[The Speakers] Quantum Computing is the future. For real!

The #ReplyXchange18 is over: London, Munich and Milan have been on fire during these 4 days of tech and innovation!🔥

The Xchange is our annual event where we present the state-of-the-art tech, while trying to imagine the future of Automation, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Digital Experience, Intelligent Products & Services and Internet of Things… in other words, 4 days (in 3 different countries) all dedicated to innovation with more than 4,000+ participants and 140+ speeches by 250+ speakers!

And all following our knowledge sharing way of thinking, from Replyer to Replyer! ;)

But how does it feel to be a speaker at the Xchange and how can you become one? Few days ago Shyam told us his experience, with a look to the future of shopping and automation. Then Nico, from Concept Reply DE, gave us tips about building a platform for connected cars.

Now it’s time to xchange a couple of words with Andrea (IrisCube Reply), and Marco (Data Reply), speakers at the Xchange in Milan!

Hi there! Let’s start by introducing yourself!

I’m Andrea, working in Reply since 2004: I’m currently a Manager of IrisCube Reply, supporting many innovative projects for the Financial Services.

You had a speech at the Xchange in Milan: what was the topic?

The speech was about Quantum Computing and some real world implications. This technology will be a big revolution in many different areas: IT, Physics, Chemistry and many other applications that use complex algorithms, such as optimization problems for Financial systems.
We focused on implications for cryptography and a specific focus on threats for Blockchain and Crypto Currencies.

Quantum Computing sounds so awesome! How did you hear about it first?

I’m passionate about Quantum Computing since University: I was stunned by the opportunities for reducing algorithms complexity. I started studying the implications of this technology on Bitcoin and Blockchain while reading bitcoin.org FAQ.
Then I discovered in Reply we have a Quantum Computing COP Practice, lead by Marco, so we got in touch and made our speech!

What was the feeling while preparing and delivering your speech at the Xchange?

The Reply Xchange nowadays is a great opportunity for sharing knowledge with colleagues and clients: the level of the speeches is rising every year. I was excited Marco has involved also Davide Venturelli (from NASA QuAIL) participating in our speech! He’s part of one of the most important research teams for Quantum in the world! 🙌

Davide Venturelli during his guest speech at the Xchange

And how did Reply support your research?

In Reply we created a Community of Practice (CoP) dedicated to Quantum Computing.

A CoP is an internal “innovation team” interested in hot new topics, with the aim of finding opportunities and new way of solving problems of our customers.

Further, in June I participated in a “hands-on” Labcamp, where we made some experiments with the IBM quantum computer and the software kit, the QISKit.
Great fun! We also played the “Quantum Battlefield”!

Hope you won! ;) Now list 5 key facts we should know about Quantum Computing:

• The original bitcoin.org FAQ states that YES, Bitcoin is vulnerable to quantum computing!
• RSA and ECDSA (public key crypto) will be at risk with a reasonably large Quantum Computer… this is supposed to become real in about 10 years!!
• There are blockchains that are declared as “Quantum Safe” (ie. IOTA), thanks to the adoption of post-quantum crypto algorithms and tailored mining procedures.
• IBM Q Experience is a great site for learning about Quantum computing, and it gives access to real devices! So cooooool!

Also considering that these processors (QPUs) are refrigerated to near the absolute zero, about -273° Celsius!

• Studies and research are running impressively fast, and they are getting remarkable results. Thanks to all this effort, problems requiring several years of elaboration could be reduced to just hours of quantum computation.

And what about the future of Quantum Computing?

The outlook given by Davide Venturelli was amazing: in the next 3–5 years we might see empirical speedups on Optimization problems and Machine Learning, and probably we will see some first examples of “Quantum Supremacy”. In the next 5–10 years Quantum Processor Units (QPUs) will reach application scale maturity, with polynomial and superpolynomial speedup for Chemistry and simulations of Quantum systems.

How can a student learn more on this?

“Quantum computing and Quantum information [Nielsen, Chuang]” is the masterbook for this topic.
IBM Q Experience is a great learning reference.
Also Google AI blog is a great source for the most recent research and studies.

Thank you Andrea! Last but not least: why should a student join Reply?

We work on projects that are changing everyday life, starting from today.
We are studying emerging game-changer technologies, we are ready for tomorrow.

Want to know more about Reply and our opened positions?
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