Gibbons Lectures | Searching for the quantum frontier

The world’s leading experimental quantum computing teams are racing to develop quantum processors that might have the capability to take the first steps into the ‘quantum frontier’.

It is hoped that these devices can perform some form of post-classical computation of a type that cannot be performed efficiently on a digital computer but can on a quantum computer – a direct, practical challenge to the extended Church-Turing Thesis.

Despite these advances, the construction of quantum processors that can achieve the full potential of quantum computing remains an extremely challenging task that fundamentally pushes the limits of physics, engineering, and computer science.

Knowing that classical computers are currently faster, have more stable memories, and can be highly parallelised: where exactly is the ‘quantum frontier’?

In this talk Professor Bremner will discuss how quantum advantage emerges from the subtle characteristics of problems where quantum interference can best be utilised, and why this makes building and developing applications for quantum computers such a difficult task.

Our Speaker | Professor Michael Bremner, Centre for Quantum Software and Information, University of Technology Sydney

Professor Michael Bremner is a professor of Software Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Centre for Quantum Software and Information and leads the UTS node of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T).

Michael joined UTS in 2012 as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in 2005.

Between 2005 and 2012 Michael held post-doctoral appointments with quantum computing teams at the Universities of Innsbruck, Bristol and Hannover.