Sophie @ Quantum Morocco

sophiengineer

Sophie attended Quantum Morocco 2023 in the capital city of Rabat. It is a beautiful and relaxed city, with amazing food, surfing and plenty of cats! Despite the devastating earthquake in the Marrakesh area, the conference organizers decided to proceed with the event. This decision was a testament to the resilience and strength of the Moroccan people. Their hospitality in the face of such a tragic event was inspiring. The conference had a diverse range of talks on topics such as quantum information theory, quantum metrology, quantum machine learning, and even flight optimization. Sophie presented her work modelling quantum measurements as a thermodynamic process. Keep an eye out for Quantum Morocco 2024!

For those interested in contributing to the earthquake relief effort, the organizers recommend making donations here: https://www.bkam.ma/en/News/2023/Make-your-donations-to-the-special-fund

Welcome Jade and Philipp!

nataliahv

We are happy to welcome a new intake of undergrad students to BBQ Lab! Jade and Philipp just finished their 3rd year and are spending their summers in our lab learning about high-dimensional entanglement sources and the control of spatial modes of light using multi-plane light converters.

After the summer (don’t let the pics fool you, we also get those in Edinburgh… and they last a good couple of weeks), Jade and Philipp will continue their good work doing their 4th-year undergrad projects with us.

BBQLab @ Benasque QI 23

mehulmalik

We just wrapped up a fantastic week at the Benasque Quantum Information workshop in the mountains of Spain! We had intense discussions with theorists from many, many fields in QI, as well as a very productive EDI session addressing several issues in academia, ranging from workers’ rights to the mobility of scientific researchers.

Here’s to deeper dialogues between theory and experiment at venues like the fantastic Centro de Ciencias de Benasque Pedro Pascual! (Yes, their doors are also blackboards)

Optics @ Nether Currie Primary

mehulmalik

Sophie and Mehul had a great time teaching P5 and P6 students at Nether Currie Primary School in Edinburgh about light and optical interference. The students showed an incredible level of engagement and even helped us align a Mach-Zehnder interferometer! We were finally able to answer the question: how loud does a P5 have to yell to change the interferometer phase by pi?