Quantum Computing in the Cloud and Industrial Quantum Technology

Quantum computing promises transformative computational advances with wide ranging utility. While achieving this goal requires significant technological and scientific advancement, many companies have made sizable investments into this technology. Amazon has emerged as a front-runner in this space, with several approaches to leveraging quantum computing for its customers. In this talk, we will begin with an overview of the quantum technology efforts underway at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and the AWS approach to supporting customers (be they enterprise companies, startups, academic institutions, or individuals). We will then explore two recent quantum finance applications to understand how quantum computing can solve real-world problems (like options pricing and portfolio optimization), and what technological advancements are required to achieve the lofty goal of “quantum advantage”.

Speaker

Grant Salton, AWS & Caltech

Grant Salton is a quantum information scientist with broad research interests ranging from quantum error correction, quantum algorithms, and applications of near-term quantum computers, to machine learning, optimization, and even quantum gravity. Grant is currently a Sr. Research Scientist in the Amazon Quantum Solutions Lab, and a visiting researcher at the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Prior to joining Amazon, Grant was a postdoctoral fellow in the group of John Preskill in the IQIM at Caltech, and a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. Grant holds a PhD in physics from Stanford University and master’s degrees in physics from Stanford and McGill Universities.