Computing Society Visits Jesus College, Cambridge

On Monday 18th March the Computing Society took a trip to beautiful Jesus College, Cambridge to participate in a lecture by Dr Ulrich Schneider, University Reader in Many-body Physics, and Fellow & Director of Studies, Jesus College.

The talk was held at the College’s West Court Lecture Theatre and proved insightful for the students, and gave good background to what quantum computers are versus their counterpart classical computers. These novel machines which fully harness the ‘weirdness’ of quantum mechanics are supposed to soon outperform all classical computers and change the world! What was particularly interesting though, was when Dr Schneider spoke about what quantum computers could open up for us in the future and specifically how RSA encryption could be broken in a matter of seconds versus the thousands of years that is presently required to break encryption. Dr Schneider also spoke about the time that is needed before quantum computers become part of our everyday life, and how perhaps one day they could be incorporated into devices we carry around every day and although that’s not currently possible as the technology has yet to develop – it could quite easily become a reality in the future.

After a Q&A with Dr Schneider, we walked into Cambridge city centre where we purchased a meal at a local burger restaurant and our discussions continued – where might quantum computers lead us? What are the realistic prospects of quantum computers?

We thank the Cambridge University Science Festival for hosting and running this fascinating lecture, we feel fortunate to have secured tickets and listen to the eye-opening address by Dr Schneider.