which was met with good feedback and left new people interested and hopefully more knowledgeable in the field of Quantum mechanics and computing.
As a part of our contributions to this year’s Forskningsdagene, the OsloMet Quantum Hub had the pleasure of contributing to OsloMet’s actitiveis at Holmlia. The Makerspace at our faculty was responsible for making Ungforsk happen – with an very interesting program put together to spur the curiosity of youth school pupils. Indeed an impressive job planning, announcing and implementing. Kudos to Notto Thelle, Kersti Fosse Blålid – and all other colleges and voluenteers involved. Read more about what went on at Ungforsk here:
https://www.oslomet.no/om/nyheter/ungforsk-2023
Slightly younger pupils were invited to a mini-Forskningstorg where one of the stands was dedicated to introducing them to quantum technology. Thanks, Aleksandar Davidov, Bendik Dalen and Kristian Wold, for your efforts!
The events took place 20th and 21st of September. A total of 400 pupils got a glimpse of quantum technology – first and foremost through playing Quantum Moves – a game developed at Aarhus University addressing quantum control and adiabatic quantum computing. Actually, the game is surprisingly addictive …
Olav-Johan Øye has, under the heading student stories, written a nice piece about Maryam and her work at Ruter – the public company that organizes public transport in the Oslo region.
Her work involves both quantum and AI technology. Read all about it here:
Maryam helps a public transport company to get ahead of technological development
On Thursday 21st of September OsloMet will host a QuantumHub day. The doors will open at 16 and you are invited to check out the event at Pilestredet 35 (by Holberg plass), rooms: PI447, PI451 and PI460. During the event there will be the possibility to:
The event starts with a short introduction seminar at 16.00, but feel free to join at any time. The event ends at 18.
Friday 8th of september, Diedrik Leijenaar Oksens finished his master project entitled Constructing Quantum Gates Using
Optimization Techniques.
In his work Diedrik started out with a model with two interacting qubits in the form of spin 1/2-particles exposed to the same, dynamic magnetic field. The first aim was to tailor this field so that we could construct specific quantum gates. The next part, the harder one, was to introduce noise and see if we could mitigate this noise by adjusting the magnetic field. The answer to this question was, unfortunately, nah.
Diedrik’s project included the development of a rather advanced MATLAB implementation. Not only did he solve a complex and highly non-convex optimization problem, he also did so by for cost landscapes for which each point required the repeated solution of dynamical equations. Here is one illustration of such a landscape:
This, in turn, involved both the “traditional” Schrödinger equation and the more involved Lindblad equation, the latter for introducing non-reversible noise mechanisms.
The fact that this implementation, in the end, is quite generic – and relies on rather abstract theoretical concepts, renders his work even more impressive.
As I am sure this very text reflects, we, his advisors, are quite proud of Diedrik’s acheivements.
For the next one, we’ll have to see if we can find other ways of mitigating decoherence …
At JavaZone last week, according to themselves the biggest European community-driven conference for modern developers, Andreas Ahlgren – among others – gave a thrilling presentation on quantum computing and its possibilities. Andreas, our hub’s “partner in quantum”, one of the international leaders of Sopra Steria’s quantum initiative (among other things). In his presentation he got to demonstrate his impressive skills when it comes to “thinking outside the box”, unhindered by limitations of imagination.
Here you can see his presentation entitled Quantummania – an unexpected journey.
You can read more about Andreas and his quantum interest at this Kode24 article:
Quantum Hub member A. Laestadius was together with Prof. M. Herbst (EPFL Lausanne) invited for a two-week research in pair visit at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO) in Germany at the end of August 2023. During the stay similarities of numerical and analytical approaches to Kohn-Sham inversion were explored. The forward Kohn-Sham method is an extremely popular approach in quantum chemistry, and its inverse version allows for mathematical studies of importance for the forward scheme.
This spring we had the pleasure of finally putting our quantum computers, if not on a pedestal, at least in a dedicated room. The room, PS340 in Pilestredet 35, also fits a few people, a nice screen and a small “quantum library”. Read more about it in this nice piece by Olav-Johan Øye:
https://ezb.oslomet.no/en/about/news/the-quantum-computers-get-their-own-lab
Wednesday 16th of August, we had the pleasure of welcoming the newly appointed minister of research and higher education, Sandra Borch, at OsloMet. Our rector, Christen Krogh, guided her on a tour around our Oslo campus – at tour that involved an encounter with our quantum computer Hugin. Our dean, Laurance Habib, and Sølve Selstø assisted our rector in explaining why quantum computing – education within quantum computing, in particular – is important.
Our minister listened with interest and asked several relevant questions – strongly suggesting that our message got through.
In addition to the Munin you see, from right to left, Henriette Bøe, leader of the student parliament, Sandra Borch, Christen Krogh, our rector, and Sølve Selstø.
