1. Quirky, Not Quacky Quantum Computing for Librarians
Jill Cirasella 

2. What Is Quantum Computing?
  Computer Science
+ Quantum Weirdness
_______________________________
Quantum Computing

3. What Is Quantum Computing?
Modern computer components are small.
 But they are large enough to obey
classical mechanics.
What if they weren't?

4. What Is Quantum Computing?
What if computers behaved according 
to rules of quantum mechanics?
How would they behave?
What could they compute?
How quickly?
How reliably?

5. What Is Quantum Computing?
These questions launched a new field:
Quantum Computing
Theoretical Field
"What could a quantum computer do?"
Experimental Field
"Can we make a quantum computer?"

6. Six Things to Know: #1
Quantum computing is real science.   Not science fiction.   Not pseudoscience.   Real science.

7. Quantum computing is interdisciplinary.
Six Things to Know: #2
Quantum computing is interdisciplinary.
                        Physics
                                       Computer Science   
       Mathematics                            
                                          Information Theory
             Engineering                    
                                   And more...

8. Quantum computing is a young science,
Six Things to Know: #3
Quantum computing is a young science, 
but it's not brand new.
Started in the 1980s.
Lots of discoveries.
Lots of articles.

9. Six Things to Know: #4 Quantum computing is a fast-moving field.
Researchers often share results right away,
before publication in a journal.
Others can respond quickly,
independently of journal 
publication cycles.

10. Six Things to Know: #5 Quantum computing is taught at
many colleges and universities.
Graduate courses are more common.
Undergraduate courses exist too.

11. Six Things to Know: #6 Quantum computing captures
the public's imagination.
Many people are fascinated by it.
Many newspapers and magazines report on it.

12. What's Known about QC? Quantum computation is at least
as powerful as classical computation.
In other words:
 Quantum computers could do everything 
regular computers can do, and maybe more.
Could they do more?
 How much more? =

13. What's Known about QC? Quantum computers could quickly solve
some problems that regular computers 
cannot currently solve efficiently...
...and may never be able to solve efficiently.
Specifically?
Factoring. =

14. What's the Big Deal?
6007 x 7919 = ?
Multiplying two large prime numbers is easy.
47,569,433 = ? x ?
Factoring large numbers into prime factors is hard.
Most cryptography depends on 
the difficulty of prime factorization. =

15. What's the Big Deal? If prime factorization becomes easy,
encrypted information becomes unsafe.
Quantum computers would make
prime factorization easy.
 For this reason and many more:
Quantum Computers = Very Big Deal

16. But... Large-scale, general-purpose
quantum computers do not exist yet.
Our encrypted information is still safe.
Will they ever exist?
Maybe.

17. What Then?! If cryptography-endangering
quantum computers are ever built,
we’ll need new cryptography.
There is also quantum cryptography 
(for some cryptography tasks).
Quantum cryptography already exists, 
both in theory and in practice.
Regardless... 

18. Regardless... Regardless of whether quantum computers can be built,
 quantum computing research has had 
a big impact on the fields of 
physics and computer science.   
And that's why...

19. Quantum Computing & Librarians
...it's a good idea for librarians to know a little something about quantum computing.
So far: 
A little something about the field.
Coming up:
A little something about the resources.

20. Quantum Computing Overviews
There are many online introductions.
Good place to start:
Quantiki

21. Quantum Computing Literature
arXiv E-print Repository
Also:
Quantum Information & Computation
Quantum Information Processing
International Journal of Quantum Information
Virtual Journal of Quantum Information
...and others

22. Quantum Computing Research Centers
U of Waterloo: Institute for Quantum Computing
CalTech: Institute for Quantum Information
MIT: Several Different Groups
Oxford/Cambridge: Centre for Quantum Computation
IBM Research: Physics of Information Group
Los Alamos National Laboratory: Quantum Institute
...and many more

23. Quantum Computing Companies
Quantum Cryptography
id Quantique
MagiQ Technologies
QuintessenceLabs
SmartQuantum
Quantum Computing?
D-Wave Systems

24. Quantum Computing Blogs
Quantum Pontiff
by Dave Bacon, U of Washington
Shtetl-Optimized
by Scott Aaronson, MIT

25. Article this talk is based on:
Further Reading
Article this talk is based on:
Quantum Computing: 
Selected Internet Resources for Librarians, Researchers, and the Casually Curious
Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship

26. Credits Image on slides derived from photo by Luke Mayes:
Image and slideshow are licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution 
Non-Commercial ShareAlike 3.0 License: