Quantum Applications Research Centre

Welcome to the homepage of the first SparQ Access (formerly QCAP) user meeting. The meeting will take place on the University of Kent’s campus in the historic city of Canterbury. It will be an opportunity for this emerging community to network, exchange best practice, and showcase their work. This meeting is organised by the University of Kent’s Quantum Applications Research Centre (QuARC) and sponsored by the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC).

Key dates

Registration

Follow this link to register (*). During registration, you will be given the chance to propose a talk showcasing your SparQ Access/QCAP work (*). There is no registration fee, but there are limited places available.

(*) The programme is now full, but late registrations are accepted until the stated deadline and participation is open to everyone.

Travel & Accommodation

Participants are responsible for making their own travel and accommodation arrangements. Below are some helpful tips.

Travel

The campus is very close to Canterbury West railway station, which is only 51 mins from Kings Cross/St Pancras via the HS1. Follow this link for detailed directions to the campus and more travel options.

If you need to park on campus during the conference, use this parking permit which needs to be printed and displayed on your dashboard. Printed copies will be available at the conference registration desk. Outside the conference days you will need to follow the general parking instructions.

Once on campus, make your way to the conference building:

• Day 1 (Wednesday 30 September): The Gulbenkian.
• Day 2 (Thursday 1 October): Darwin College Conference Suite. 

Accommodation

Canterbury is a major tourist destination and many accommodation options can be found on the main travel websites, both on- and off-campus. As a rough guide, the historic city centre is a 25-30 mins walk (or a 10-min journey on the Uni Bus) from the campus. Booking with plenty of time is strongly recommended.

Useful websites for finding accommodation:

• On-Campus
• Booking.com
• Expedia.co.uk

Where to eat?

Looking for a bite in Canterbury? Check out our recommended list of Canterbury pubs and restaurants. If you prefer to grab a bite on campus, you can use the campus restaurants and shops guide.

Programme

View and download the complete Abstract Booklet (organized chronologically for both days).

Day 1 (Wednesday 30 September)

Location: The Gulbenkian
Registration opens: 9:45

• Talks: Cinema
– Networking, Lunch & Coffee: Colyer-Fergusson Lobby

MORNING

10:15 – 10:30 15m

General Welcome

10:30 – 10:50 20m

Opening Talk NQCC Overview Simon Plant Deputy Director for Innovation, National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC)

10:50 – 11:30 40m

Keynote Connecting the Quantum Dots: AI Pathfinders from Access to Discovery Elham Kashefi Director, Quantum Software Lab (QSL)

11:30 – 11:50 20m

Break Coffee Break

11:50 – 12:10 20m

Session Quantum advantage on IBM hardware for real-time dynamics of Quantum Field Theory Bipasha Chakraborty University of Southampton

12:10 – 12:30 20m

Session A Structure-Aware Quantum Vision-Language Model on NISQ-Era Quantum Computers Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh University College London

12:30 – 13:30 1h

Break Lunch Break

AFTERNOON

13:30 – 13:50 20m

Session When Noise Looks Like an Attacker: Evaluating BB84 Eavesdropping Detection on IBM Quantum Processors Adam Gorine University of the West of England, Bristol

13:50 – 14:10 20m

Session Forecasting chaotic systems with quantum reservoir computing Osama Ahmed Imperial College London / Qronon

14:10 – 14:30 20m

Session On the feasibility of Quantum Cryptocurrency Mining Lee Armstrong University of Kent

14:30 – 14:50 20m

Session Quantum products of experts Marcin Jastrzebski University of Sheffield

14:50 – 15:10 20m

Break Coffee Break

15:10 – 15:30 20m

Session Hybrid Classical-Quantum Generative Models for Synthetic Medical Data Soraya Vaani Panambalom Newcastle University

15:30 – 15:50 20m

Session First Complete Gravitational Wave Encoded on a Quantum Computer Hong Qi Queen Mary University of London

15:50 – 16:10 20m

Session Quantum Generative Diffusion Model for Real-World Time Series Jack Waller Kingston University

16:10 – 16:30 20m

Session Quantum simulation of atomic nuclei Paul Stevenson University of Surrey

Day 2 (Thursday 1 October)

Location: Darwin College Conference Suite
Registration opens: 9:30

MORNING

10:00 – 10:10 10m

General Welcome

10:10 – 10:30 20m

Session Analysing Biological Networks using QAOA and Gaussian Boson Sampling Lily Lee Imperial College London

10:30 – 10:50 20m

Session Hermitian Matrix Product Operators on Quantum Computers Naivasha Williams University College London

10:50 – 11:10 20m

Session Mean-field ansätze for quantum sampling algorithms Freddie Burns University of Bristol

11:10 – 11:30 20m

Break Coffee Break

11:30 – 11:50 20m

Session Quantum Assisted rendezvous Joshua Tucker University of Kent

11:50 – 12:10 20m

Session Hybrid Quantum Strategy Search for the graph domination game Christopher Weeks University of Kent

12:10 – 12:30 20m

Session Solving larger Travelling Salesman Problem networks Daniel Goldsmith Kingston University

12:30 – 13:30 1h

Break Lunch Break

AFTERNOON

13:30 – 14:00 30m

Session From Access to Understanding: Lessons, Surprises and Progress through SparQ Virag Umathe Quantum Software Lab, The University of Edinburgh

14:00 – 14:30 30m

Session Quantum Computing for Brain Network Analysis Erika Molteni University College London

14:30 – 15:30 1h Discussion Feedback Session (Interactive / Post-it) Rob Whiteman & SparQ Access Team National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC)

14:30 – 15:30 1h Break Coffee Break

15:30 – 15:40 10m

Closing Remakrs SparQ Access: Achievements to Date and Outlook Rob Whiteman Quantum Readiness Delivery Lead, National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC)

Organisation committee

• Jorge Quintanilla (chair)
• Carlos Perez Delgado (programme)
• Joshua Tucker (conference secretary)
• Lee Armstrong (webmaster)
• Lizzy Chipperfield (logistics)
• Chris Weeks (deputy conference secretary)
• Diksha Gautam (deputy logistics)
• Rob Whiteman and Rebecca Humble (NQCC coordinators)

Gallery

A photo gallery will be available soon – watch this space!