What We’ve Done
Quantum Pathways Night
The Association with QFarm held the first Quantum Pathways Night where undergraduate and graduate students were able to move between online booths representing 4 different quantum pathways. Professors across departments along with Stanford students answered questions about Stanford resources, research, opportunities and courses related to the Quantum Pathways. View the slide deck, including the resources for reach pathway, here!
Stanford Yale Speaker Series: Professor Steve Girvin, Yale
Quantum Computing Reading Group: GordonMatinez-Piedra
During Stanford’s quantum computing reading group, a student presents on a paper related to quantum computing and then participants discuss it as a group afterwards. This week Gordon presented on quantum computing applied to computer networks and communications whose link can be found here!
INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM COMPUTING TALK
We gave a beginner-friendly talk going over the basics of quantum computing and its applications, as well as various career paths for different majors and how to get involved. Find the recording here!
Quantum Computing Reading Group: Zhiyomh Zhang
During Stanford’s quantum computing reading group, a student presents on a paper related to quantum computing and then participants discuss it as a group afterwards. This week Zhiyong presented on her own quantum algorithm that finds solutions to the lowest eigenstates of a Hamiltonian whose link can be found here!
Quantum conversations
The Stanford Quantum Computing Association helped moderate the year’s first monthly Quantum Conversation with Alexy Khrabrov, featuring Brett Koonce and Mark Kasevich! We discussed some introductory tenets of quantum mechanics, current implementations of quantum computing frameworks, fabrication techniques, and tangential questions in physics that demonstrate similarity between quantum computing and other condensed matter research. View the slide deck here!
Quantum Computing Reading Group: Akshay Malhotra
During Stanford’s quantum computing reading group, a student presents on a paper related to quantum computing and then participants discuss it as a group afterwards. This week Akshay presented on quantum computing in finance whose link can be found here!
Stanford Winter Quarter Welcome Event
The Stanford Quantum Computing Association held our Winter Quarter Welcome Event! We talked about all the new initiatives and events the Association plans to hold this quarter, opportunities to join the leadership team and more quantum computing opportunities, including Stanford's first Quantum Hackathon, Quantum Open Source Projects, and more! View the slide deck here!
2020
Stanford Quantum Chess Tournament - Fall 2020
The Association holds Stanford’s first Quantum Chess Tournament! Students from Stanford, Berkeley and other universities received a tutorial on how to play a quantum rendition of classical chess for an intercollegiate competition. After 3 weeks, the Championship Game was between James Chen from Berkeley and Stanley Cao from Stanford, where James Chen won the Championship Match!
Quantum Ecosystem Talk with IonQ and OneQuantum
The Association hosted Denise Ruffner from IonQ and Andre Konig from OneQuantum who discussed the current Quantum Computing Ecosystem. Ruffner and Konig host Quantum World Detangled where they create a Quantum Computing community.
To view the data from the presentation, click here!
Quantum Computing Reading Group: Kejun (BEN) XU
During Stanford’s quantum computing reading group, a student presents on a paper related to quantum computing and then participants discuss it as a group afterwards. This week Ben presented on the experimental progress of Majorana fermions whose link can be found here!
Post Supremacy Talk with Google AI Quantum
The Association and Berkeley Quantum host Bill Huggins, a quantum engineer at Google Quantum AI! Huggins talked with students about Google’s AI Quantum post supremacy quantum computing work
Quantum Conversations: Tequila
Quantum Conversations and the Stanford Quantum Computing Association cohosted Alba Cervera who talked on Designing Variational Quantum Algorithms with Tequila!
View the Youtube recording here!
Quantum Computing Reading Group: Matthew Radzihovsky
During Stanford’s quantum computing reading group, a student presents on a paper related to quantum computing and then participants discuss it as a group afterwards. This week Matthew presented on the 1-D topological Majorana qubit whos link can be found here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1293
Industry Talk with Atom Computing
The Association hosted Mickey McDonald, a quantum engineer at Atom Computing. McDonald is an experimental physicists who received his PhD on ultracold molecules at Columbia and talked about Atom Computing’s Quantum Computing work!
Quantum Computing Reading Group: Gordon Martinez-Piedra
The inaugural meeting of the quantum computing reading group where a student presents on a paper related to quantum computing and then participants discuss it as a group afterwards. This week Gordon presented on a review paper on Quantum Algorithms whose link can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/npjqi201523.pdf
Quantum Computing Bootcamp Welcome Event
Stanford students joined the Association’s Welcome Event for Stanford’s first Quantum Computing Bootcamp with IBM! Students learned about the program, schedule, assignments, and potential office hours with IBM Engineers!
View the resources for the quantum computing bootcamp here!
Talk with Head of Algorithms from QCWare
The Association hosted Iordanis Kerenidis, the Head of Quantum Algorithms International from QCWare! Iordanis spoke about designing quantum algorithms for machine learning and optimization with provable speedups.
FALL Quarter Welcome to SQCA Event
The new SQCA Leadership team gave an overview of the club, introduced the new team, and shared information about our new events and initiatives for the quarter! Students learned about quantum computing projects, workshops, talks, and other events facilitated by the Stanford QCA, as well as ways to get involved in the club.
View the presentation slide deck here!
Quantum industry panel
This panel included an engineer, researcher and manager at Google, Microsoft, and IBM working on quantum computing. We learned what these companies are working on, where they think quantum computing is heading and what skills they are looking for in their quantum computing teams now and in the future.
View the presentation slide deck from Jimmy Chen from Google AI Quantum here and the slide deck from Scott Crowder from IBM Quantum here!
TENSOR NETWORK WORKSHOP WITH GOOGLE X
More than 100 people attended X’s, The Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X) two hour virtual session for people looking to get up to speed with tensor networks, a powerful data structure for the optimization of high dimensional datasets in quantum systems and machine learning.
Review the resources and virtual session here!
LUNCH WITH PROF. Kathryn moler
Stanford Quantum Computing Association hosted a lunch with students and Prof. Kathryn Moler, Vice Provost and Dean of Research and Professor of Applied Physics & Physics. Students asked engaging questions on Prof. Moler’s research and administrative role.
GOOGLE X TALKS ABOUT QUANTUM TECHNOLOGIES
Jack Hidary of Alphabet's X (formerly Google X) updated us on current quantum technology (computing/sensing/communications) approaches in the NISQ regime and outlined his group's work with tensor networks and machine learning.
Industry Lunch with QCWare's CEO and Head of Chemistry Simulations
QCWare is a quantum computing startup, focusing on enterprise solutions, based in Palo Alto. They host the annual Quantum for Business conference.
Participants enjoyed a free lunch with the CEO of QCWare, Matt Johnson and the Head of Chemistry Simulations, Robbert Parrish.
View the presentation slide deck here!
Introduction to quantum computing talk
Jessica Pointing gave a talk on quantum computing: introducing its potential applications, a taste of how it works and how much progress has been made in the field. Participants enjoyed pizza and doughnuts after the talk!
JOURNAL CLUB
Students discussed John Preskill’s paper “Quantum computing in the NISQ era and beyond” over lunch. Everyone had something to say and contributed to the discussion.
LUNCH WITH PROF. VEDIKA KHEMANI
Stanford Quantum Computing Association hosted a lunch with students and Prof. Vedika Khemani of the Physics Department. Students asked engaging questions on Vedika’s research and for her career advices.
meet and greet at joe and the juice
Students enjoyed free food and juice at Joe and the Juice, Palo Alto to discuss about quantum computing
mentorship coffee chats
Members of the Stanford Quantum Computing Association are matched up to receive mentorship or to mentor over free coffee, snack or meal provided by us.
quantum computing project with ibm
The Stanford Quantum Computing Association, along with SystemX partnered with the CS210 course (Software Project Experience with Corporate Partners) at Stanford to bring a quantum computing project, sponsored by IBM, to the course.
2019
Dinner with google quantum team
Students enjoyed a free dinner at Local Union 271 in Palo Alto with a couple of engineers from the Google Quantum Team, including the speaker of the Google Quantum Supremacy Talk we hosted in November.
Quantum Supremacy talk with google
Jimmy Chen, a Quantum Electronics Engineer, from the Quantum hardware team at Google, Santa Barbara gave a talk on Google’s recent results of quantum supremacy.
Quantum programming workshop with microsoft
An engineer from Microsoft showed students how to use Microsoft’s quantum development tool called Q#. Participants enjoyed free pizza.
industry Lunch with will zeng
Students enjoyed a lunch with William Zeng, who formerly worked with Rigetti as a product lead for building and launching Rigetti's quantum cloud service on top of its superconducting QPUs and the forest quantum programming toolkit. Learn more about Will Zeng at http://willzeng.com/
Quantum neural network talk
Peter McMahon and Logan Wright, postdocs at Stanford, gave a talk on Quantum Neural Networks, which was published later.
Field trip to quantum computing startup, rigetti
We hired a bus and drove twenty Stanford students to a quantum computing startup called Rigetti based in Berkeley. There, the students had the opportunity to see a real quantum computer and meet quantum engineers.
quantum programming workshop with jessica pointing
Students learned the foundations of quantum computing and took that knowledge to code programs on a quantum computer by Jessica Pointing.
Social Event at salt and straw
Participants enjoyed free ice cream from Salt and Straw, a popular ice cream shop on University avenue in Palo Alto whilst conversing with their peers about Quantum Computing.
Field trip to quantum computing startup, PSi quantum
Students enjoyed a field trip to a quantum computing startup, called Psi Quantum, in Palo Alto. Psi Quantum is building a quantum computer and the software for it. Participants got get an exclusive tour of the hardware and met with quantum engineers.
LUNCH with professor monika schleier-smith
Students enjoyed lunch with Professor Monika Schleier-Smith, a physicist active in quantum computing hardware, along with other students for a free lunch and discussion.
LUNCH with professor patrick hayden
Throughout the quarter, we have organized multiple lunches with quantum computing experts. Students enjoy free lunch from restaurants in Palo Alto whilst discussing quantum computing with experts, including Professors, such as Professor Patrick Hayden and Professor Monika Schleier-Smith, as well as industry experts, such as Will Zeng.
Quantum Programming workshop with rigetti
Amy Brown from Rigetti taught students how to program on a quantum computer for roughly 2 hours. Afterwards, the participants enjoyed free dinner from Oren’s Hummus.
View the presentation slide deck from Amy Brown here!