Earlier this year, more than 100 people gathered at the University of Maryland for a daylong symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS), launched in late 2014 as a partnership between UMD and the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST).
The event, held in the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering, featured scientific talks by distinguished scientists and QuICS alumni from around the world, a panel discussion to share expert opinions and perspectives, and a poster session highlighting the work of dozens of QuICS-affiliated graduate students and postdocs.
It underscored the many activities and successes of QuICS, while also exploring what the next decade and beyond might hold for the ever-expanding world of quantum computing and quantum information science.
“One goal was to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, while also envisioning what we might do next—both in terms of the science and in our role as a multidisciplinary joint center bringing together some of the best researchers from government and academia,” says Yi-Kai Liu, a computer scientist at NIST and a co-director of QuICS.
Attendees to the symposium were greeted with opening remarks by Liu and Daniel Gottesman, the Brin Family Endowed Professor of Theoretical Computer Science at UMD who is also a QuICS co-director.
Liu and Gottesman covered the current state of QuICS, which currently supports more than 100 researchers—14 QuICS fellows, five affiliate fellows, 20 postdoctoral scholars and 70-plus graduate students—all working on grand challenges that fall under the broad headings of quantum computation, quantum communication and quantum physics.
They also noted that QuICS was completing a leadership transition: on the UMD side, Gottesman took over from longtime QuICS co-director Andrew Childs in July 2024, while on the NIST side, Liu handed over the QuICS co-director role to Carl Miller on March 1.
The opening remarks were followed by a whirlwind tour of recent scientific progress in quantum cryptography and quantum computation by a series of invited speakers. Anne Broadbent, the University Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing at Ottawa University, spoke about the theory of quantum interactive proof systems, and its applications to testing and verification of quantum computers.
Harry Buhrman, chief scientist at Quantinuum and previously a professor of algorithms, complexity theory and quantum computing at the University of Amsterdam, spoke about theoretical and experimental progress towards quantum computational advantage. This involves the use quantum computers to solve interesting and practically relevant problems that would be difficult for classical supercomputers.
Buhrman predicted that this concept would follow the same path as van Leeuwenhoek's invention of the microscope, which began simply as a tool for observing nature, but then led to the discovery of new science (microbiology), and ultimately to discoveries of immense practical importance in medicine.
The next two talks described progress toward building the next generation of quantum computers, with audience members thoroughly engaged as the speakers described their work.
Mikhail Lukin, the Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor of Physics at Harvard University, spoke about rapid progress in experiments using Rydberg atom arrays, leading to demonstrations of quantum computation with thousands of qubits, extremely low error rates, and the ability to perform quantum error correction.
John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, spoke about fault tolerant quantum computation, from its beginnings to recent advances in theory and experiment, including state-of-the-art proposals for quantum error-correcting codes and physical qubits. He also suggested a pithy name for the next generation of quantum computers: “Megaquop machines.”
Just before the lunch break, Gottesman moderated a panel discussion on the future of quantum computing that included the four morning presenters. Many opinions were shared, including optimism that the next generation of quantum computers will begin to fulfill the hope of making new scientific discoveries, and that we are indeed learning how to make use of quantum mechanics, rather than being mystified by it.
Various panelists also commented that government, academia and industry all have important roles to play in enabling this progress, and in creating and realizing the long-term vision for the future of quantum information science.
The afternoon talks started with Bill Fefferman, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, who discussed how the primary goal of computational complexity theory—characterizing the power of computation—is closely tied to the primary goal of physics, which is understanding how nature works.
He described recent theoretical work on quantum computational advantage and quantum pseudoentanglement, which sits at the nexus of these two goals.
The next two talks described the state of the art in practical implementations of quantum computation.
Michael Foss-Feig, a physicist at Quantinuum, discussed his research on quantum computational advantage via random circuit sampling in the high-fidelity regime, using trapped-ion quantum information processors.
He was followed by Aarthi Sundaram, a senior researcher at Microsoft Quantum, who described recent demonstrations of quantum computation using logical qubits, which were realized by applying quantum error correction to trapped ions and neutral atoms.
Minh Tran, a researcher at IBM Quantum, concluded the afternoon talks by describing how real-world problems involving quantum simulation (i.e., predicting the dynamics of quantum systems in nature) often have special features that can be leveraged to improve the performance of quantum algorithms and error mitigation techniques.
All four of the afternoon presenters were QuICS alumni, with Fefferman having been both a postdoctoral scholar and a Research Assistant Professor at QuICS, Sundaram having been part of the successful Hartree Postdoctoral Fellowship program, and Foss-Feig and Tran also having spent quality time at QuICS as a postdoctoral scholar and Lanczos Graduate Fellow, respectively.
The day ended with a poster session featuring QuICS postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, and a reception, allowing a wide array of QuICS stakeholders and guests to network and discuss future collaborations.
“It was fabulous to see so many people from inside and outside QuICS celebrating our past 10 years,” says co-director Gottesman. “There was a clear message at the symposium that we are at a turning point in the field of quantum computing—where it transitions from an academic concern to a practically useful technology in the foreseeable future. QuICS is well-placed to become an important contributor to realizing that future.”
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QuICS Highlights
Launched in October 2014 as a partnership between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), QuICS is focused on advancing research and education in quantum computer science and quantum information theory. Several highlights in the history of the center include:
• In 2016, QuICS hosted the 6th International Conference on Quantum Cryptography (QCrypt) at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. The center followed up by hosting QCrypt 2023 on the UMD campus in tandem with PQCrypto, an international forum for researcher to discuss post-quantum cryptography.
• In 2017, Jacob Taylor, a physicist at NIST and a founding co-director of QuICS, began a two-year role as the assistant director for quantum information science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
• In 2017, QuICS and NIST co-hosted the 4th International Conference on Quantum Error Correction.
• In 2019, the TQC-NISQ meeting attracted more than 250 scientists and students from around the world involved in quantum computer science and quantum physics.
• In 2021, QuICS received a five-year renewal of funding that—in addition to expanding its human resources— will help incentivize work in emerging areas like quantum software stacks, characterization and benchmarking of complex quantum devices, and quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry.
• In 2021, NIST scientist and QuICS fellow Alexey Gorshkov received the Arthur S. Fleming Award for his outstanding federal service involving applied science and engineering.
• In 2023, NIST scientist and QuICS fellow Nicole Yunger Halper received the Mary Sommerville Medal and Prize for her innovative writing that has sparked public interest in physics and quantum thermodynamics.
• In 2024, Andrew Childs, who served as co-director of QuICS from 2014–2024, was awarded the Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize.
• In 2025, QuICS fellow Zohreh Davoudi and affiliate fellow Justyna Zwolak each received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on up-and-coming researchers.
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