These Women Are Inspiring the Next Generation of Quantum Leaders in India
By Kiran Johns, Product & Growth Co-op — IBM Quantum and Qiskit
Quantum computing has come a long way in the past few decades, and it has a long way to go, both in its development and in its diversity and inclusivity. India is a leader in quantum computing and sits at the forefront of STEM education — plus, it has the highest percentage of STEM women graduates in the world at 43%. However, only 14% of all the country’s employed researchers are women.
Women contribute across quantum computing in India, including in academia, research, and business. In part to celebrate and amplify their voices, we organized the Qiskit India Week of Quantum, bringing together prominent women in quantum and attendees from diverse backgrounds. Speakers shared their journeys and the challenges they faced in rising to prominence in the field. Through this event, we presented women role models for India’s quantum computing community to inspire those just entering the field, while teaching attendees how to program quantum computers. The event also offered attendees an opportunity to network with the Qiskit team to learn about opportunities in quantum computing.
On the event’s final day, we hosted a panel to discuss how the growing quantum computing community can work to achieve equal representation of women. The panel consisted of Dr. Aditi Sen De, Dr. Kavita Dorai, Dr. Kasturi Saha, and Tina Sebastian, and was moderated by Sabhyata Gupta. The panel agreed that while some of the roadblocks have been eliminated, there’s a ton of work left to do, as evidenced by that 14% statistic. The panelists also discussed the problems they faced in the industry and how they overcame them. The panelists concluded by saying they hoped to develop a community that lifts women in the field up together. Click here to see the recording of the panel discussion.
Three of the panelists agreed to tell us more of their story, talk about how they entered the field, and the challenges they faced along the way.
Aditi Sen De
Today, Dr. Aditi Sen De is a professor in quantum information and computation at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute. She works on quantum communication networks, quantum thermal machines, quantum batteries, characterization of quantum many-body systems, and the investigation of continuous variables systems for realizing quantum communication schemes. She was awarded the 2018 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of India’s highest science awards, for her contributions to the physical sciences. She is also the first woman recipient of this prize in the Physical Science category.
Sen De first learned about quantum computing in 2000 after finishing her Master’s degree, from discussions with friends and senior colleagues. These discussions motivated her to begin reading papers on the topic, which ultimately brought her to professor Ryszard Horodecki at the University of Gdansk. She joined the university as a project student and later took on a Ph.D role with Prof. Marek Zukowski.
Research areas across the field excite Sen De, such as quantum algorithms showing exponential speed up, universal quantum gates, quantum communication, quantum networks and their possible implementations in photonic systems, and more. She’s also happy to see investigations that help us answer some of physics’ fundamental questions.
“Quantum mechanics is tough — even I don’t understand it sometimes,” she said. “But I believe that you should keep on asking questions to rediscover new and exciting things about quantum computing.”
As a women researcher, Sen De felt that she had to overcome the biases of colleagues, post docs, and even students, and convince them she was capable of researching the topic. She has worked to develop research topics independently, teach thorough quantum science courses, and give talks for experts and for general audiences in order to overcome this sentiment. “I am thankful to Qiskit and many such organizations for inviting me to present my research works,” helping to establish her as a researcher with a global audience.
Tina Anne Sebastian
Tina Anne Sebastian is the co-founder of Quacoon, a platform that combines quantum computing, AI, and blockchain with the goal of solving global supply chain issues, and she was named to the 10 most inspiring women leaders of 2021 by IndustryEra Magazine. She graduated with a computer engineering degree from the Cochin University of Science and Technology in 2005 and earned an MBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2010. Sebastian has been an advocate for workforce diversity and strives to foster a diverse workforce at her own company.
Sebastian was introduced to Quantum Computing at the MIT Future Conference. She went on to complete a quantum certification course at MIT, participated in the IBM Quantum Hackathon in 2020, and was later accepted to the Quantum Stream of the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto, where she received extensive training in various quantum software suites. “Quantum is no doubt the future of computing, and being able to be a part of it at this early stage of innovation is exciting in itself,” she said.
Today, Sebastian’s work includes researching new algorithms for her business, staying up-to-date on recent innovations, speaking at tech events, writing technical and business articles, and networking with fellow quantum enthusiasts. One of her biggest challenges — and, she thought, one of the field’s challenges — was raising awareness of quantum in the tech community and wider business community. She has been working to undertake education efforts and spread awareness through written materials and speaking opportunities where she can.
“Challenges are simply opportunities in disguise,” Sebastian said. “As long as you refuse to stop believing in yourself, there is nothing too complex, quantum or otherwise, for you to understand or impossible for you to achieve.”
Manjula Gandhi
Dr. Manjula Gandhi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computing at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology and a Qiskit Advocate. She has been involved with the Qiskit community since 2017, using it to teach herself quantum computing and mentoring other community members during hackathons and challenges. She teaches a quantum computing class to 60 postgraduate students, and uses Qiskit for her lab and demo sessions. She is also leading the translation of the Qiskit textbook into the Tamil Language, and has led sessions at workshops and faculty development programs across India to empower teachers and professors to develop the quantum talent from India.
Gandhi has worked in computer science — including quantum computing — since 2003. She’d planned to research compilers for a post-master’s research degree, but her supervisor Dr. R. Prabhakar suggested she work on quantum computing instead. She learned the fundamentals and important algorithms, and began attending conferences across India. Her research includes quantum query complexity of graph theory, algorithms, and quantum circuits, and she specifically called out the help of Dr. Apoorva D. Patel, Dr. Arun K Pati, Dr. Debabrata Goswami, Dr. Do Phan Thuan, Dr. R. Prabhu, and Dr. Marek Perkowski who helped her tackle this nascent area.
As a computer scientist, it was challenging for Gandhi to find others working specifically on quantum computation, making it harder to tackle problems during the field’s early days. She ultimately found ways to enlist the help of scientists across different disciplines. Teaching others the core quantum concepts was tough as well back then, especially because there weren’t proper visualization tools available.
Things are very different today, she said. “It is not so difficult to work on quantum computing [anymore], because many open source software development kits are currently available, many people have already started to work on quantum computing,” and there’s a large amount of investment in the field. She hopes that all students will start working in quantum computing themselves. Her advice to them? “Balance equally all your roles which you play daily. Nothing is impossible, our dreams will come true if we work hard with dedication and enjoyment.”
—
Thanks to all who attended the event. To learn more about women working in quantum in India, you can access our feature book here. We hope to continue supporting women in quantum both in India and around the world and to foster a diverse community so people from all backgrounds can feel welcome in this field. We welcome you to join the community by checking out the Qiskit Slack.
