Beyond Gate-Based Quantum Computing: Defining Quantum Advantage in the Pre-Fault Tolerant Era

Coordinators: Murphy Yuezhen Niu, Sagar Vijay, David Weld, and Xiaodi Wu

Quantum computing is at a transformative juncture, with emerging quantum computers featuring hundreds to thousands of qubits, enabling access to a Hilbert space dimension exceeding the total number of atoms in the observable universe. Despite this impressive scale, these quantum devices have not yet achieved tasks surpassing classical capabilities due to the substantial resource overhead associated with digital gate-based fault-tolerant error correction. Consequently, there is growing momentum to explore hybrid quantum computing approaches that merge analog and digital techniques.

This conference will bring together researchers from quantum physics, computer science, engineering, and mathematics to tackle a crucial challenge: demonstrating quantum advantage on pre-fault-tolerant quantum hardware without complete reliance on traditional error correction methods. Participants will investigate innovative quantum algorithms, advanced quantum error mitigation strategies, and specialized pulse-level control methods tailored for large-scale quantum systems. Ideally, the conference would serve to articulate the nature and scope of quantum advantage that can be achieved in the near term, driving immediate and impactful scientific and technological breakthroughs.

2026

Monday, May 04, 2026

  • 08:50AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 08:50AM Lars Bildsten (KITP) Welcome
    • 09:00AM Michel Devoret (UCSB) Title TBA
    • 09:45AM Kater Murch (Washington Univ., StL) Beyond Unitary Gates: Exploiting Measurement and Dissipation for Quantum Advantage
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM William Oliver (MIT) Emulating the Bose-Hubbard Model with Arrays of Superconducting Qubits
    • 11:45AM Daniel Lidar (USC) Surface code scaling on heavy-hex superconducting quantum processors
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Edward Farhi (MIT) Recent updates on the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm
    • 02:45PM Sarang Gopalakrishnan (Princeton) Scalable Postselection for QEC
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Hsin Yuan Huang (Caltech) Processing massive classical data on small quantum computers
    • 04:45PM Jiaqi Leng (UCB) Super-Polynomial Quantum Advantage for Optimization via Continuous Relaxation
  • 05:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Monday, May 04, 2026

  • 08:50AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 08:50AM Lars Bildsten (KITP) Welcome
    • 09:00AM Michel Devoret (UCSB) Title TBA
    • 09:45AM Kater Murch (Washington Univ., StL) Beyond Unitary Gates: Exploiting Measurement and Dissipation for Quantum Advantage
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM William Oliver (MIT) Emulating the Bose-Hubbard Model with Arrays of Superconducting Qubits
    • 11:45AM Daniel Lidar (USC) Surface code scaling on heavy-hex superconducting quantum processors
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Edward Farhi (MIT) Recent updates on the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm
    • 02:45PM Sarang Gopalakrishnan (Princeton) Scalable Postselection for QEC
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Hsin Yuan Huang (Caltech) Processing massive classical data on small quantum computers
    • 04:45PM Jiaqi Leng (UCB) Super-Polynomial Quantum Advantage for Optimization via Continuous Relaxation
  • 05:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Tuesday, May 05, 2026

  • 09:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Mikhail Lukin (Harvard) Title TBA
    • 09:45AM Alexei Bylinskii (Quera Computing) Science With Programmable Neutral Atom Quantum Computers
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Yulong Dong (Michigan) Learning from Quantum Experiments via Structured Signal Processing
    • 11:45AM Lin Lin (UCB) Recent progress in early fault-tolerant quantum algorithms for eigenvalue problems
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Hideo Mabuchi (Stanford) Difference versus advantage in hard optimization
    • 02:45PM Norbert Linke (Maryland) Title TBA
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Philipp Schindler (Univ. of Innsbruck and IQOQI) Beyond Qubits with trapped ions
    • 04:45PM Zohreh Davoudi (Maryland) Quantum Simulation of Quantum Field Theories of Nature: Bridging Now and the Fault-tolerant Era
  • 05:30PM RECEPTION Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 06:00PM SPECIAL EVENTS DINNER Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 07:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Wednesday, May 06, 2026

  • 09:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Trond Andersen (Google Research) Directly probing quasiparticles on a hybrid analog-digital quantum simulator
    • 09:45AM Antonio Mezzacapo (IBM) Title TBA
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Andrew Potter (UBC) Title TBA
    • 11:45AM Jason Petta (UCLA) Simultaneous exchange coupling of spins in quantum dot arrays
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Yuan Liu (NC State) Concatenated Dual Displacement Code for Continuous-Variable Quantum Error Correction
    • 02:45PM K. Whaley (UCB) Title TBA
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Hakan Tureci (Princeton) Optimization of Single-Shot QML for Bayesian interference
    • 04:45PM All () Poster Session
  • 05:30PM RECEPTION Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 06:00PM SPECIAL EVENTS DINNER Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 07:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Thursday, May 07, 2026

  • 09:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Vladan Vuletic (MIT) Towards Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing with Neutral Atoms
    • 09:45AM Monika Schleier Smith (Stanford) Title TBA
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Jason Cong (UCLA) Compilation for Partial Fault-Tolerant Quantum Architectures Based on Neutral Atoms
    • 11:45AM Jens Palsberg (UCLA) Compiling to a fault-tolerant gate set
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Edwin Barnes (Virginia Tech) Efficient quantum algorithms via Hilbert space truncation
    • 02:45PM Sophia Economou (Virginia Tech) Co-ADAPT-VQE: A codesigned adaptive quantum algorithm
  • 03:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI *Also available to SB Airport and SB Airbus, Goleta location. (See Registration Desk BEFORE THURSDAY to sign up.) Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Friday, May 08, 2026

No talks scheduled.

2026

Saturday, May 09, 2026

No talks scheduled.

2026

Sunday, May 10, 2026

No talks scheduled.