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Workshop on Rivals to Quantum Computing

Pittsburgh skyline

May 21-23, 2025

Register Now! 

This workshop follows the prior Workshop on Analog physics-based computing in August of 2020, also sponsored by the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute.  For the full videos of that meeting (all-online during Covid lockdown), see this link. The topics of that meeting have been expanded for the present meeting as described below. We expect this to be a lively meeting in which we discuss what can and cannot be done without a general-purpose quantum computer. 

In addition, before the meeting, also in Pittsburgh, will be a Two-Day Tutorial on Tensor Network Methods on May 19-20, led by Juan José Mendoza Arenas of the University of Pittsburgh. More information on the tutorial is available here.

Researchers interested in giving a contributed talk may submit a 1-page PDF abstract to communication@pqi.org

Topics of the Workshop:

Analog computational methods. It can be proven that no classical computer, whether digital or analog, can beat a fully quantum computer in the limit of N→∞, where N is the number of processed bits. However, as extensively discussed at the 2020 workshop, an analog system can potentially rival a quantum computer on NP-hard problems when N is large but not infinite.

Quantum simulators. These systems are defined as ones in which quantum mechanics plays a crucial role, such that they cannot be described as classical, but they are designed to solve just one class of problems instead of being a general quantum computer.

Quantum-inspired digital algorithms. Many classes of problems that relate to the real world involve a truncation of the whole information of a many-body wave function. Therefore it can be possible to use classical digital computers to solve some of the same problems originally addressed by quantum computing algorithms.

Confirmed speakers giving invited review talks, to date:

  • Johan Åkerman, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Natalia Berloff, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Kerem Camsari, University of California at Santa Barbera, USA
  • Nir Davidson, Weizmann Institute, Israel
  • Hiroki Takesue, NTT Laboratories, Japan
  • Alexander Lvovsky, Oxford University and Lumai, UK
  • Kosuke Tatsumura, Toshiba, Japan
  • Miles Stoudenmire, Flatiron Institute, USA

Registration:

The registration form for this workshop is available above. Registration is free for students and faculty of PQI-affiliated institutions.  Registration for others is $100 for students and $250 for senior researchers. There is no extra charge for the Tutorial on May 19 & 20.

Travel arrangements:

Attendees traveling to Pittsburgh by commercial air flight should book to Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).  There is an inexpensive direct city bus line to the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, where the meeting will be held, which takes about 45 minutes. Alternatively, Uber or Lyft cost about $50 and take about 30 minutes to Oakland from the airport, depending on traffic. 
The venue will be the Cathedral of Learning of the University of Pittsburgh. Hotels nearest to the venue are the Mariott Courtyard University Center, the Oaklander Hotel, and the Hilton Garden Inn University Place 

Organizing committee:

  • David Snoke, University of Pittsburgh (Chair)
  • Natalia Berloff, University of Cambridge
  • Pedram Khalili, Northwestern University
  • Vincent Liu, University of Pittsburgh
  • Juan José Mendoza Arenas, University of Pittsburgh