Dr. Olivia Lanes from IBM Quantum Visits Applied Physics Undergrads

Applied Physics undergraduate majors meet during the Fall semester and engage faculty and scientists in lively discussions of timely topics in applied physics. This year's theme for the Applied Physics Undergraduate Seminar is Quantum Science and Technology. With next year being the "International Year of Quantum Science and Technology” and the campus-wide impact of Columbia Quantum Initiative, our students are delighted.

This week's seminar was presented by Dr. Olivia Lanes, Global Lead for IBM Quantum Learning and Education. Dr. Lanes spoke on the topic of "The Future of IBM Quantum: Pioneering the Next Era of Computing." IBM Quantum has been leading the transition of quantum computing from a research frontier to a practical technology. She described the current state of IBM Quantum, its strategic roadmap, and plans for the future of quantum hardware and software.  As the lead of IBM's Qiskit educational content, Dr. Lanes also discussed possible near-term application areas and provided students with a short overview of IBM's educational tools for anyone interested in joining the quantum ecosystem.

Other presenters in the weekly Applied Physics undergraduate seminar include Professors Mike Mauel, Aravind Devarakonda, Latha Venkataraman, Nanfang Yu, Physics Professor Sebastian Will, Mechanical Engineering Professor Jim Schuck, and Xueyue ("Sherry") Zhang who will join APAM full time in January 2025. Also presenting this semester are Dr. Yun Zhao, Columbia scientist working with Prof. Alex Gaeta, and Dr. David Smith, from University of Wisconsin - Madison, who will present recent work on entangled two-photon spectroscopy of fusion plasma.

In addition to learning the latest about exciting applied physics topics, the graduating seniors prepare end-of-semester research presentations. This year's student topics include "Quantum Chemical Simulation of Metal Hydrides for Cancer Treatment", "Superconductivity and BCS Theory", "Scanning Tunnelling Microscope-Break Junction Conductance Measurement", "Universal Quantum Computation with Magic States", "Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) to Probe Superfluid Density", "Physics of Quantum Dots and Applications in Nanoscale Computation", and "Quantum Machine Learning: Core Subroutines, Data Encoding Strategies, and Recent Advances."