Quantum Autumn School 2023
This October NordIQuEst co-organised the Quantum Autumn school together with EuroCC National Competence Centre Sweden (ENCCS) and the Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technologies (WACQT). The event saw researchers and members of industry take part in a 3-day hybrid event held in Gothenburg, Sweden. The participants were given an introduction to quantum computing and a look at the possible applications for quantum computers, as well as the opportunity to use real quantum computers of the NordIQuEst collaboration.
An introduction to Quantum Computing
The first day saw an introduction to Quantum Computing given by Senior Researcher Anton Frisk Kockum and Professor Göran Wendin. By the end of the first afternoon the participants were already writing their first quantum circuits using Qiskit!
Running on real hardware!
The second day saw an introduction to the NordIQuEst infrastructure with talks given by three NordIQuEsters: Mikael Johansson on HPC+QC integration, Miroslav Dobsicek on how to create a functioning quantum software stack, and Franz Fuchs on hybrid classical/quantum algorithms with an introduction to the Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (QAOA). The participants were also given the unique opportunity to access two quantum computers hosted by VTT: Helmi, a 5-qubit system and Leena, a 20-qubit system. Access was provided by CSC through their Notebooks cloud platform.
Social activities & a visit to QAL 9000
The evening of the second day the participants were invited to Chalmers University to visit the QAL 9000 quantum computer and take part in a PechaKucha style event. The participants presented their interests and their latest research, with plenty of debate and discussion!
Talks from industry
The third day saw talks from members of the Quantum computing industry with Roberto Di Remigio Eikås from Algorithmiq providing an introduction to the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and how to apply the algorithm to quantum chemistry problems. Björn Löfdahl from SEB gave a talk on use cases for quantum finance and insurance, with Ebba Carbonnier from Karolinska Institutet and Hanna Linn from Chalmers showing how quantum computing can be applied to life science problems. The afternoon saw the participants gets hands on with the knowledge they were just introduced to, with help from a team of enthusiastic assistants!
Event slides and recordings
The slides from the event can be found on the ENCCS lesson library.