Starting 12 January 2015, the Universiteit van Nederland publishes five public lectures by Harry Buhrman, head of the research group quantum computing at CWI. The series of lectures features the do's and don'ts of the computer of the future. From Monday through Friday, a new lecture will be available on the site of the Universiteit van Nederland each day.
The quantum computer is viewed as one of the most promising technologies of the 21st century and will be able to perform calculations fundamentally faster than conventional computers by using effects from quantum mechanics. The research domain is dominated by two key questions: What will a quantum computer be able to solve, and can we build such a computer?
The research of Buhrman focuses on new applications of quantum computers,in particular the question which specific tasks this computer will perform better than classical computers. While the construction of a usable quantum computer is still far away, research into new application areas is essential for further development according to Buhrman.
Current research shows that quantum computers can solve a certain category of problems faster than classical computers. Quantum computers can for example factor large numbers exponentially faster. As a result, all common security on the Internet will be broken. Also a quantum computer can search more quickly in large quantities of unstructured data.
Another application field is cryptography. Using quantum informatics it is possible to send absolute secure messages. Researchers also study the possibility of location-based cryptography in which the geographical position of a person is used as a key to secure data and services.
For other problems, it has been shown that the quantum computer is not faster than a convential computer. According to Buhrman, it is crucial for the future of quantum computing to investigate in which application domains quantum computers can achieve substantial advantages.
Lectures Universiteit van Nederland
- 12 January: Computation
- 13 January: Quantum Computing
- 14 January: Quantum Crypto
- 15 January: Quantum Computing
- 16 January: Infinity
