The Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology (CQIST) is a Multi-School Organized Research Unit at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. Its mission is to advance fundamental experimental and theoretical knowledge in areas of Engineering and Physical Science relevant to Quantum Information Science

Quantum information science

Quantum information science is an area of study based on the idea that information science depends on quantum effects in physics. It includes theoretical issues in computational models as well as more experimental topics in quantum physics including what can and cannot be done with quantum...

. CQIST mentors graduate and postdoctoral research, sponsors a visiting scholars program, develops and teaches novel courses, organizes international conferences and workshops, and holds regular seminar series. In Dec. 1997 it hosted the First International Conference on Quantum Error Correction. CQIST was founded in July 1997. Its first and current Director is Daniel Lidar

Daniel Lidar

Daniel A. Lidar is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Chemistry, and the Director and co-founder of the USC Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology , notable for his research on control of quantum systems and quantum information processing.-Education:He is class of 1986 graduate...

.

Research

CQIST faculty members engage in a variety of Quantum Information Science

Quantum information science

Quantum information science is an area of study based on the idea that information science depends on quantum effects in physics. It includes theoretical issues in computational models as well as more experimental topics in quantum physics including what can and cannot be done with quantum...

 related research, spanning both theoretical and experimental aspects. Currently active research areas include quantum error correction

Quantum error correction

Quantum error correction is used in quantum computing to protect quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise. Quantum error correction is essential if one is to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computation that can deal not only with noise on stored quantum...

, adiabatic quantum computation

Adiabatic quantum computation

Adiabatic quantum computation relies on the adiabatic theorem to do calculations. First, a complex Hamiltonian is found whose ground state describes the solution to the problem of interest. Next, a system with a simple Hamiltonian is prepared and initialized to the ground state. Finally, the...

, quantum phase transitions, coherent control

Coherent control

Coherent control is a quantum mechanical based method for controlling dynamical processes with light, employing quantum interference phenomena which are controlled by shaping the phase of laser pulses. A detailed discussion of this approach can be...

, photonics

Photonics

The science of photonics includes the generation, emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, detection and sensing of light. The term photonics thereby emphasizes that photons are neither particles nor waves — they are different in that they have both particle...

, and quantum electronics.