A computer science professor at Amherst College who recently
devised and conducted experiments to test the speed of a quantum computing
system against conventional computing methods will soon be presenting a paper
with her verdict: quantum computing is, “in some cases, really, really fast.”
“Ours is the first paper to my knowledge that compares the
quantum approach to conventional methods using the same set of problems,” says
Catherine McGeoch, the Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society (Computer
Science) at Amherst. “I’m not claiming that this is the last word, but it’s a
first word, a start in trying to sort out what it can do and can’t do.”