About
Vision
Quantum computing provides unprecedented means to overcome bottlenecks of complex problems. It has the potential to transform fields such as drug discovery, climate modelling and financial modelling.
The greatest impediment to realising the potential of quantum computing is lack of people power. End-to-end solutions take years to develop and require skills outside traditional quantum engineering and physics.
They require Quantum Informatics: enabling the use of quantum technology ways that are interoperable and impactful.
Research themes
Quantum Service Architecture
Computer science and electrical engineering encompass decades of knowledge and best practice about how to design optimal devices and networks.
Transferring this know-how to the domain of quantum technology brings new scientific challenges as well as finding ways to communicate and translate ideas between different scientific backgrounds. Examples of questions in this area include:
- How do we practically interface classical high-performance computing with quantum computers, on the level of both architecture and software?
- How do we classically simulate quantum problems efficiently?
- How can we use classical distributed computation and parallel algorithms for quantum problems?
- What new communication protocols, like multi-party computation, do distributed quantum architecture enable?
Scalable Quantum Software
Quantum hardware is currently controlled by methods very close to the physical implementation.
For feasible application at scale, and to be forward compatible with future quantum hardware, this needs to be lifted to a more abstract framework.
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How can compilers translate from specifications closer to application and more intuitive for humans, to instructions meant to be executed by hardware?
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How can we improve quantum protocols to run larger computations on the same hardware?
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How can we verify that a quantum protocol in fact does what it should, at scale?
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How can we discover new quantum algorithms?
Quantum Application Analysis
Quantum information can be physically processed in hardware in various ways.
- How can we structure the acquisition, storage, transmission and processing of quantum information?
- How do we quantify how quantum information undergoes storage or transmission errors?
- How can we devise schemes that can tolerate faulty or noisy quantum information?
- How can we redesign algorithms to circumvent noise?
- How does quantum computing relate to probabilistic algorithms, including machine learning?
- What is the relationship between quantum information flow and space-time entanglement?
Programme
We offer a fully-funded 4-year PhD programme with integrated intensive training.
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It is a collaboration between computer science, mathematics, physics, and engineering. Students get broad knowledge in quantum informatics, and learn to select and use the best tool for the job, regardless of their undergraduate background.
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It is a collaboration between academia, industry, and government. The programme is grounded in impactful applications, giving students versatile working experience with hardware and software partners, and the ability to translate end user problems into real-world solutions with quantum advantage.
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It will foster collaboration within each cohort, by recruiting a mix of students from a broad range of backgrounds and with diverse personal characteristics, and supporting their study of several group projects, and by encouraging students to look beyond the horizon of a traditional PhD project.
Universities
The CDT offers a truly UK-wide training programme, with a pool of leading researchers from across its five constituent universities offering broad coverage of all its key research topics.
University of Edinburgh
Founded in 1583, the University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s top universities. The university’s entrepreneurial and cross-disciplinary culture attracts students and staff from across the globe, and provides a stimulating working, learning and teaching environment with access to excellent facilities. Edinburgh attract the world’s best, from Nobel Prize winning laureates to future explorers, pioneers and inventors.
University College London
Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London’s leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from over 150 different countries. It is a major focus for quantum technologies in the UK and also hosts the new Q-BIOMED quantum Hub and a CDT in Quantum Computation and Quantum Communications.
University of Oxford
Oxford is a unique and historic institution. As the oldest university in the English-speaking world, it can lay claim to nine centuries of continuous existence. Oxford has more than 60 groups involved in quantum science and technology across the University, making it one of the most diverse and significant groupings in the UK.
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde is a leading international technological university based in the centre of Glasgow, with around 30,000 students from more than 140 nations. Founded in 1796 as ‘A Place of Useful Learning’, its mission is to make a positive difference to the lives of its students, to society and to the world, through collaboration with industry, government and the third sector to ensure innovation and knowledge exchange are fundamental activities that deliver tangible impact.
Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University is valued for its pioneering research, informed by the global needs of business and industry. With a rich heritage stretching back to 1821, it is a truly global university bringing together scholars who are leaders in ideas and solutions delivering innovation, educational excellence and ground-breaking research.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The CDT has many provisions in place to make sure that everyone is able to develop their full potential and is treated with dignity and respect. We regularly review our efforts towards equality and diversity for both students and staff, and continually improve based on feedback, key indicators, and the latest best practice.
- Recruitment material meets accessibility standards and uses inclusive language and images.
- The CDT is promoted via dedicated networks for underrepresented groups in STEM.
- Detailed guidance on preparing application documents encourages applications from people with atypical career paths.
- Shortlisted applicants receive interview questions in advance, levelling the playing field for candidates with different undergraduate backgrounds, or with neurodivergence.
- Recruitment panels are balanced at every stage of the selection process.
- We implement good practices to develop a diverse and inclusive training programme in an accessible environment for everyone.
- We monitor EDI indicators at each selection stage to prevent any bias.
- Tailored support and flexible working patterns meet individual student needs, including the possibility of part-time study.
- All staff and students undertake training in Equality & Diversity Essentials.