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The third London Quantum Computing meetup will be a talk on quantum algorithms by Dr Ashley Montanaro from the University of Bristol. UCL have kindly agreed to host this in a 130 seat lecture hall on their central London campus. This talk should be accessible to most people as it does not require any previous knowledge or maths or quantum physics. Here is a description of the talk itself:-

Quantum computers are machines which are designed to use quantum mechanics to do things that are impossible for any standard computer based only on the laws of classical physics. Quantum computing promises to revolutionise the technology industry by allowing previously intractable problems to be solved efficiently. Areas where quantum computing could be applied include simulating quantum-mechanical systems, with applications to optimising chemical processes or finding novel materials; breaking cryptographic systems; and solving hard optimisation problems.

However, quantum computers do not outperform their classical counterparts for all possible applications. They can only achieve a performance enhancement for those problems where a quantum algorithm has been discovered to solve that problem efficiently. Quantum algorithms use fundamentally different techniques to their classical competitors. But just as with classical computing, the development of new quantum algorithms can be very challenging.

In this talk, Ashley will introduce quantum computing and some leading quantum algorithms, including recent developments in the field. He will discuss their applications and implications for technology, and give a flavour of the principles behind them. No knowledge of quantum mechanics, quantum computing or its underlying mathematics will be assumed, though an interest in mathematics or the theory of computing would be helpful.

Dr Ashley Montanaro is Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at the University of Bristol. He has over a decade of experience in the field of
quantum computing, specialising in the theory of quantum algorithms and quantum computational complexity, and has designed many quantum algorithms himself. In a previous existence he was a software engineer in the telecommunications industry.

If you want to learn more about Dr Montanaro please look at his home page at:-
https://people.maths.bris.ac.uk/~csxam/
and you can also look at a previous talk he gave at:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2gS6klNGM

As turn out to these talks are usually no more than 60% we are going to allow 160 RSVPs to this event so that even if we get an 80% turn out there will still be enough seats. In the unlikely event that more than 130 people arrive then I'm afraid admission will have to be on a first come first serve basis. If this happens then we will limit RSVPs to 100% of capacity at future events.

The talk will be held at the following address:-

Room LG04
University College London (UCL)
26 BEDFORD WAY,
LONDON
WC1H 0DS

A map of the location can be found at:-

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps/26-bedford-way

Once you arrive at 26 Bedford Way you should also find temporary London Quantum Computing Talk signs directing you to the room LG04.

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