PhD Studentship: Quantum Reservoir Computing for Artificial Intelligence

The rapid development of Quantum Technologies 2.0 over the last two decades - especially in quantum communication, simulation and computation - has pushed this field into the mainstream of technological innovation, with the expectation of major economic impacts. While universal quantum computing is the stated Holy Grail of Quantum Technologies 2.0, its implementation on a scale necessary to practically solve high impact problems remains elusive for current, or feasible in the near-term, technologies.

We target a radically different approach that would allow the development of practically useful quantum computing devices, based on existing technology, which will be more flexible and less demanding than quantum annealers in terms of complexity, accuracy and protection from decoherence. Our approach will be focused on Quantum Reservoir Computing (QRC), a new class of reservoir computing (RC), where the input signal is mapped on the state of the reservoir (digital or analogue structure with a large space of states and nonlinear response). The reservoir state provides the input for a conventional neural network.

In QRC, the reservoir is a fixed quantum system whose output is used to train a classical neural network. It has a massively greater space of states compared to a classical reservoir with the same number of unit elements. Moreover, unlike a classical reservoir, a QR can accept quantum, rather than classical, inputs, and produce quantum outputs.

You will participate in a project devoted to the development of QRC prototypes. You will build theoretical and numerical models of realistic small-to-medium scale quantum reservoirs, investigate their behaviour and develop experimental protocols for testing their performance. In this project you will be collaborating with researchers from Loughborough and from several leading European research institutions.

Quantum technologies and their applications form the key part of the research programme of the Department of Physics. Dr Alexandre Zagoskin is a leading expert in the field.

Loughborough University is a research university with a strong record of success. In REF 2021, 94% of the work submitted was judged to be top-rated as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent'.

Application deadline of 28 June 2024

Study start date of October 2024

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