Thu, January 2, 2:30 PM
45 MINUTES
An application of quantum computing in chemistry

Quantum computing is likely to have far-reaching impact on different fields such as chemistry, optimization and artificial intelligence. In this talk, we start by a brief overview of quantum computing and then present an application of quantum computing to solve an important problem, called “conformational search”, in chemistry. For the conformational search problem, we propose a variable neighbourhood search heuristic where using the structure of a molecule, neighbourhoods are chosen to allow for optimization using a binary quadratic optimizer. The proposed method is well-suited for the use of devices such as quantum annealers. After carefully defining neighbourhoods, the method easily adapts to the size and topology of these devices.

Moslem Noori

Senior Research Scientist at 1QBit

Moslem received his bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and applied mathematics from Amirkabir University of Technology in 2005 and 2006, respectively. He then joined the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Alberta where he obtained his M.Sc in 2008 and his PhD in 2012. Moslem later finished two postdoctoral programs at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta and also spent a visiting period at Nokia Bell Labs. He was the recipient of several scholarships and awards including the Vanier Canada graduate scholarship, NSERC postdoctoral fellowship, and Alberta Innovates fellowship. He is currently a senior research scientist at 1QBit, a quantum computing company headquartered in Vancouver, and is also affiliated with the Microsoft Quantum team in Redmond.