Quantum computing holds the promise to enormously increase computing performance in areas including cryptography, optimization, search, quantum chemistry, materials science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, personalized medicine and drug discovery. Quantum computing hardware is maturing swiftly. Depending on the expert you talk with, quantum computing is around the corner or a few years away. Concurrently, research on algorithms that take advantage of quantum computing is also moving briskly. In this discussion, panelists will look at where we are in both theory and practice, where we are headed, and what quantum skills the average computer scientist will eventually need.

Panelists

Umesh Vazirani, University of California, Berkeley (Moderator); Dorit Aharonov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Jay M. Gambetta, IBM Research; John Martinis, Google and University of California, Santa Barbara; and Andrew Chi-Chih Yao (2000 Turing Laureate), Tsinghua University