This week we discuss Quantum communications with Dr. Yaseera Ismail, Feb 17 @1500hrs SAST
Newsletter 6/2021
Updates and ideas
Many thanks to Prof. Mourad Telmini for sharing invaluable lessons on how to realize Africa's quantum opportunity and leading a great conversation last week.
Here are some key points from that discussion:
Africa should work towards technology transfer for scientific and economic independence
A strong foundation in education enables capacity building and mastering of emerging technologies like quantum
Scientists in Africa should explore bilateral collaborations as a starting point with a vision to scale to regional and continental levels
Communities that reach beyond academia are essential to moving quantum forward not only in Africa but globally
Young people are generally curious and talented such that introducing them to new fields like quantum computing needs to happen now
We need to take advantage of open access and communities to join forces and start work on some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in the continent to attract the necessary support from local governments and organizations
Collaboration is vital to enhance the level of science and technology in the continent
Quantum tech is a sensitive industry such that as Africans, we need to participate and contribute to shaping it to build trust and ensure tech sovereignty
This week we host Dr. Yaseera Ismail, Senior Lecturer at University of KwaZulu-Natal and a member of the UKZN Quantum Research Group to discuss the progression of technology towards a quantum internet.
Dr. Ismail was conferred a TechWomen Emerging Leader Award by the United States Department of States in 2016 and chosen as an Ambassador of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 2018.
She is currently part of the executive committee of the OSA Non-Linear Optics technical group, advisor to the UKZN OSA Student Chapter, an OSA Travelling Lecturer, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Scientific Reports Journal. Dr. Ismail specializes in the development of quantum technologies, particularly in quantum information science, and is also involved in the implementation of South Africa’s first cold atom experiments based on magneto-optical trapping.
Register to attend the meeting here
Invite all your quantum tech colleagues from the continent.
News and Events
On February 19 at 12pm ET, I will be with Olivia Lanes, PhD on the IBM Qiskit Quantum Seminar Series to discuss Quantum Tech Communities and open-source resources as vital components of the quantum tech ecosystem.
Unlike other decades where African countries were just beneficiaries of emerging technologies, now is the time for the African continent to pioneer ground-breaking innovations in the quantum space by Shannon Mujera and Francis Kabutu.
7-year old Archie Jones is incredibly passionate about science and enjoys creating and filming his own science related videos. He entered ITV’s ‘My News in 65’ competition and chose to report on quantum computing under the theme of ‘change’ and interviewed UK Quantum Communications Hub Director, Professor Tim Spiller.
Learn more about Archie’s story here.
The 6th biennial African School of Physics, ASP2020, was to be held in July 2020, at Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco but due to Covid19 the new dates for an in-person event are August 9-27, 2021. Details here.
The quantum tunneling in graphene brings the era of wireless terahertz technologies closer.
Fujitsu’s Digital Annealer (DA), a quantum-inspired computing platform and related services being used to address large scale logistical combinatorial optimization challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other intractable challenges facing humankind. More here.
New research tackles a central challenge of powerful quantum computing - quantum error correction.
Join us at OneQuantum Africa for more.
Have a great week!
Farai,
President,
OneQuantum Africa