National Engineers Week 2018 Banquet – Quantum Computing

Speaker(s): Dr. Talia Gershon, PhD

You are invited to join us for a dinner banquet with guest speaker Dr. Talia Gershon, who joined IBM in July of 2012 to work on earth-abundant thin film materials for photovoltaics. Dr. Gershon earned her Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science from MIT in 2008, and her PhD in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge in 2012, where she was a Gates Scholar. Dr. Gershon is now a Senior Manager at IBM’s TJ Watson Research Center and is responsible for portfolio management for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research as well as making quantum computing available in the cloud. In her presentation, Dr. Gershon will give an introduction to quantum computing, beginning with an explanation of what makes these computers different from the ones we use in our daily lives. These machines use the fundamental laws of nature in a different way, allowing us to explore new ways of processing information that may one day let us solve problems that can’t be solved today. Dr. Gershon will also give a demonstration of how to learn about this new technology, using online tutorials and an actual prototype quantum computer available for free in the cloud.