Quantum AlgoLab Third Annual Open House

On November 23rd, IQ’s Quantum Algorithm Lab or AlgoLab held its third annual Open House. For the first time, the event was held in-person from IQ’s new building auditorium with a simultaneous online broadcast.

This is a unique opportunity for AlgoLab and its partners, whether from industry or the student community, to present its projects to the quantum community.

The Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Mr. Pierre Fitzgibbon, made a short speech at the opening to underline the Université de Sherbrooke’s contribution in the field and the importance of offering companies a platform such as AlgoLab for the development of quantum technologies: “On a global scale, quantum technologies are experiencing an accelerated growth. Quebec is one of the pioneers in this cutting-edge technology around the world. Moreover, the Université de Sherbrooke contributes greatly to this enviable position. (…) I am proud to say that Sherbrooke is one of the three most important poles in this field in Canada.”

The morning continued with AlgoLab’s platform partner, IBM Quantum, presenting its quantum computing roadmap for the coming years, including the unveiling of its new 433-qubit processor named Osprey. Other partners such as CMC microsystems and Thales also presented some of their projects, as well as the French start-up PASQAL which recently opened an office in Sherbrooke within the Quantum Innovation Zone.

Just like last year, the testimonies of students who did an internship with the AlgoLab team were a highlight of the event: “It was really nice to be able to share part of my master’s project in finance with the people in the IQ auditorium during the open house. It was inspiring to listen to everything that is done here,” said Charles-Antoine Jauron, a master’s student in finance at the UdeS School of Management.

In the afternoon, the AlgoLab team offered two parallel workshops on site: an Introduction to Quantum Computing and another on Quantum Machine Learning (QML). Students from UdeS as well as people from the Quebec quantum ecosystem were present to attend the trainings. “It was a great opportunity to show how quantum computing works, that it can already be applied in cutting-edge research and to talk with the UdeS community at the same time,” admits Jean Frédéric Laprade, a quantum computing developer at IQ.

In total, more than 110 people attended the AlgoLab Open House. The team is already preparing the next edition.