MateriAlZ Seminar: Stefan Bringuier
Friday, March 4, 2022, 11:00 a.m. MST (Arizona)
Stefan Bringuier
Materials Scientist and Deputy Director
Center of Advanced Materials
Energy Group at General Atomics
"Prospects & Opportunities for Quantum Computing in Materials Science Research"
Zoom Link | Passcode: 155222
MateriAlZ Seminar website | YouTube | Twitter
Abstract
The use of computational methods to address challenges in materials science is routine in many research pursuits. In many cases, significant advances in the design and understanding of chemicals/materials are made using such computational approaches. In particular, we seek out solutions to quantum descriptions of chemicals and materials, that firstly, are approximate theories (e.g., DFT), and secondly, use numerical approaches to find such solutions. However, in many scenarios, these approximate theories are either insufficient or exhibit scaling behavior that makes classical computation exhaustive or impractical. One may ask, as the famous physicist Richard Feynman did, can one use a quantum device to solve such problems? In this seminar I provide a very brief overview and perspective towards the advantages afforded by quantum computing, assuming fault-tolerant quantum devices come to fruition. However, given that such devices are not expected, at best, to become available within the next 10 years or so, I will discuss current activities focused on opportunities using noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. The use of NISQ devices has been heavily dominated by variational quantum algorithms (VQA), which are a class of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms that operate on the variational principle to arrive at the ground-state solution. These algorithms are being explored as one of the most promising uses of NISQ devices for quantum chemistry and materials problems.
Bio
Dr. Stefan Bringuier is a materials scientist and deputy director of the advanced materials engineering center within the Energy group at General Atomics. He leads several activities focused on materials solutions in support of energy science initiatives as well as quantum computing research and development. Prior to GA he worked as a research scientist supporting modeling and simulation activities within the U.S. Army DEVCOM Chemical Biological Center. His research activities have spanned many topical areas from ceramics to polymers and has exhaustive experience with computational methods across varying length and time scales. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in materials science and engineering from The University of Arizona and B.S. in materials engineering from San Jose State University.