Keynote Speaker

Josh-Izaac-466x466-c

The Past, Present, and Future of Quantum Software

Josh Izaac

Xanadu | Director of Product

KEY06 — Wednesday, September 18, 2024 @ 17:00–18:30 Eastern Time (EST) — UTC-4

 

Biography

Josh Izaac is a theoretical physicist and Director of Product at Xanadu, leading strategy and roadmap for Xanadu’s open-source quantum programming frameworks, including PennyLane and Catalyst. At Xanadu, he works closely with software developers, researchers, and the broader community to help build the software tooling for next-generation quantum algorithm development. In addition, he has been involved in quantum open-source community building and sits on the advisory board of the Unitary Fund. Before joining Xanadu, he earned his PhD in quantum computation at the University of Western Australia.

Abstract

In this talk, I’ll walk through the (mostly academic) birth of quantum software, and its recent explosion into SDKs and industry frameworks. We’ll also explore new problems we are facing as we aim to connect next-generation algorithms with future fault-tolerant hardware, and look into some of the meaningful solutions the industry is converging to.