Workshop on Quantum Computing and Operations Research
Description
The goal of the workshop is to foster the creation of a community at the intersection of operations research (OR) and quantum computing (QC). Quantum computers use the laws of quantum mechanics to manipulate information. This yields a model of computation that can be faster than any classical computer for certain tasks, and for several decades, researchers (mostly in theoretical computer science and quantum physics) have been investigating what can be done with this computational model. Recent hardware developments have spurred a tremendous surge of interest from the government, industry and academia, and finding suitable applications -- possibly in the long term -- can be considered one of the most pressing research topics in this area. Some of the main application areas of QC for scientific computation, such as optimization and simulation, are traditionally within the domain of OR; yet quantum computing is considered a branch of computer science, and only a small number of people focus on the interplay between these disciplines. The main reason for this apparent disconnect is probably the lack of available quantum computers up to this point: OR is a field rooted in practical problems and numerical evaluation, whereas quantum algorithms have -- for the most part -- remained purely theoretical. With recent progress in QC hardware, we believe that it is time to encourage the OR community to start looking at QC as a viable model of computation that could have practical applications in a few years. Not only QC algorithms can be developed for OR applications, but also, OR techniques can be used to improve existing QC methods (e.g., classical optimization is an important component of many QC algorithms for near-term devices); this interaction may lead to the development of new quantum-inspired methodologies. The proposed workshop will aim to bring together, for the first time, prominent researchers in OR, QC, and especially their intersection. We hope that this workshop can inspire a generation of students to try to understand what is the potential of QC for OR applications, and move the first steps toward the creation of a research community that can influence future developments in the area.
Schedule
09:00 to 09:30 |
Lightning Introductions
Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
09:30 to 11:00 |
Daniel Lidar, USC Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
11:00 to 11:15 |
Coffee Break
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11:15 to 11:45 |
Carleton Coffrin, Los Alamos National Laboratory Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
11:45 to 13:00 |
Lunch Break
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13:00 to 14:30 |
Ojas Parekh, Sandia National Laboratories Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
14:30 to 15:15 |
Eugene Tang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
15:30 to 17:00 |
Poster and networking session
Location:Fields Institute |
09:00 to 10:30 |
Large scale convex optimization
Michael Friedlander, University of British Columbia Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
10:30 to 11:15 |
Tamás Terlaky, Lehigh University Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
11:15 to 11:30 |
Coffee Break
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11:30 to 12:15 |
Quantum, Quantum-Classical Hybrid, and Distributed Quantum Algorithms for Problems in Operations Research
Eleanor Rieffel, NASA Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
12:15 to 13:30 |
Lunch Break
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13:30 to 14:15 |
Xiaodi Wu, University of Maryland, College Park Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
14:15 to 14:45 |
Mapping the applicability of the QAOA algorithm to the OR landscape
Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
14:45 to 15:15 |
Ruslan Shaydulin, JPMorgan & Chase Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |
15:15 to 15:30 |
Coffee Break
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15:30 to 17:00 |
Panel discussion “Main research challenges in QC and OR” + open problems
Location:Fields Institute, Room 230 and online |