CQT hosts 'unconference' on quantum tomography

CQT experimented with the 'unconference' format last week for the Workshop on Quantum Tomography. Quantum tomography is the process of finding a complete or partial description of a quantum state or process through a series of measurements.

Around 50 researchers, more than half from overseas, registered for the international workshop. It was held 28 November–2 December in the informal setting of CQT's Quantum Cafe. One day of scheduled talks was followed by four days of small-group discussions organised by the participants themselves. The large whiteboard-walls of the Cafe served to advertise the programme as it took shape (pictured).

"We were aware we were doing something risky inviting people here and not giving them a programme, but it worked. The discussions were very focussed," says Berge Englert, one of the meeting's three local organisers. Berge is a CQT Principal Investigator and Professor at NUS. "If it's a measure of success, people want to do it again next year."

The two other local organisers were CQT Research Fellow Hui Khoon Ng (also of DSO National Laboratories) and Yong Siah Teo.

The Workshop on Quantum Tomography was the 11th international workshop or conference that the four-year-old CQT has helped to host in Singapore, and more meetings are coming to our quantum island in 2012. In January CQT will host the Quantum Discord Workshop, and the second edition of QCrypt, a conference on quantum cryptography, will take place in Singapore in September.