Public Lecture by Jeremy O'Brien

The Promise of Quantum Computing (and how we’re going to get there!)

A public lecture by Jeremy O’Brien, Co-founder and CEO, PsiQuantum and 2018 UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow.

Quantum computing promises to transform almost every aspect of our lives, society and economy. However, despite more than quarter of a century of effort, useful systems are yet to be realized. The challenge is that useful quantum computing requires ~1,000,000 qubits (to meet the demands of error correction). This challenge will only be met in the near term by harnessing the advanced manufacturing capabilities of the conventional silicon computer chip industry—one that has benefited from sustained investment of ~ $1tn over the past 50 years. In this public talk, Professor O'Brien will survey the proposed approaches for achieving this goal and show that silicon photonics stands out in making general purpose quantum computing achievable with conventional silicon processes.

Jeremy O’Brien is Co-founder and CEO of PsiQuantum. PsiQuantum is building a large-scale general-purpose silicon photonic quantum computer to solve the many important problems that will forever be beyond the capabilities of any conventional computer. Prior to founding the company, Jeremy was Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford and Bristol Universities, and Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. He has spent more than 20 years working towards scalable quantum computing, including: micro-, nano- and atomic-scale design, fabrication and operation of superconducting and semiconductor devices; design, construction and operation of cryogenic and ultra-high vacuum systems; design, construction and application of low-noise electrical measurement to organic-, super- and semi-conductor (nano)structures; and the theory of quantum computing.