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Report on the CQD CDT QUICC Summer School, August 2012

QUICC Summer School Aberystwyth 2012

At the end of August the students from the CDT in Controlled Quantum Dynamics organised a week long international summer school in quantum information, computing and control hosted at Aberystwyth in Wales. Naomi Nickerson and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia who were on the organising committee give their perspectives on this experience:

 Aberystwyth is not a big place. With a population of only 16,000 it’s actually smaller than 51³Ô¹ÏÍø College. But with the sea, at least one club (aptly named ‘Pier Pressure’), and a university with a physics department we had all we needed to begin planning this year’s summer school run by the Controlled Quantum Dynamics CDT.

This year, for the first time, the 1^st year students of the CQD CDT were given the task of organising a summer school for students from all over the world to come and learn about quantum information from some of the leaders of the field in a week long residential event. Leaving such a job in our inexperienced hands represented some significant level of trust, or possibly naivety, on the part of our directors. But there’s nothing quite like being thrown into the deep end to improve one’s skills quickly, and we all took it as an excellent opportunity to take something from this year that would be useful not just in the lab, but in the outside world too.

 With the help of the some of the more experienced students from the CDT, we selected a list of speakers to talk about a wide range of both experimental and theoretical topics ranging from ion trapping to foundations of quantum mechanics. Each speaker started from the basics of their area of research and progressively built up to a research level talk as we wanted to offer a broad view of the field so students, like ourselves, could gain insights within and also beyond their own specific areas of study.

 But the science communication was not only from speakers to students. We also wanted to encourage peer discussion amongst those of us much newer to the field. Students got the opportunity to showcase their research in poster sessions held throughout the week.  From the feedback we got from the students this scheme seemed to be a big success. 

 But it isn’t only academic networking which is important and with only five nights to make the most of Aberystwyth it was a hectic few days. After and between lectures we managed to enjoy the natural beauties of Aberystwyth, visit the pier, chat in the pubs, dress up for a formal dinner, and party at Pier Pressure. With over 70 quantum physicists in the same place the evenings were never going to pass quietly.

 For us the week was not only a success but also a lot of fun, and after a comment from one participant on our Facebook group calling it, “the greatest, most enlightening, interesting, and friendly summer school!” got 15 likes we think it can be deemed a great success. It was a fantastic week and we hope that the friends and acquaintances formed during in Aberystwyth will turn into fruitful scientific collaborations in the future.