UCSB Researchers & Cisco Systems to Collaborate on Quantum Technology Development

(News.UCSB) A new collaboration between UC Santa Barbara researchers and Cisco Systems aims to push the boundaries of quantum technologies.
Assistant professors Yufei Ding(link is external) and Galan Moody(link is external) have received research awards from the technology giant to work with its new Quantum Research Team, which was formed to pursue the research and development required to turn quantum hardware, software and applications into broadly used technologies.
“We are pleased to support the research by Professor Moody and Professor Ding in quantum information processing,” said Alireza Shabani, head of Cisco’s Quantum Research and the Emerging Technologies & Incubation Team. “Collaborations with universities are part of Cisco’s plan for quantum technology development, and we are excited for the opportunity to work with UCSB labs.”
Cisco has agreed to provide $150,000 in support of an alternative approach pursued by Moody that uses a photon as an optical qubit to encode quantum information and to integrate the components necessary for that process into a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with built-in error correction.
Ding, an assistant professor of computer science, has received $100,000 from Cisco to support several novel quantum computing research activities from a programming system perspective. She has proposed an in-depth and systematic study of optimization problems in quantum circuit distribution, a project that could help researchers build a network of connected quantum devices.