Thursday, August 31, 2006
Third Semester

This is my first week of class in the third semester of my course. I have enrolled for Theory of Computing & Quantum Computing. For my third course, I am inclined to take Nonclassical logic theory. The problem is that its a 600 level course and I do not have the adequate background for it. The course is being taught up Prof Michael Dunn, a logician, philosopher, mathematician, computer scientist, informatician and the Dean of Informatics at IU. [Well, that is how he introduced himself :-)]. I will sit in for one more class and decide if I can take this course realistically. I plan to audit it in any case.

I will be working as a Research Associate to build a journal submission system with citeseer like filter capabilities & del.icio.us like tagging abilities. I had to switch advisors & drop my thesis plans with change in my funding source. Last year I was funded by Department of Energy (DoE) through Ohio Supercomputing center. The next year I will be funded by Microsoft through the community grids lab.

Quantum computing is a course that I could not take last year as my plate was full. So the way there is classical physics & quantum physics, this course will talk about quantum computing as opposed to classical computing. It is the sort of thing that could potentially change a lot of things we do in computing today. For eg: If some of the claims about quantum computing being able to work on the superpositioned quantum bits are true then the entire complexity theory as we know it today will be tossed away. The other more fancy things include time travel & parallel universes. A good inspirational small introduction to this is available on A short introduction to quantum computation. I can imagine how exciting & big the invention of transistor would have been ... and the applications following it. QC feels a little like that, The professor said studying some of this would result in us either becoming laughing stocks or winning Noble Prizes :-). Jokes aside, a lot of really smart minds have been studying this for years now. "Quite early in the 20th century Niels Bhor remarked that anyone who isn't shocked by quantum mechanics has not understood it". I am reading David Deutsch's paper on Quantum theory, the Church-Turing principle and the universal quantum computer and am looking at the Schrodinger cat experiment again.

In the next couple of weeks in the course of the course, I will be using haskell to simulate quantum behavior. Its a language I dread learning. Back to the paper now!
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Thursday, August 31, 2006 4:52:36 PM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [8]Trackback
Friday, September 01, 2006 1:48:14 PM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Thank you Pooja for the link to the nice article on Quantum Computing.May your aspirations become fruitful!
-MV(physicsplus.blogspot.com)
MV | physicsprofAT NOSPAMrediffmail dot com
Friday, September 01, 2006 10:15:45 PM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Have fun!
sajith
Saturday, September 02, 2006 6:47:10 AM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Oh God.... Good luck....
Quantum Physis and Schrodinger... That was a terror in S1S2... I never understood it :)
Maybe bcos i never got a proper introduction... The only way i could do it was to mug those stuff .. and i was pretty bad in it. Just managed to get 32 + 8 for it. Tried to improve, but failed pathetically.
:)
anyway.. hoping to hear something in this life abt Poo's Cat experiment.... Dont think I am already making fun of you... I am really looking forward to it.
Joseph | josephninanAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com
Sunday, September 03, 2006 6:46:30 PM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
You go girl!!! I'm looking forward to the day I can claim that I am the friend of a nobel prize winner.
Sidharth Kuruvila
Monday, September 04, 2006 8:35:44 AM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Not this girl ... for this. I should have clarified in my post, the course & I do not plan to dwell on any of the specific physics open questions [which will impact QC], we will concentrate on simulating quantum behavior using quantum PL.
Pooja | poojaAT NOSPAMmvps dot org
Monday, September 04, 2006 6:07:56 PM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Damn you! Now who's going to satisfy my craving for uber-famous friends
Sidharth Kuruvila
Thursday, October 12, 2006 4:47:18 AM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
the best thing abt ur blog is that all are short n readable...
check out ma blog.
GOSH i did not see the prev post!!
Leung | callmeleroiAT NOSPAMgmail dot com
Wednesday, October 03, 2007 7:16:31 PM (US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Sid: poor you. try make some new friends.
Leung: couldn't beat you in length.
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