South Carolina Quantum Computing Program Sees Success With USC Students’ Project
This article was originally published in the South Carolina Daily Gazette. University of South Carolina students Jordan Fowler, Carter Burns, and Jack Oberman were the first participants in a taxpayer-funded initiative to train Palmetto State students on a quantum supercomputer for future high-tech, high-paying jobs. The initiative, funded by a $20,000 research project funded by the newly formed South Carolina Quantum Association, trains students on how to use a quantum computer. The association is looking for companies in South Carolina with mountains of data to sort through and could benefit from access to quantum computers. The students used their knowledge of quantum computing to improve retirement investment strategies for a Columbia-area bank that they declined to identify. They believe that quantum computing could allow them to simultaneously analyze trillions of investment combinations and make informed decisions for themselves and their investors. The next step is to apply their knowledge to a small hedge fund founded by the students, Shaw Circle, which they hope to use this knowledge to grow.
Published : a month ago by The Bharat Express News in Science
This article was originally published in the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
COLUMBIA – University of South Carolina seniors studying finance and computer science were the first participants in a taxpayer-funded initiative to train Palmetto State students on a quantum supercomputer for future high-tech, high-paying jobs.
Jordan Fowler, of Charleston; Carter Burns, of Raleigh, North Carolina; and Jack Oberman of Irmo were part of a $20,000 research project funded by the newly formed South Carolina Quantum Association. The trio used quantum computing to improve retirement investment strategies used by a Columbia-area bank that they declined to identify.
Now the Quantum Association is looking for five to seven other South Carolina companies that have mountains of data to sort through and could benefit from access to quantum computers. The association will then pair these companies with university students and researchers to come up with industrial solutions, while students become specialists of this next-era technology through hands-on training.
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The association, funded through a $15 million earmark from the state budget, uses some of that money to rent time on a quantum computer housed at the University of Maryland but accessible through a web portal in the non-profit’s office profit organization in Columbia’s Five Points.
The quantum computer can solve complex calculations involving enormous numbers of data points in minutes, which would take years with a standard computer.
In the case of the USC students, they ran simulations to determine what the best investments would be for someone who wants to retire at a certain age. Those simulations explain everything from weather patterns to war and the impact those things have on publicly traded companies, said association organizer Joe Queenan.
While working on the project, the students used rented computer time from out of state while being coached by the association’s experts. Ultimately, the bank will benefit from a new, complex investment model that is currently unavailable to most banks in the region.
With their new skills in data analysis and computing, the USC students competed in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s iQuHack Hackathon competition last month, competing against 300 other students and coming in third place.
Their next goal is to apply what they’ve learned to a small hedge fund that two of the students in the group have founded, called Shaw Circle. They want to grow their business and make a career in the financial sector.
“We have students from the Darla Moore School of Business who have gone to MIT and competed against several national teams at a level that we are just not used to here,” said Senator Dick Harpootlian, who sponsored the $15 million earmark. approved last year in the state budget.
The Columbia Democrat defended the effort as an economic development investment in the state’s “intellectual capital.”
“These are the best and the brightest,” Harpootlian said of the USC students. “They have shown that students in this state can excel if they are given access to a quantum computer and access to this technology.”
It is Harpootlian’s hope that when these students graduate this spring, they will remain in Columbia where they want to grow their hedge fund business.
According to the students, quantum computing could allow them to simultaneously analyze trillions of investment combinations to find the most profitable ones.
“We now have access to a greater amount of data, and we can process it to make more informed decisions for ourselves and our investors,” Burns said.
Instead of working for hours on a standard computer, they will receive training on how to use a quantum computer to reduce their computation time to minutes, Fowler added.
The students have invested largely on behalf of friends and family who are willing to contribute to their fund, Burns said.
“Now is the time to put some real capital into it, hire some bright minds and grow it,” Burns said. “We want to offer people in the South opportunities.”
They hope to attract investors from the Southeast and increase the size of their fund to between $25 million and $50 million. The added benefit of quantum computing skills could make their small team more successful when it comes to choosing the best deals for their clients, even allowing them to compete when taking on larger investment firms, they said.
Supporting student groups like these is only part of what the quantum association hopes to achieve.
Later phases of the state-funded initiative include designing a quantum computing specialty program that colleges across the state could replicate.
At least one will be offered at a historically black college in South Carolina. Organizers also want to launch an online training academy for workers looking to transition into high-tech careers.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact editor Seanna Adcox: [email protected]. Follow SC Daily Gazette on Facebook and Tweet.
Topics: Academia, USC