While I have all but forgotten about this blog, I haven't been posting with good reason: this semester has been marked by a notable increase in work. The main event, my PhD Screening Exam, is a mere two weeks off and I am deep into the studying at this point, hardly finding time for my classes, let alone any meaningful research. Putting all that aside, there has been some exciting developments in QIP around here lately...
As you can read in this article, the USC Information Sciences Institute cut the ribbon on the first D-Wave One computer outside of the D-Wave facilities in BC. The 128-qubit, adiabatic quantum computer comes as a quite generous gift from Lockheed. The machine is in place, cooled down to a nice 20 micro-Kelvin, and being calibrated over the next couple weeks, which means that we may soon take a little field trip out to Marina and try running some experiments.
Beer wise, things are still slow as I can't find the time to brew these days. However I have received packages of hops from the tipi at my parents place in Oregon which will hopefully get used up before too long. Also, I brewed the second annual Estate Pale Ale (almost 2 months ago!), an APA brewed with wet cascade and centennial hops from my own modest hop garden here in LA.
