quantum computing in medicine

November 27, 2023 // attoworld

PD. Dr. Jeanette Lorenz will visit us on the 29th of November in the framework of the Maiman Seminar. She will give a talk with the title “The potential of practical quantum computing in medicine“ at 10:00 a.m. in the Herbert-Walther seminar room (MPQ). Jeannette Lorenz is head of the research group „Quantum-enhanced AI” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems (IKS).

Here is the abstract of her talk:

The potential of practical quantum computing in medicine

Development of quantum hardware and software is progressing rapidly. With the availability of first generally-accessible quantum computers, their potential use for applications can increasingly be explored. One prospective field of application is data science in the medical sector, which faces challenges difficult to address with currently available methods. An example is medical imaging, where frequently only limited training data is available – making the use of classical AI methods difficult. However, presently available quantum computers are still limited in the number of qubits, the connectivity and are affected by noise. Due to this, it is currently impossible to obtain a clear quantum advantage like in Grover’s or Shor’s algorithm already today. But can we still profit from the currently available Noisy-Intermediate Scale quantum (NISQ) computers now or in the near future? What are the steps to take to obtain a practical quantum advantage in academic and industrial applications? What are the potential application fields, e.g, in the medical sector?

The talk will first give an introduction to quantum computing, focusing in particular on near-term quantum computing: what is a ‚practical‘ quantum advantage and can we deal with the noise of the devices? Then it looks towards example applications, in particular in the medical sector, and compare them with competing advances in classical machine learning to address open challenges like the limited availability of training data.

We look forward to welcoming you to the lecture!