Survey Of Quantum Computation & Applications

Jennifer Chubb Reimann, University of San Francisco

Stevenson Hall 1300
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

The notion of quantum computing is older than you might think. In 1981, Richard Feynman put forth the idea that computers designed to exploit the principles of quantum physics should be fundamentally different and have more capabilities than classical computers. It was in 1994, when Peter Shor unveiled his algorithm for factoring numbers in polynomial time with a quantum computer that the subject attracted the attention of a large community of researchers. Since then, scores of computer scientists, mathematicians, and physicists have worked on developing the theories of quantum computing, information, logic, and cryptography, and research teams all over the world are racing to implement their discoveries. In this talk, we will survey the history and some applications of the subject, in addition to seeing something about what quantum computing is, and what makes quantum algorithms different from the programs we write every day for our classical machines.