On July 2024, using the TNA program of the SoBigData project, I visited the prestigious King’s College of London, UK, and worked with prof. Mohammad Reza Mousavi and his staff on topics regarding quantum computing algorithms and their possible application to the problems of the modern society, e.g., smart cities and cyber-physical systems.

The experience was extremely interesting and fruitful. After informal introduction, and preliminary discussion, the core if the visit was a half-day workshop organized, on July 9th. The workshop was organized in a mixed modality, i.e., in presence for KCL researchers and I, and online for ICAR-CNR researchers.

The title of the workshop was: “Workshop on Quantum Research at King’s College and ICAR-CNR: Vision and Potential Synergies”. The workshop focused on several topics related to quantum computing technologies and their possible applications in the modern society, which were discussed in the talks listed below: 

• KCL: Mohammad Mousavi, “King's Quantum: Vision and Highlight” 
• ICAR: Carlo Mastroianni, “Research at the Edge Intelligence Group” 
• KCL: Gabriel Pontolillo, “Testing and debugging quantum programs”
• KCL: Connor Lenihan, “Classical shadows and their application in many-body systems and testing quantum programs”
• KCL: Avner Bensoussan, “A taxonomy of real NISQ bugs”
• ICAR: Andrea Vinci, “Variational Quantum Algorithms for Edge/Cloud Architectures”
• ICAR: Raffaele Guarasci, “Quantum Natural Language Processing approaches for Text Classification”
• KCL: Sophie Fortz, “Noise-aware mutation analysis”
• KCL: Hugo Araujo, “Quantum annealing for testing cyber-physical systems”
• ICAR: Jacopo Settino, “Quantum Reservoir Computing”
• ICAR: Luca Mariani, “Quantum communication networks: modeling and simulation”

The remaining days of the visit were devoted to in-depth work with prof. Mousavi and his staff, starting from the topics discussed in the workshop. There was a fruitful discussion about some possible avenues for future work. A plan of activities was scheduled for the following weeks/months in the respective Institutes, as well as a set of online meetings to exchange ideas and discuss possible common projects.

Of course, needless to say, I had the opportunity to visit the wonderful and exciting city of London, including famous sites, theatres and museums.