[CSEE Talk] Introduction to quantum computing: D-Wave Systems, 10am Tue 8/30, UMBC

[Tim Finin]

	     Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
	       University of Maryland, Baltimore County

	 AN INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM COMPUTING: D-WAVE SYSTEMS

	      Robert (Bo) Ewald and Edward (Denny) Dahl
			 D-Wave Systems, Inc

	     10:00-12:00 Tuesday, July 30, 2013, ITE 325b

Bo Ewald and Denny Dahl from D-Wave Systems, Inc. will present an
introduction to quantum computing and its role in their computing
systems, complex machines constructed using state of the art ideas and
approaches from many different fields of science and technology. While
the quantum processor itself is the heart of the machine, the
infrastructure that makes the processor go is also designed, built and
tested extensively by D-Wave.  In 2011, D-Wave System announced the
D-Wave One, "the world's first commercially available quantum
computer" which incorporated their 128 qubit chip-set using quantum
annealing to solve optimization problems. This year a collaboration
between NASA, Google and the Universities Space Research Association
was announced that will create a Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab
at the NASA Ames Research Center that will use a 512 qubit D-Wave Two
system to study how quantum computing might advance machine learning.


Bo Ewald has been Chief Revenue Officer and President of U.S. Business
at D-Wave Systems Inc. since May 2013. Mr. Ewald served as Chief
Executive Officer of Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc., since April
2007. Mr. Ewald has over 25 years experience in the high performance
computing industry.  He served as Chief Executive Officer of Silicon
Graphics, Inc. from 2007 to 2009. He served as Chief Operating Officer
and Executive Vice President of Scale8 Inc. He served as Chief
Executive Officer of Linux Networx, Inc. until April 3, 2007 and
oversaw its strategy & direction to drive continued growth. From 1984
to 1996, he held various management and executive positions at Cray
Research, Inc., including President and Chief Operating Officer since
December 1994.  Before joining Cray Research Inc., he served as Head
of the Computing and Communications Division of the Los Alamos
National Laboratory and was responsible for providing computing and
communications services to government customers nationwide from 1980
to 1984. Mr. Ewald is involved in various industry organizations and
was appointed to the President's Information Technology Advisory
Committee from 1997 to 2001. Mr. Ewald holds an M.S. Degree in Civil
Engineering and Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado
and a BS Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada.

Dr. Denny Dahl received his PhD in physics from Stanford University in
1985 after completing a thesis on Quantum Monte Carlo computational
techniques.  He took a postdoctoral research position at Lawrence
Livermore National Labs in the Parallel Processing Project and worked
on simulation, analysis and applications of neural networks.
Following this, Denny joined Thinking Machines Corporation and worked
in their Technical Marketing Department.  He obtained a patent for
novel work in routing messages through the communication fabric of the
CM-2, which was a massively parallel high performance computing
platform.  He also helped in providing technical support to a number
of customers across a range of business verticals, including the
petroleum and defense industries.  Following Thinking Machines,
Dr. Dahl participated in a range of start-up companies and developed
expertise in high volume/high complexity RDBMS environments.  He
worked at a number of companies (eBay, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase,
Travelers Insurance, Western Asset Management, Williams Sonoma,
Kroger, Walgreens, Teradata) providing architectural and development
services related to batch and real-time data processing.  Denny joined
D-Wave Systems at the beginning of 2012, and has been involved in
algorithm research, training, technical support for sales and
communication functions within the company.

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