For the first time, NASA is inviting members of the news media to tour the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL) located at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Media will hear from a panel of computer scientists involved in the emerging quantum computing effort at Ames as they speak about its importance, a variety of real-world applications being studied, and where quantum computing may take us in the future.
QuAIL supports a collaborative effort among NASA, Google and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to explore the potential for quantum computers to tackle optimization problems that are difficult or impossible for traditional supercomputers to handle.
Panelists will include:
· Rupak Biswas, director of Exploration Technology at Ames
· Hartmut Neven, director of Engineering at Google, Inc.
· David Bell, director at the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science for the USRA
Following the panel briefing, media will be given a tour of the NAS facility that houses the 1,097-qubit D-Wave 2X™ quantum computer. The team extensively retrofitted the facility to provide isolation from noise and vibration, as well as the infrastructure required to cool the system to its near-absolute-zero operating temperature.
Researchers on NASA’s QuAIL team are using the system to investigate areas where quantum algorithms might someday dramatically improve the agency’s ability to solve difficult optimization problems in aeronautics, Earth and space sciences, and space exploration.
While NASA researchers have given interviews about quantum computing, this is the first time news media will be permitted to take photos. Future media tour requests will be limited to specially scheduled opportunities. Interested members of the news media should contact Kimberly Williams at: kimberly.k.williams@nasa.gov before 5 p.m. (PST) on Dec. 7, for credentials.
For more information about the NASA QuAIL project, visit:
For more information about NASA’s Ames Research Center, visit:
