How I Became A Quantum Computing Researcher | physics, code & startups

I've been in quantum computing for 12 years now!

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My undergraduate research was in quantum optics and quantum information lab. We were doing long distance quantum communication and trying to increase the coherence time (the length of time the quantum information could be stored), in neutral atoms, in our case, Rubidium.

1. Worked on neutral atom quantum memories. What we worked on was trying to increase the length of coherence time, the time the quantum information was stored. From the time I started to the time I left, we had increased the time from 10 microseconds to over 1 second. This is a HUGE amount of time in quantum information.

2. Could we preserve quantum information while transitioning photons to different wavelengths? These photons, used as the store of quantum information, would travel long distances through fiber optics. These fiber options are optimized for a certain wavelength - around 1200 nm. Unfortunately the photon we created was at about 800 nm. Turns out, yes!

3. I set up the lab from scratch. I designed this ultra high vacuum system. In contrast to superconducting qubits which are cooled inside cryostats to 10 mK, neutral atoms were cooled in ultra high vacuum systems and shooting lasers at the atoms to slow them down further and trap them

I ended up getting hired by a quantum computing startup, Rigetti Quantum Computing as a really early stage employee and being moved out from Maryland to California. They had just graduated from YCombinator, they had three employees at the time. I had been considering working on trapped ions in graduate school since they were similar to the neutral atom work I've done. When I was at University of Maryland Joint Quantum Institute for graduate school, I talked a bit to the professor who started the company IonQ, Chris Monroe. They did ion traps, more similar to neutral atoms that I had done. So superconducting qubits was new territory for me. However, I also was able to do business and science and engineering, all at once. But then I left there as well.

So now, I'm doing a lot of coding, mostly in Go, some Python, plus working with superconducting qubits still. Bleximo, which means entanglement, is working on building "quantum accelerators" quantum-based, application-specific integrated circuits. These quantum accelerators will run in parallel with classical computers, and attack problems in the near term - algorithms that require less qubits, like simulating the structure and properties of molecules and chemical reactions.

I got to travel to Switzerland and Japan for IBM Qiskit Camp. I got 2nd place in IBM's Europe Qiskit Camp for work in improving performance of Qiskit, and 1st place in IBM's Asia Qiskit Camp for designing a pulse level programming language for quantum computing.

Should you study physics or computer science?

If you're in school and thinking of majoring in physics or computer science and are interested in quantum computing, I think that studying physics never hurts!

Now, Silicon Valley LOVES hiring physicists to be software engineers, so if you decide you don't want to do research, that's an option. There are so many startups that have popped up the last 5 years doing quantum technology, and a lot of larger companies are spinning up quantum computing groups. You can also work in software engineering. In the end, physics teaches you to think critically and be able to model a complex system. That's useful everywhere and has always helped me in whatever job I wanted to do. I do regret not taking more Computer Science courses though!!

If you're not in school anymore, there's so much material online. There are multiple quantum computers on the cloud that you can run experiments on. Read books! Check out online courses. Code on these cloud platforms. .

Best Quantum Computing Courses:    • Best Quantum Computing Courses from E...  
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Qiskit Camp Vlog:    • Quantum Computing Hackathon in Switze...  
Qiskit Camp Asia: https://www.amarchenkova.com/2019/11/...
Qiskit Camp Europe: https://www.amarchenkova.com/2019/11/...
Bleximo: www.bleximo.com

0:00 My journey
0:21 Growing up, High School & Robotics
1:41 College & Picking a Major
4:11 Undergraduate quantum research
6:01 Detour to start a company
8:02 Graduate School
9:16 Quantum startups, software engineering, and Silicon Valley
10:55 Bleximo
11:14 Qiskit Camps
12:11 Why Physics and tips for quantum enthusiasts

#dayinthelife #physicist #scientist