Quantum Computers: Where We Are and Where We’re Going

PRESS RELEASE

                                                             

                                                                                     July 2, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:

Cosette Ratliff, Supervising Librarian

510-747-7716

 

 

Quantum Computers: Where We Are and Where We’re Going

 

Social Science, a partnership of the Alameda Free Library and Wonderfest, is proud to present Dr. Norman Yao, Associate Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley, at the Main Library, 1550 Oak Street, on Sunday, July 29, at 2:00 pm.

 

In recent years, there has been a dramatic worldwide increase in scientific research toward — as well as financial investment in — the development of a quantum computer: a computational machine whose inner workings are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. These tremendous efforts are motivated, in part, by the promise that quantum computers can perform tasks unthinkable for a classical computer. For example, to factor a 300 digit number on a 1THz quantum computer would take approximately 1 second. The same task on a 1THz classical computer would take nearly 150,000 years!

 

UC Berkeley’s Norman Yao will present a broad overview on the status of current efforts toward building a quantum computer. Then, he will give a vision for the first types of algorithms and simulations that might naturally be performed on a near-term quantum computer.

 

Everyone is welcome to this free event and no registration is necessary. Bring your thinking caps!

 

More information on Dr. Yao may be found at http://physics.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/norman-yao. More information on Wonderfest may be found at www.wonderfest.org.

 

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