This event has been canceled.

You are cordially invited to the 31st annual

Dr. Shih-I Pai Lecture

with

Eleanor G. Rieffel
NASA Ames Research Center

on

"Assessing and Advancing the Potential of Quantum Computing: A NASA Case Study"

Tuesday, October 21, 2025
3:30 p.m.
Physics Lecture Hall
1410 John S. Toll Physics Building

Refreshments will be served at 2:30 p.m. in the James A. Yorke Rotunda of William E. Kirwan Hall (Mathematics Building).

If you have a question about this event, including disability accommodations, please contact Anil Zenginoğlu at anil@umd.edu.

About the Talk
Quantum computing is one of the most enticing emerging computational paradigms. It has the potential to revolutionize diverse areas within the future of computation. While quantum computing hardware has advanced rapidly, from tiny laboratory experiments to quantum chips that can outperform even the largest supercomputers on specialized computational tasks, current processors are still too small and non-robust to be directly useful for any real-world applications today. Nevertheless, we are entering an era of unprecedented capabilities for the exploration of quantum algorithms and protocols beyond what is possible today. There is also the opportunity to map out large-scale architectures and estimate resources for early fault-tolerant quantum computing, tailored to specific applications, through codesign of algorithms, quantum error correction, and hardware.

In this talk, I’ll discuss NASA’s work in assessing and advancing the potential of quantum computing, illustrating advances in algorithms, both near- and longer-term, in designing novel quantum error correction methods, in resource estimation, and in co-design. I’ll also highlight physics-inspired classical algorithms that can be used at the application scale today. The talk will conclude with a discussion of open research directions.

About the Lecture
Dr. Shih-I Pai (1913-1996) served on the faculty of the University of Maryland at College Park beginning in 1949 and retired with Emeritus status in 1983. He was the recipient of a Centennial Medal from the A. James Clark School of Engineering and was a founding member of the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics (now the Institute for Physical Science and Technology). Dr. Pai authored 14 books and 130 articles in the field of aerodynamics, fluid dynamics and viscous flow, for which he received international recognition. The lecture series honors Dr. Pai's many accomplishments and contributions to UMCP and is supported by donations to the University of Maryland Foundation.