RSVP Please complete this form by EOD Feb 25th if you’d like food.
Monday, Feb 27th
12:30-1:30 PM
Speaker: James Sud
Room: JCL 298
Abstract
The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is a popular parameterized algorithm that uses quantum computers to find approximate solutions to tricky optimization problems. Finding good parameters for QAOA is challenging – but curiously, optimal parameters seem to have similar qualitative structure across many different problem instances and classes. These parameters also seem to induce common structures in the quantum states the algorithm produces. In this talk, we will look at these structures using numerics and good old math. We will then discuss attempts to leverage these structures to create “proxies” for QAOA, that in certain cases can capture the behavior of the algorithm using less than exponential classical resources.
Bio
James is a first year Ph.D. candidate under Dr. Fred Chong in the University of Chicago Computer Science Department. He is interested specifically in quantum algorithms for optimization problems, and more broadly in quantum computing. Musically, he is only two degrees of separation from Rihanna.