Keynote Speaker

Stephanie Wehner

Quantum Networks:
From a Physics Experiment to a Quantum Network System

Stephanie Wehner

QuTech, Delft University of Technology | Professor in Quantum Information
Director, European Quantum Internet Alliance

KEY05 — Wednesday, September 21, 2021 @ 8:00-09:15 Mountain Time (MT) — UTC-6

 

Biography

Dr. Stephanie Wehner is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor in quantum information at TU Delft. Her goal is to understand the world of small particles – the laws of quantum mechanics – in order to construct better networks and computers. For her work, Stephanie has received a KNAW Ammodo Award. Stephanie is one the founders of QCRYPT, which has become the largest conference in quantum cryptography. She presently leads the European Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA) in the EU Flagship on Quantum Technologies. In a former life, she worked as a professional hacker in industry.​

Abstract

The internet has had a revolutionary impact on our world. The vision of a quantum internet is to provide fundamentally new internet technology by enabling quantum communication between any two points on Earth. Such a quantum internet can —in synergy with the “classical” internet that we have today—connect quantum information processors in order to achieve unparalleled capabilities that are provably impossible by using only classical information.

At present, such technology is under development in physics labs around the globe, but no large-scale quantum network systems exist. We start by providing a brief introduction to quantum networks, and their state of the art. We highlight some of the many open questions to computer science in the domain of quantum networking, illustrated with a very recent result realizing the first quantum network operating system, including the first link layer protocol for quantum networks, on multi-node quantum network hardware based on Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond.

We close by providing a series of pointers to learn more, as well as tools to download that allow play with simulated quantum networks without leaving your home.