Student’s Physics Homework Picked Up by Amazon Quantum Researchers

(U.Sydney.edu) What started out as a second-year physics project is making its way into Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) quantum computing program.
University of Sydney science undergraduate Pablo Bonilla Ataides has tweaked some computing code to effectively double its capacity to correct errors in the quantum machines being designed in the emerging technology sector.
The simple but ingenious change to quantum error correcting code has grabbed the attention of quantum researchers at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing in Pasadena, California, and the quantum technology programs at Yale University and Duke University in the United States.
“Quantum technology is in its infancy, partly because we haven’t been able to overcome the inherent instability in the machines that produce so many errors,” 21-year-old Mr Bonilla said.
“In second-year physics I was asked to look at some commonly used error correcting code to see if we could improve it. By flipping half of the quantum switches, or qubits, in our design, we found we could effectively double our ability to suppress errors.”
The research is published in Nature Communications.