Misty Wahl of the Unitary Fund joins us for this episode to talk about quantum error mitigation strategies like zero noise extrapolation (ZNE) and probabilistic error reduction using the Mitiq open source framework. Misty is a lead contributor the the Mitiq project as well as an author on a number of recent papers on the topic. We'll discuss the current state of the art, potential future strategies that leverage machine learning and quantum error correction, and how the Mitiq framework makes it easier to code up and compare mitigation strategies on a wide variety of qubits and SDKs.

You can find a sampling of Misty's reasearch papers and talk on her personal website, mistywahl.com

• Error mitigation in quantum computing with Misty Wall. 0:02
  • Misty Wahl, technical staff at Unitary Fund, discusses Mitiq project for error mitigation in quantum computers.
  • Misty discusses the growth of quantum computing as a field, with a focus on the Unitary Fund and its role in developing error mitigation techniques.
• Non-traditional background in quantum computing. 3:31
  • Misty Wahl shares her non-traditional background in mechanical engineering and project management, transitioning to quantum software development and research through self-study and online courses.
  • Misty joined Mitiq as a full-time technical staff member in March 2022, contributing to quantum error mitigation and software development through their experience with unitary hack.
  • Unitary Hack is a unique event hosted by Unitary Fund, where participants can tag issues in their GitHub repos and community can choose to solve them, providing valuable experience and connections in the quantum computing field.
• Quantum error mitigation techniques and software frameworks. 8:31
  • Misty Wahl describes her experience with the Mitiq framework
  • Misty explains how zero noise extrapolation works
  • Misty Wahl: By intentionally adding noise to quantum computations, researchers can extrapolate to the zero noise limit and estimate the optimal value of an expectation value.
• Quantum error mitigation techniques. 21:57
  • Misty believes that error mitigation will be crucial in the transition to fault-tolerant quantum computers, and will be used to enhance results at every step.
  • Misty presents a technique combining quantum error mitigation and quantum error correction to scale the distance of the surface code and improve error rate.
• Quantum computing, open source, and research funding. 28:56
  • Unitary Fund is building an open-source quantum community through community calls on Discord, with the goal of fostering collaboration and advancing quantum computing.
  • Unitary Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that funds research and development projects in AI, blockchain, and more through government grants and corporate sponsorships.