Quantum ML Journey: A Fireside Chat with Amira Abbas
Dear Friends,
We have just gone past week 5 of our free mathematical course (Quantum Formalism)! A quick recap for our new subscribers:
The course aims to help reduce the mathematical barrier to Quantum Computation (QC) for exceptional software engineering and data science professionals who are interested in joining the field.
Our thesis is that with their high standard of programming skills, these professionals, that we will call ‘quantum mathematicians’, will then be armed with mathematics as a toolkit that can be used to not just create new practical algorithms, but also implement these using their programming skills. Currently, a lot of the modern algorithm development in the QC industry is being driven mostly by people who are former academics that are now working for large industry players such as IBM & Google or they have started their own companies. The result of this is that most advancements are made by people with a mindset predominantly found in academia rather than industry, this leads to an emphasis on paper publications over code.
Ultimately, we hope that some of the software engineers taking part in our course will go on to start new quantum software companies that genuinely challenge the existing quantum startup ecosystem.
The Fireside Chat Debut
Today we were delighted to have one of the Quantum Formalism students host a fireside chat with Amira Abbas, who has a very inspiring journey into the field. Amira’s drive & determination to forge a path into the field of quantum machine learning is a great inspiration for those of gender and ethnically diverse backgrounds seeking a career in deep-tech. Her story is also a sign of the benefits to the field when education, support & opportunities are available to nurture a passion & upskill professionals. How many other hidden talents does Africa contain? And is there a huge potential for the African continent by unlocking brain power geared towards emerging deep-tech industries?
Thank you for reading!