EFFECTED USERS: Everyone

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SUMMARY: What you need to know about the quantum advantage available today, and what we can predict for tomorrow.

If you have not heard the term, “The Quantum Computing Advantage” you have now. Let me give an example:

In the 3-year period between 1878 to 1880, Thomas Alva Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand (3,000) different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. Getting materials to glow as they burned was easy, but to make a bulb that was practical to light a room in a house, the bulb had to last more than a few minutes. He tested the carbonized filaments of every plant imaginable, including baywood, boxwood, hickory, cedar, flax, and bamboo. He even contacted biologists who sent him plant fibers from places in the tropics. After months of labwork, he was able to get some of the 3,000 elements to glow, but they burned out in seconds.

Then, he started testing all of those elements in a vacuum, reasoning that eliminating oxygen would make the elements burn more slowly, but still the best he could do was get a bulb to burn for a few minutes. Eventually, after three years of trying, the incandescent light bulb was ready to be sold commercially.

Then in the 150 years later, the industry has gone through many other types of light bulbs, and today

Compressing that timescale is what Quantum computing, integrated with other elements like classic computers, AI, etc…

Here with me to discuss all of this today is Dr. Krysta Svore.

Dr. Svore Technical Fellow, Advanced Quantum Development at Microsoft. Among her many accolades and accomplishments, she: Received her Ph.D. with Highest Distinction in Computer Science from Columbia University, was named a “Fellow” of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Physical Society, and Business Insider’s Most Powerful Female Engineers of 2018.

• Welcome Dr. Svore.

1) I understand that you have been working on software for Quantum computers was able to find chemical compound in hours which would have taken years(?) of experimentation in chemical labs to produce the same result. Can you describe how that happened? And, what do you think that means for Chemists and the worldwide chemical industry?

2) Dr. Svore – You wrote a thesis on Quantum error correction back in 2006. On this podcast, we have talked about how the error rate of Quantum Computers needs to improve exponentially before Quantum can be used efficiently and at scale. Based on your work, has the industry reached the point that the error rate is no longer preventing Quantum Computing from be used efficiently and at scale?

3) Another major constraint for Quantum, like all computers, is its size. Can you explain – like you are talking to a classroom of high school freshmen – how adding one ‘Qubit’ in a Quantum computer is an exponential increase in computing power verses adding a bit of RAM to a traditional computer is merely a linear increase?

4) How does Microsoft’s announcement last month about breaking the logical-qubit creation record with Quantinuum affect how Quantum computing will be utilized commercially?

6) If you had to pick one or two other industries that will be dramatically affected by Quantum Computing similar to the chemical industry, which industries and why?

That’s all the time we have!

Thanks for listening.

OTHER RESOURCES

Dr. Svore’s Bio: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/ksvore/

Dr. Svore on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krysta_Svore

Dr. Svore’s Research: https://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Svore_K/0/1/0/all/0/1

Microsoft Quantum – Redmond (QuArC): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/group/microsoft-quantum-redmond-quarc/

SOURCES: https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/collection/edisons-lightbulb#:~:text=Edison%20decided%20to%20try%20a,and%20longer%20with%20each%20test.

https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb