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Need a little inspiration to make it out of 2020 and into 2021? Weve been asking data scientists, video game designers, engineers, doctors, students and startup founders all year where they find theirs.

Weve read more than enough about what has bummed us out over the past year. It might seem difficult to find something or someone that will make things look better or provide a motivating force in the coming months.

But our 2020 Geeks of the Week are inspired by the people they work with, the kids they care for, the stuff they read, the places theyve seen and much more.

Click the names of each to go back to the full Geek of the Week profile for that individual. And dont forget tofill out our questionnairein the new year if you want to be considered.

Keep reading for the answers to our weekly question, Where do you find your inspiration?

I hold the somewhat silly belief that true inspiration only comes from the subconscious, and dreams are the clearest window into it. I dont know about you, but I dont have a lot of product or engineering dreams though, so I have to work a little harder to find it.

Nothing beats finding people who are good at what they do, watching them do it, and thinking, Thats amazing. I bet I could do it better. This is really obvious for music (go to shows), but a little more difficult to emulate in a professional environment. Following smart people on LinkedIn/Twitter is a good start though.

I find inspiration in the people I work with every day not only at LevelTen, where folks have dedicated themselves to making renewable energy investment more efficient and impactful, but also the project developers who are the boots-on-the-ground building wind and solar projects across the globe. I love the days when a developer will send us photos of one of our clients projects in-construction. Knowing that we played a part in getting the wind or solar project built is one of the best feelings.

Education is a long game. Sometimes we never know or see the impacts of our work. But if you stay in the field long enough, youll often hear from former students or teachers who share with you how your efforts made a difference. Thats the best feeling in the world to be able to be of service to someone else as they find their own path in life.

When I was a high school teacher in the 1990s, I participated in the Fred Hutch teacher program I now direct (the Science Education Partnership, SEP). The program was transformative for my own career so Im delighted to be able to help other teachers have similar experiences.

Our greatest gifts, teachers, and access to a fuller life, consistently lives beyond what is comfortable. Finding comfort within discomfort is a muscle that can be cultivated, but we can also dive right in. Either way, not only will we be OK, well thrive and feel so much more alive.

I find inspiration everywhere. I love looking at data science articles about cross industry and cross field applications. The hardest skill to learn or have as a data scientist is creativity. By staying active and following podcasts, reading, and learning new skills you help to build your creativity through mental flexibility.

I come up with a lot of ideas on flights. I have a difficult time reading or watching movies without getting motion sickness and my brain kicks into overdrive due a false positive signal of being in danger. Unable to sleep, or consume media, all thats left to do is take stock of my current position and consider possible paths forward.

In my free time, when the weather allows, I hike. Hiking is a great reminder that were all capable of accomplishing daunting feats. When I do feel overwhelmed with the tasks Ive set before myself, I remind myself how far my legs can carry me. Even if its hard, even if I must stop and breathe, I can accomplish my goals if I just put one foot in front of the other.

I dont really know if there is a single source of inspiration. It can come from many sources: my colleagues, our customers, or my family. At times, I am inspired because I notice an opportunity where a scientific solution can have a long-term impact. At other times, I am seized by a complex problem where I know we need a better solution.

The journey of learning and discovery when creating things or thinking about creating things keeps me inspired. Even more so, having friends across the creative spectrum, making things from exotic furniture to category-defining software keeps me motivated to do my best work.

Seeing the impact that I can have making somebodys day better, or taking something off their plate so they can focus on their job. I put a lot into my job but I get so much more back from seeing the value that I bring in helping people, being positive.

Im inspired by the notion that if nothing is done, and if its not done fast, we wont have much to pass on to the next generation. That everything we do today has an effect tomorrow and how we drastically need to improve what we do today.

I am surrounded by interesting and beautiful people in my life and my work. Their ideas, good will, kindness and generosity inspire me every day.

For my 16th birthday, my dad bought me a 6-pack of Tony Robbins CDs, so I suppose I started there. In college, I loved to learn about how PNW leaders built their careers and their companies so Id watch documentaries or read biographies on folks like Bill Gates or Howard Schultz. As Ive gotten older, however, I realize now that my early inspiration truly did come from my parents, as it does for most.

I actually remember as a young girl going to my moms office with her and Id sleep under her desk as she worked late. I didnt mind, I loved watching her in her element while I colored and would sneak into the presidents corner office to spin in his chair, dreaming.

And now, I draw so much energy from the folks who choose to work with Lions+Tigers. Im just in awe of their work, their energy and what they bring to our community. It makes everything so fulfilling.

Helping to develop technologies that will either take advantage of resources off-planet and therefore give Earth some relief, or that will help us treat our planet better is my vocation.

There are a lot of people on Earth, and we along with all the trillions of organisms with which we coexist are beginning to give our biosphere some significant growing pains. If we want to exist for another thousand (let alone another hundred) years we need to look outward for resources, space (no pun intended), and knowledge.

Finally, the poetic nature of working with technologies that are operating where only a choice few humans have gone before is exciting to me. Its humbling and empowering to be able to say, I tell satellites what to do!'

It may sound clich, but I really am inspired by how incredible our world is and of course, especially sea ice and the ocean. A small example: did you know flowers can grow on sea ice? Okay, theyre not normal flowers, but under certain conditions sea ice can form what are called frost flowers. They are beautiful, delicate structures made of ice filaments, and super salty. There are so many little things to get excited about.

Many places. But here are two: My brother Hayden, who spins poi balls, which is a flow art. Hes three years younger than I am and he started going to spin jams and flow festivals (think mini-Burning Man) and spinning fire when he was only 9 years old. There was no one else there his age. By doing this he showed me that it would also be possible for me to fit into a community of mostly adults. This inspired me and gave me the confidence to start going to hackathons and doing that has created so many opportunities for me.

Also, Marcus Yallow (a.k.a. w1n5t0n), the high-school-aged hacker from the books Little Brother and Homeland by Cory Doctorow.

My inspiration comes from the gap between what is and what can be. Its one of the most important things that I picked up from Bill and Melinda Gates during the time that I worked at the Gates Foundation. Technology is necessary but not sufficient for bridging that gap. And that leads right back to why I do what I do at WRF!

Sharing ideas with friends and colleagues, as well as my mementos.

If youre asking me, where do I find inspiration for the work that we do, I love observing and watching other industry. My favorites are grocery stores, department stores, and airports and hotels. I look to see how people are treating their customers, and if youre treating your customers well, they will love your product. That is where I get my inspiration for what our library is going to do and where were going to go.

Much of my inspiration comes from our customers and contributors and seeing the impact of the work we do at Microsoft Quantum. One of my favorite and most motivating moments so far on the Quantum team was spending time with attendees at last years Microsoft Ignite conference. For many it was the first time they were learning about quantum computing, and seeing their excitement and curiosity was incredibly energizing. I learned recently that we had a high school student contribute to our open source Quantum Katas (designed to teach quantum computing & the Q# programming language), and that they were so excited to be able to be able to contribute and get involved in quantum computing without an advanced degree. I cant help but smile and feel inspired by stories like that.

I love modern Japanese culture. I love how they understand so well their own culture that they can create new pieces of art or media that fit within their own vision of the world, but its completely new. You can instantly identify a Japanese game by just looking at a screen shot, even if it doesnt contain traditional Japanese culture, you see the influence of it. I want to do the same thing with my own culture, use it as input and create a completely new thing that the world hasnt seen before but it could only be created through a Mexican lens.

My father. His personal journey and sacrifice to come to the United States with basically nothing is the classic immigrant American dream story. But as a relatively new father I see things through a different lens. The opportunity he has afforded me and my family with his sacrifices is truly pressure to continue to achieve more in his honor.

Building small robots and sensors is hard, and in many cases nature does a much better job. For example a bee can fly around for hours longer than drones we can build. It certainly helps that evolution has a few million years head start on us, so lately Ive been thinking a lot about what we can learn from natural systems and about ways we can piggyback on their abilities to achieve things we couldnt otherwise build.

I search for moments of beauty in the world around me. The color of a leaf, the curve of a bone, the texture of a concrete wall, the lines of a building. I find these moments in nature, in the work of other artists, or even just walking down the street. When I find something that strikes me as beautiful, I seek to understand why I respond to it. What about this object, scene, or space is captivating? I then try to emulate these moments in my work, string them together to form a story, forge them into one cohesive whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

I love war stories and the extraordinary people who work in their studies pouring over research, scout the streets for information, and crawl in the trenches fighting to defend their country or cause.

The best business consultant Ive ever had is my 9-year-old daughter, Kira. Shes the one who first suggested this idea!

In all seriousness, the best ideas come to me when I travel. There are very few new ideas these days. But seeing how others are doing things and figuring out how to do it better, can often produce remarkable results.

The kids, always. I am frequently reminded of why I do the work I do when I think of the many children and their families I cared for as a pediatric oncologist.

I often think of one little boy who had leukemia, but as part of his treatment required radiation of his brain and spine. His mom who is so grateful he survived once told me that she saw the light go out of his eyes after that treatment.

The thought of the damage that our cures create is unacceptable. Weve got to do better.

Meet Rose, an adorable 70-year-old woman who was ready to retire. Rose was a teacher, diligently saving for her retirement for over 30 years, putting away every hard-earned penny she could. Except for one problem: Rose had never actually INVESTED that money. Rose had deposited money into an account but had never chosen her investments. She didnt know she needed to. Her money was in financial purgatory earning no interest, sitting there for 30 years, and never growing one bit. Rose could no longer afford to retire because she did not have enough money to sustain herself. I cry every time I think about her. She is my fuel. Every day since I heard her story, my life has been in service of womens financial education. I want to prevent women from having the same experience as Rose.

My inspiration comes from everywhere: talking with my friends, trying to find a new cafe, browsing at the local antique stores, art shows, poems, movies, games, and Twitch streaming. I try to have new things in my life as much as possible. I hope I finish making Pandemic soon so I can begin traveling again!

The ability to positively impact people at scale, especially in education, charges my engines. Especially in the space of assistive technology and accessibility, there is so much opportunity to help so many people. Because Microsoft is a company with global reach, amplifying that impact is about as motivating as it gets for me.

I decided to go to grad school to study fluid dynamics after seeing the vortical patterns in a bowl of miso soup and realizing that it was more interesting than what I was working on.

But seriously, mostly in my students and collaborators, who help me blur the line between work and play.

In my many friends and colleagues who pour their energy into creating a better future for everyone. Some are great activists/organizers, mentors/teachers, public science communicators, or brilliant scientists. They are willing to put themselves forward in one way or another. Theyve cemented for me the notion that we all have some role to play, big or small, whether out in front or behind the scenes, towards handling climate change.

Social media, mostly. I primarily use the programming language R for doing data science and there is a welcoming and vibrant community of R users on Twitter. I also follow a lot of artists on instagram and thats a great place to draw inspiration for my art.

Exercise clears my mind and the most creative moments of inspiration usually follow. Recently I was e-mountain biking in Alaska and suddenly it dawned on me that incorporating our focus on cybersecurity as a key competitive differentiator could make a positive impact on our prospecting and lead generation.

Excerpt from:
Need a boost for the new year? Pacific Northwest geeks share the different things that inspire them - GeekWire

This week in future tech, a Chinese quantum computer can reportedly solve a problem in 200 seconds, compared to the 2.5bn years a supercomputer needs.

A quantum computer developed at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China, has caught the worlds attention due to what appears to be a performance vastly exceeding others that exist today.

According to findings in published in Scienceand reported by Nature, the new system is allegedly the first definitive demonstration of a quantum advantage using laser beams, which is not mathematically possible using traditional binary computers.

We have shown that we can use photons, the fundamental unit of light, to demonstrate quantum computational power well beyond the classical counterpart, said researcher Jian-Wei Pan.

Tasked with solving the so-called boson sampling problem, the researchers found solutions in as little as 200 seconds. By comparison, it could take Chinas TaihuLight supercomputer about 2.5bn years to do the same.

However, Christian Weedbrook, chief executive of quantum-computing start-up Xanadu, said that unlike Googles Sycamore quantum computer announced last year, the Chinese quantum computer is not programmable. This means that, so far, it cannot be used for solving practical problems.

Scientists from the University of Washington have unveiled a drone that smells, using the power of a moth. Writing in IOP Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, they revealed their Smellicopter design.

The autonomous drone uses a live antenna from a moth to navigate toward smells, while also having the ability to sense and avoid obstacles. A moth uses its antennae to sense chemicals in its environment and navigate toward sources of food or potential mates.

In this case, the researchers used antennae from the Manduca sexta hawkmoth for Smellicopter. The moths were placed in a fridge to anaesthetise them before removing their antennae. Once separated, the live moth antennae could stay chemically active for four hours.

By adding tiny wires into either end of the antenna, the researchers were able to connect it to an electrical circuit and measure the average signal from all of the cells in the antenna. As for what it could smell, Smellicopter could be used to detect things such as gas leaks, explosives and disaster survivors.

From a robotics perspective, this is genius, said Sawyer Fuller of the University of Washington. The classic approach in robotics is to add more sensors, and maybe build a fancy algorithm or use machine learning to estimate wind direction. It turns out, all you need is to add a fin.

German air taxi firm Volocopter said it plans to make regular services a reality in Singapore within the next three years. In October 2019, Volocopter completed the its first air taxi demonstration flight over the Marina Bay area of Singapore and is now looking to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, including those from Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the European Union Aviation Safety.

The first route is expected to be a touristic route over the southern waters, offering views of the Marina Bay skyline, and future routes may include cross-border flights. The company is expected to hire over 200 full-time employees in Singapore to manage a network of routes by 2026.

The citys research institutes conducting R&D play an integral part in this, said Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. Topics like route validation for autonomous operations, material science and research regarding battery technology are very important for our long-term business success.

The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has reported that the number of announced 5G devices has surpassed 500 for the first time. By the end of November this year, there were 519 announced 5G devices, of which 303 were commercially available.

In the last three months, the number of announced 5G devices has grown by 29.4pc, while there has been a 59.5pc increase in the number of commercially available 5G devices over the same period.

This year weve seen more and more symbolically important milestones being passed over 500 announced 5G devices, more than 100 vendors, over 250 different phones, and 100 fixed wireless access CPE devices, said Joe Barrett, president of the GSA.

And it doesnt stop there; we expect more 5G devices to become commercially available, surpassing the 330 mark before the year is out. The device vendor community has stepped up and delivered in the face of unprecedented challenges. As an industry, we can be excited about the opportunities 2021 will bring.

Want stories like this and more direct to your inbox? Sign up for Tech Trends, Silicon Republics weekly digest of need-to-know tech news.

Read more:
Chinese quantum computer may be the most powerful ever seen - Siliconrepublic.com

BURNABY, British Columbia, Dec. 9, 2020 D-Wave Systems Inc., a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, has launched a first-of-its-kind cross-system software tool providing interoperability between quantum annealing and gate model quantum computers. The open-source plugin allows developers to easily map quadratic optimization inputs in IBMs Qiskit format onto D-Waves quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) format and solve the same input on any quantum system supported in Qiskit. The code is available for free as a stand-alone packagein GitHub and marks a major industry milestone: the ability to use, test, solve and compare real applications with both gate-model and annealing quantum computers. For the first time, developers and forward-thinking businesses can have a real assessment of the benefits of different systems on their applications.

Interoperability is a critical step in the maturation of transformative technologies. Until now, there hasnt been a convenient way to send the same problems to solvers on both gate and D-Wave systems, or to obtain head-to-head comparisons of results from the two different quantum computing systems. Before today,using a different quantum computing vendors hardware and software required significant investment to familiarize developers with code, solvers, and SDKs.

D-Waves industry-first open-source package removes those barriers.Qiskit users can nowsubmit Ising Hamiltoniansto the D-Wave quantum computer, in addition to any gate model system Qiskit supports.Now, cross-paradigm transparency and comparison will give quantum developers the flexibility to try different systems, while providing businesses with key insights into performance so they can identify, build, and scale quantum applications.

The company also called for users to publish their work.

In order for the quantum computing ecosystem to fully mature, the developer and business communities alike need access to diverse quantum systems and the ability to compare cross-architectural performance, said Alan Baratz, CEO, D-Wave. The next few years will bring a proliferation of quantum applications, and companies must be able to make informed decisions about their quantum computing investment and initiatives to stay competitive. Weve moved beyond measures that explore does the system work? Instead, enterprises want to benchmark which systems add the most value to their businesses. Were opening the door to this and we encourage users of the tool to share their work and publish their results.

The news is in line with D-Waves ongoing mission to provide practical quantum computing via access to the most powerful quantum hardware, software, and tools. In 2018, D-Wave brought theLeap quantum cloud service and open-source Ocean SDK to market. In February 2020, Leap expanded to include new hybrid solver services to solve real-world, business-sized problems. At the end of September, D-Wave made available the Advantage quantum system, with more than 5000 qubits, 15-way qubit connectivity, and expanded hybrid solver services that can run problems with up to one million variables. The combination of the computing power of Advantage and the scale to address real-world problems with the hybrid solver services in Leap enables businesses to run performant, real-time, hybrid quantum applications for the first time. And with the new cross-system software tool, now users can benchmark their applications across annealing and gate model systems, to further understand and benefit from performance comparisons.

To download and install the cross-paradigm integration plugin for free, clickhere.

As part of its commitment to enabling businesses to build in-production quantum applications, the company also introducedD-Wave Launch, a jump-start program for businesses who want to get started building hybrid quantum applications today but may need additional support.

About D-Wave Systems Inc.

D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software and services and is the worlds first commercial supplier of quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing for the world. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Waves systems are being used by some of the worlds most advanced organizations, including NEC, Volkswagen, DENSO, Lockheed Martin, USC, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, D-Waves US operations are based in Palo Alto, CA and Bellevue, WA. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, BDC Capital, NEC Corp., and In-Q-Tel. For more information, visit: http://www.dwavesys.com.

Source: D-Wave Systems Inc.

The rest is here:
Show Your Work: D-Wave Opens the Door to Performance Comparisons Between Quantum Computing Architectures - HPCwire

Dr. Margareth Arst, an early pioneer for women in science, earned her physics Ph.D. in 1947.

It is well-documented that women are underrepresented in STEM, particularly in physics and quantum, although thankfully it is to a lesser degree today than it was many years ago. In the 1930s and 1940s, some people believed that women didn't have the proper brain structure for scientific investigation. Those opinions and other gender prejudices must have made it difficult for a little-known scientist named Margareth Arst to obtain her doctorate in physics in 1947 at the University of Vienna in Austria. According to NSF data, Dr. Arst was one of about twenty women who earned a Ph.D. in physics that year.

Women are not only underrepresented, they are also notably under-recognized for their achievementsparticularly when it comes to the Nobel prize in physics. In 2018, Donna Strickland was awarded a Nobel prize in physics. She was the first woman to receive the award in 55 years. Since 1901, only two other women have won the Nobel physics award. Marie Curie won it (with her husband) in 1903 for the study of spontaneous radiation. Maria Goeppert won it in 1963 for her shell model of the atomic nucleus.

This chart represents the disparity % between men and women across STEM disciplines.

Compared to men, women are underrepresented at all stages of their careers (bachelor's, doctorate, postdoc, and professor) across nearly every STEM discipline. As shown in the above chart, women are only above parity at the bachelor's and doctorate levels for biological sciences, but below parity at more advanced levels.

Even though women are making progress, the fundamental issue causing the imbalance remains. The American Physical Society conducted a survey in 2019 that revealed physics is the most male-dominated of all STEM fields.One thing is for sure, in 1947, there were no support groups or formal mentor programs to encourage female scientists like Dr. Arst to pursue their intellectual passions. It was a matter of self-determination and personal courage if a woman wanted a Ph.D. at that time.

After she obtained her Ph.D. in 1947, Dr. Arst would have been surprised to learn that 70 years in the future, she would serve as the inspiration for her yet unborn daughter to start a support group for women working in the highly technical field of quantum information technology.

Today, at the age of 96, Dr. Arst is still a role model for her daughter, Denise Ruffner, the founder of Women in Quantum (WIQ).Ruffner previously worked for IBM Quantum, Cambridge Quantum Computing, and she is currently employed by IonQ." I think my comfort of being a woman in science and working in a man's world comes from the fact that my mother was my role model," Ruffner said. "She's 96, and for Christmas, I give her physics textbooks, and she loves it. She's still a complete nerd, and it's really cute."

There were additional reasons Ruffner founded Women in Quantum. She felt that women needed a vehicle to highlight their contributions in quantum. She also wanted to give women access to resources that would amplify their voices in the quantum community. WIQ also offers opportunities to collaborate and have fun with fellow female quantum academics, students, entrepreneurs, investors and government representatives.

I asked Ruffner what first gave her the idea for WIQ. She told me two occurrences made her realize that a group like Women in Quantum was necessary. "I was attending an IBM event several years ago and realized I was the only woman there. IBM believes diversity is important, so afterward, it gave me a mission to actively recruit more women. Later, I also noticed that leadership photos on many company websites were only men. That bothered me, so I decided to do something about it."

Ruffner also sought the advice of her friend, Andr Knig, founder of OneQuantum, the parent organization of WIQ, who said, "I believe that it is vital to democratize Quantum Tech and make it accessible to anyone - no matter their age, gender, ethnicity, education or otherwise."

There are several other support groups for women scientists besides WIQ. For example, IBM sponsors a group called the Watson Women's Network, a community of technical staff, primarily based at the T.J. Watson Research Center. The group encourages a workplace environment that advances the professional effectiveness, individual growth, recognition and advancement of all women at IBM Research. The WWN also partners with senior management, human resources, and other diversity network groups to promote mentoring, networking, diversity, knowledge-sharing and recruiting.

Details of the upcoming Women in Quantum Summit III

The Women in Quantum Summit III is a virtual event scheduled for December 14-16.You can register for free here.

Women in Quantum is a chapter of OneQuantum, an organization focused on promoting quantum research and the quantum ecosystem and dedicated to helping quantum gain acceptance and importance in the scientific and business communities. Its important to point out that men are also welcome to join the organization or register for Summit III.

Honeywell Inc., a multinational conglomerate and developer of quantum computing hardware, is the sponsor for the OneQuantum chapter of Women in Quantum. IonQ, also a major developer of quantum computing hardware, is the sponsor for the upcoming Women in Quantum Summit III, along with Women in Technology International (WITI) as a co-sponsor.

WIQ Summit III features high profile women speakers, including founders of prominent quantum technology companies, government representatives, investors and leading academics working in various fields of quantum information science. Summit III will end each day with a virtual cocktail hour to connect attendees with each other on a one-on-one basis for discussion and relationship building.

Ruffner said the cocktail hour allows you to meet people you wouldn't otherwise get to know and it provides a way to expand your network. "It's also fun because you are randomly matched with people. Your bio comes up with your picture and their bio also pops up and you talk to each other for five minutes. After that, you are sent to a queue where you are matched to someone else."

Summit III will also feature Anisha Musti, a 15-year-old New York City high school student. Anisha Musti is the CEO and founder of a quantum company called Q-munity. Her company is a 501c3 nonprofit striving to connect and teach young people about quantum computing.

The Summit III keynote speakers are:

Denise Ruffner provides more information about the upcoming Women in Quantum Summit III in a discussion with Patrick Moorhead and me on the Moor Insights & Strategy YouTube Channelyou can find the link here if interested.

Disclosure:My firm, Moor Insights & Strategy, like all research and analyst firms, provides or has provided research, analysis, advising, and/or consulting to many high-tech companies in the industry, including IBM and Honeywell. I do not hold any equity positions with any companies cited in this column.

Read more:
The Upcoming Women In Quantum Summit III And Its Secret 70 Year-Old Legacy - Forbes

A classical computer uses binary digits with the two possible states of 1 or 0, a quantum computer uses qubits that can exist in multiple states simultaneously. Linking qubits together holds the potential to increase processing power exponentially, which in turn would have a huge impact on the world in a number of ways.

From speeding up the process of developing effective cancer medicines to aiding the advance of other emerging technologies, a range of exciting applications of the technology have been predicted. One example would be a drastic reduction in the time it takes to create and train artificial intelligence, which would make the technology far more accessible than it currently is.

Spurred on by ambitions to make this revolutionary technology a reality, the likes of Google and IBM have made long, high-profile strides in the last five years, with scientists and engineers closing in on targets of creating 100 qubit systems. Though the world has seen rapid quantum computing progress in recent years, the foundations for this progress were laid in the midst of the previous century.

Having already played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb, the famous physicist, Richard Feynman, turned his attention to quantum electrodynamics in the mid-nineteen sixties. This field relates to the way that electrons interact with one another, governed by photons and electromagnetic forces. His research into this area prompted the important prediction that antiparticles are just normal particles moving backwards in time.

This theoretical work from Feynman marks an important foothold at the beginning of the journey toward the developments in quantum computing today, with Einstein himself having doubted the use of Quantum Theory, preferring solid predictions and observation as a basis for exploring physics. It was this thinking from Feynman that would eventually expand to explore the relationship between binary numbers and quantum systems.

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From Feynman to the freezing: the history of quantum computing - IDG Connect