D-Wave

At a previous co-op at the Institute for Quantum Computing, I worked under Dr. Bradley Hauer. His wife, Allison MacDonald, was the Director of Science at D-Wave. An unbelievably lucky connection, and a seriously impressive couple. Their kid is going to be terrifying.

Allison graciously helped get momentum going for the quantum club I had co-founded by giving a couple talks on the science at D-Wave. At some point I mentioned that I was looking for a co-op, and if she heard about an opening, I would love to be considered.

So here I am, out in Vancouver, working for the world’s 2nd largest quantum computing company. Within a week of starting, D-Wave acquired Quantum Circuits Inc., expanding their specialty to versatile gate-model quantum computing in addition to the optimization-focused quantum annealing they have held a monopoly over for a decade and a half.

I was hired onto the IC design team, a small group responsible for designing the quantum annealing processor. I’m not yet sure what I can and can’t disclose about my work, but I’ll update this with project details once my co-op wraps up.