Free Public Lecture: Quantum Computing, Feb. 22, 2019

IBM Quantum Ambassador and Florida Tech alumnus Steve Atkin will discuss quantum computing at a lecture Friday, Feb. 22, in the Olin Life Sciences Building auditorium on the university’s Melbourne campus.

The free lecture, open to the public, will be from 7-8 p.m. It is part of an ongoing series of talks from Florida Tech’s Department of Computer Engineering and Sciences focused on how computing has changed the world.

IBM’s Chief Technology Officer and Distinguished Engineer, Atkin earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science at Florida Tech in 1994 and 2001, respectively. In 2017, he received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Engineering.

So what is quantum computing? Wired magazine offers a useful explanation: “Quantum computing takes advantage of the strange ability of subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at any time. Due to the way the tiniest of particles behave, operations can be done much more quickly and use less energy than classical computers.”

Atkin’s talk will focus on the quantum computing hardware freely available via the cloud from IBM and how it could be used to solve complex challenges that classical computers cannot.