I'm a technical architect.
I work at JP Morgan.
We do a lot of calculations, we do a lot of
trade pricing, a lot of derivatives, and calculate
a lot of risk so we need a lot of computing
to do that, and so I'm involved in that area
- the software, the hardware platforms, things
like that.
I'd say that the state of quantum research
at the moment from my perspective is that
it's in its excited state, to use a pun.
Principally, for us whenever we look at a
new hardware platform, the main thing is does
it have an advantage over existing platform
cause there is always risks with using a new
platform.
The poster child for quantum computing is
code-breaking, specifically RSA or public
key code breaking.
Blind computing is a very interesting one,
with systems moving to the cloud that obviously
brings security concerns, particularly from
the point of private information, private
data.
From a technical point of view the predominate
computing paradigm these days is hybrid.
It's having accelerators.
So having a specialized element of your computing
system which is very focused on accelerating
a certain portion of your problem has become
a sort of de facto way of designing systems
these days.
And I can see quantum being exactly the same.
At the moment one of the Achilles heels of
quantum computing is the lack of algorithms.
That is one of the key challenges for uptake
of a quantum computer.
There is an expectation in the popular media
that quantum computers will do the impossible
- they will give you an answer in the blink
of an eye, they will be able to do things
that are totally impossible for normal computers
to do.
And that's not the case, they can do certain
things extremely well and extremely quickly
which are unfeasible with current computers,
but they're, they're not made out of unicorn
horns and pixie dust, this type of thing.
They're still physical, physical systems.
So there has to be something done in the educational
area to make people understand what quantum
is what quantum computing is about and the
fact that it's, it's not, it does have a theoretical
basis and it does have certain advantages.
The next step after that is being able to
provide the tools to allow a mere mortal to
program a quantum computer.
