Indo-US Shared Vision Workshop on Soft, Quantum and Nano Computing (SQUAN 2007): February 22-25, 2007

 DEI hosted the Indo-US Shared Vision Workshop on Soft, Quantum and Nano Computing (SQUAN-2007) [1] in February 2007 under the auspices of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, University of Louisville, Bell Labs and several other Indian and American universities and industries. It witnessed four days of buzzing activity in Soft, Quantum and Nano Computing with a wide spectrum of topics being discussed including photonic and NMR based quantum computing, nano computing, fuzzy rule based systems, genetic languages, systems analysis and design, parallel soft computing and unifying paradigms. It witnessed leading researchers from across the globe in the field of computing cutting across departments of Computer Science, Information Technology, Physics and Chemistry present their latest cutting-edge research work indicating the current impact of Computing on Science and Technology.

Dr. Lov Grover, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Bell Labs and originator of the famous Grover's algorithm gave the first vision talk entitled 'Quantum algorithms'. In the ensuing sessions, there was active participation from 65 delegates with 23 invited presentations by resource persons from top academic and research institutes in India and United States including Bell Labs, Michigan Technological University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina and University of California at Berkeley from US and Indian Institutes of Technology Kanpur, Delhi and Kharagpur; Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai, Indian Statistical Institutes at Kolkata and Delhi; Raman Research Institute Bangalore and Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra from India. Vision talks were delivered by Prof. Debabrata Goswami, IIT Kanpur; Prof. Nikhil Pal, ISI Kolkata; Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb, IIT Kanpur; and Prof. Richard Superfine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. There was a session in distance mode through webcast over the Internet, notably from Prof. Umesh Vazirani from University of California at Berkeley.

One of the notable observations that emerged from the Workshop was that there is an urgent and pressing need to promote education and awareness about the futuristic computing technologies like Quantum and Nano Computing. DEI is one of the few Institutes in the world which has introduced such courses even at the Undergraduate level, a fact that was appreciated even by Dr. Lov Grover, the famous originator of the Grover's algorithm who was the US PI of SQUAN 2007. The benefits of SQUAN 2007 in terms of furthering bilateral cooperation between India and the US were immense. Several researchers at DEI as well as other participants forged ties with American campuses by visits or sabbaticals to institutions in the US. The Convener of SQUAN 2007 visited the US PI for collaborative research and among other partnerships pursued were Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of Waterloo.

Indo-Canadian-American Quantum and Nano Computing Conclave (QANCLAVE 2007) : December 22, 2007

Dayalbagh Educational Institute hosted the Indo-Canadian-American Quantum and Nano Computing Conclave (QANCLAVE 2007) [2] in collaboration with University of Waterloo as the Canadian partner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the American partner and IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur as Indian partners. University of Waterloo is one of the leading institutes in the field with a dedicated Institute for Quantum Computing which has been conducting workshops and summer schools in the field since several years with Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, Waterloo as a partner. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the leading engineering school in the world with cutting-edge work in progress in the Quantum and Nano Computing fields. QANCLAVE brought on a common platform leading researchers and scientists from India, Canada and United States and immensely benefited their mutual Science & Technology cooperation, particularly in promoting education and awareness about the emerging futuristic computer technologies. The DEI-IIT Kanpur-IIT Delhi linkages through MoUs and international participation through MIT and University of Waterloo in QANCLAVE 2007 imparted an altogether new dimension to this dynamic programme.

The speakers included Dr. Scott Aaronson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA, Dr. Jonathan Walgate, Perimeter Institute at Waterloo, Dr. Jean Christian Boileau, University of Toronto, Dr. Debabrata Goswami and Prof. Prem Kalra, IIT Kanpur, Dr. Prem Kalra, IIT Delhi besides Prof. C. Patvardhan, Dr. Sukhdev Roy, Dr. C.M. Markan and Dr. Vishal Sahni from DEI. It was attended by nearly 250 delegates from all corners of the country as well as abroad.

Indo-US Advanced School on Quantum and Nano Computing Systems and Applications (QANSAS 2008) : December 11-14, 2008

The Indo-US Advanced School on Quantum and Nano Computing Systems and Applications QANSAS 2008 [3] organized at Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed University), Dayalbagh, Agra in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and several American, Canadian, German and British Universities witnessed four days of buzzing activity in Quantum and Nano Computing with a wide spectrum of topics being discussed including vision talks, tutorials and invited talks, from photonic and NMR quantum computing to nano electronics, string theory, systems nanotechnology, quantum walk, cloning, entanglement and decoherence. Vision talks were delivered by Dr. Charles Bennett, IBM Research; Dr. Stuart Tessmer, Michigan State University; Dr. Debabrata Goswami, IIT Kanpur; Prof. Apoorva Patel, IISc Bangalore among others.

There was active participation with 20 invited speakers from top academic and research institutes including IBM Research, Rowan University and Michigan State University USA; University of Waterloo, Canada; University of Sheffield and University of Bristol, United Kingdom; University of Kiel, Germany; IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IISc Bangalore, TIFR Mumbai, Institute of Physics and CV Raman College, Bhubaneshwar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and DEI, Dayalbagh Campus as well as Soami Nagar Satellite Campus from India. The contacts established during the event have paved the way for working towards establishment of a Joint Centre envisaging cutting edge work in the field.

Special Lectures on Quantum and Nano Computing through Videoconferencing

Special lectures have been arranged from time to time through video-conferencing between the partner institutes of the proposal such as :

a) Dr. Stuart Tessmer, Michigan State University on "Probing the quantum levels of individual semiconductor dopants" on November 8, 2008.

b) Prof. Richard Cleve, IQC Chair and Professor, David School of Computer Science, Univeristy of Waterloo on January  25, 2008 on the topic 'Quantum Non-locality and Communication Complexity'.

c) Dr. Ashwin Nayak, Dept. of Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo on April 22, 2008 on the topic 'Search via quantum walk'

Graduate Course Lectures on on Quantum and Nano Computing between DEI and IIT Kanpur through Videoconferencing

A two-week special module on Quantum and Nano Computing was organized under MoU between DEI and IIT Kanpur in January 2008 with students from Quantum Computing elective at IIT Kanpur and nearly 30 students from DEI, mostly of Quantum and Nano Computing electives at Faculties of Engineering and Science, DEI participating.

Memorandum of Understanding between partner Institutes

Memorandum of Understanding exist among most of the collaborating Institutes of Quantum and Nano Computing Systems Virtual Centre (QANCENTRE).

DEI has Memorandum of Understanding envisaging joint research and teaching with:

1. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
2. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (in process)

1. University of Maryland, College Park USA
2. University of Waterloo, Canada