June usually tastes like the beginning of summer, at least in the northern hemisphere. In Coimbra, the first few days have been extremely hot and incredibly windy - hopefully not a prelude to another chapter on the chronicles of Riddick, yikes! Who would like to wear swim goggles when going out anyway? And now thunderstorms!... Maybe it is a good sign that this month's newsletter includes news about PQI, whose founding members include the Portuguese National Metrology Institute, and other new opportunities to learn QC. I've seen an increasing number of hackathons and international prizes for those trying to find useful applications of QC in those fields. Keep reading below to learn more. Forget not that a year worth of newsletters are backed up here, with hints about what happened and what's to come. And do share this with anyone who might be interested in signing up.
DISTINCTIONS
Note: the old category "AWARDS" is now called "DISTINCTIONS".
Member of PQI
PQI logo
In previous newsletters, I had already mentioned some of my interactions with the PQI - Portuguese Quantum Institute. This is an Institute dedicated to promote research, innovation, education, and outreach, in Quantum Information Science and Technologies, in Portugal. And I am now officially a part of it :) PQI is equally involved internationally. For example, it is the original promoter of the World Quantum Day event, and it is the institute that does the yearly monitoring of the key performance indicators of the Quantum Flagship European program. There is a very nice (and very fast) introduction to PQI by Yasser Omar online, as part of the recording of the PQI Colloquium with Alain Aspect, the 2022 Nobel Prize Award recipient. Fun fact: this colloquium filled completely the large auditorium of IST, there were over 100 people on waitlist (before it was closed), and yet I was not only able to attend it in person, but I was also the first person to ask a question at the end of the presentation :D I'm very happy to be a part of PQI, and I am looking forward to being able to attend events, interact with many interesting researchers and projects, and join forces to promote Quantum Information Science and Technologies in Portugal, and abroad.
PQI team after Alain Aspect talk
WRITING
MCM24 Proceedings
Cover of MCM24 Proceedings
I'm very happy to share that the Proceedings for the 9th International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music, of which I am a co-editor, are now published by Springer Nature. This volume, part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science, includes 28 long papers in 8 different themes, 6 short papers, 4 communication-performance papers, and 3 papers about a Tribute to Yves Hellegouarch. One of the 8 themes ended up being called "Quantum Music" (though there was no specific call for QC-related work) and it features 3 papers: "Quantum Memory and Mathematical Gestures: Two Perspectives on Verdi and Wagner" by Alberto Avitabile, Omar Costa Hamido, and Maria Mannone; "Intro to Quantum Harmony: Chords in Superposition" by Christopher Dobrian and Omar Costa Hamido [preprint here]; and "Quantum Tonality: A Mathemusical Playground" by Peter beim Graben and Thomas Noll [preprint here].
EVENTS
MCM24 Conference
MCM24 logo by Cláudia Morais
Following up on what I had shared on a previous newsletter last year, the 9th International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music, also known as MCM24, is going to take place this month, June 18 to 21, in Coimbra, Portugal. There are 4 days packed with events every morning and afternoon: keynotes, paper presentations, posters, communication-performances, a virtual reality exhibition, a 3 part series workshop, three music concerts, a gala dinner, and even a guided tour to the University of Coimbra most emblematic locations.
There is a brand new offer at University of Coimbra: a Specialized training Course in Quantum Computing and Technologies. Once again, I had hinted at it before :) This is a 1 year non-degree course with a class per semester. The first one is "Introduction to Quantum Information and Quantum Computing" lectured by Professor Helena Alberto and Professor Jorge Lobo. The second one is "Quantum Algorithms and Applications", and in here students develop a project and choose who they want to work with, from a list of professors and researchers where I am included ;)