IEEE Quantum Week was held September 18-23, 2022, in Colorado, USA. If you had registered, your first observation would’ve been that there was more to see and hear than you could possibly have had time for. Because of its enormity, therefore, what follows is a brief snapshot of the conference.
Introductory Tutorials
Multiple sessions began with introductions to quantum computing. Based on some of the questions that were asked, this conference catered to attendees who seemingly had little-to-no prior knowledge of quantum computing.
Some of these tutorials promoted specific products. For example, QiskitBlocksis a free Minecraft-like game offering an introduction to quantum circuits. LibKet, on the other hand, was presented as a relatively-standard tutorial with a unique linear algebra twist. Most, if not all, of these tutorials, started from the absolute basics.
Presentation of Papers
The papers covered a wide range of topics. They were organized into sessions, during which several papers were presented sequentially. The titles and authors were revealed ahead of time, allowing attendees to optimize their schedules. Just a couple of examples included research into K-12 educationand noise amplification, but there must’ve been dozens more.
Quantum Discussion Panels
IEEE Quantum Week had its share of panels. If you follow the quantum technology industry at all, you would’ve noticed some big names participating. This was aided, presumably, by allowing at least some of the panellists to participate virtually.
Quantum Marketing Takes
Some presentations were outright marketing pitches, but that didn’t make them uninformative. For example, Q-CTRL provided insights into how their Fire Opal product works. Fire Opal is currently in beta. Perhaps you would’ve learned about lesser-known products such as Intel’s Quantum SDK. The Intel Quantum SDK is also currently in beta. These are but two examples, but many products seemed to be trying to carve out their own niches at the event, and the event was a time-efficient way to learn about many of them in one place.
Best in Show
Again, it would’ve been impossible to catch every session as an individual. From one attendee’s limited perspective, the most fun presentation was QiskitBlocks. As a game, you could argue it had an unfair advantage. And you might be right.
Regarding the biggest “wow” factor, noise amplification gets the nod. More research is needed into the topic, but the content offered a different approach to a common problem.
The key “take home” messages, though, came from the K-12 sessions. The future of quantum computing affects everyone who is in attendance, as well as everyone not in attendance, for that matter. So, while you may or may not be interested in this language or that library, we’re all interested in the future workforce and the next generation.
Conclusion
It’s hard to summarize IEEE Quantum Week 2022 because so many sessions overlapped. Even bouncing between sessions, you would’ve missed most of the conference. So, one of the key takeaways is that IEEE Quantum Week is an opportunity to learn about what’s out there in the quantum ecosystem.
You can discover who the speakers were and/or download the full program book, including abstracts of all the talks and tutorials, at https://ed.quantum.ieee.org/qseec-22/.