CQT turns eight years old

Every year CQT marks its birthday with a scientific symposium. This year the Centre turned eight, and we celebrated with the help of Serge Massar from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and Stanley Williams from Hewlett Packard Laboratories, USA. They gave talks on "Quantum randomness" and "Computing beyond the Age of Moore's Law", respectively.

The symposium was held 7 December at the National University of Singapore and was open to schools, undergraduates and the general public. "This is part of our efforts to contribute to the research landscape but also to education and outreach," said CQT's Director Artur Ekert in his opening remarks.

Serge gave an introduction to how quantum randomness is different to the randomness we think we encounter in other aspects of life, such as in the weather: quantum randomness can be guaranteed to be unpredictable. Quantum randomness can be certified. This is useful in applications that need true randomness, such as simulations and cryptography.

Stanley looked to the future of computing, pointing out that Moore's Law, the projection that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every eighteen months, is coming to an end. He presented a vision for computers inspired by the operation of the brain, and for machines having specialised components for different kinds of calculation. He highlighted the recently launched US Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenge for Future Computing.

Visit our Facebook album for pictures from the symposium. We'll add links to videos of the talks when available. Find videos of other colloquia held at CQT on the Centre's YouTube channel at youtube.com/quantumblah.