Quantum in 100 Words and One Metaphor – QSolid Partners Present Their Fields of Work
At the beginning of this year, several QSolid team members engaged in a communication experiment: describing their own work in around 100 words and using only a single metaphor. The result is six wonderful contributions that highlight very different areas of quantum computing and make them accessible to a broad audience beyond the quantum community.
Exploring Quantum Computing Through Metaphors
Quantum computing is one of those scientific fields that often seems far removed from people’s everyday lives. Especially in these areas metaphors are an important tool because they can make these abstract ideas more approachable. They lead us into a world of images in which complex concepts become easier to grasp. In scientific discourse, metaphors can help introduce new concepts and anchor them in a lasting way because they are intuitively accessible and stick in our minds. Just think of powerful and widely used metaphors like the black hole or the ecological footprint.
Tools, LEGO Bricks and a Bit of Magic – How Our Team Members Visualise Their Work
Our communicative experiment led us into a wide variety of metaphorical domains: Dagmar Bruss (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) brought us closer to the magic of quantum computing, while Armanda O. Quintavalle (Freie Universität Berlin) introduced the tools that enable fault-tolerant quantum computing.
In two further contributions, Anja Metelmann (KIT) and Kirsten Bark (HQS Quantum Simulation) explained their different fields of work using a similar metaphor: Anja Metelmann used LEGO building blocks to illustrate how quantum machines are constructed, Kirsten Bark, in turn, applied the LEGO metaphor to explain quantum machine learning for image classification.
Opening the Door to Quantum Advantage – Insights into the Development of Quantum Hardware and Applications
This was followed by a contribution from Marina Walt (HQS Quantum Simulations), in which she spoke of her goal to “find the right lock to open the door to quantum advantage.” She described how she works on identifying quantum applications that can demonstrate this advantage. In our final contribution, Isabelle Sprave guided us into the world of quantum insulators using an animal metaphor. She highlighted the important function of insulators within hardware, as they are what keep quantum systems at a cool, stable temperature, ensuring the computer’s efficiency.
We would like to thank all participating team members for their willingness to present their daily work in this rather unusual way. We conclude this campaign with the sense that we have gained crucial insights into the tools of quantum computing, and we look forward to continuing to explore the magic of quantum computing together within QSolid. Browse through the slideshow to get an overview of all contributions:
