Senses Unveiled: From Artworks to Quantum Realms

Ever wondered how the past smelled? Can paintings reveal more than just sights? In the Odeuropa project, we extracted olfactory references from text and artworks by means of machine learning. This talk highlights our ambitions to identify smells depicted in European artworks from the 16th to the 20th century. By bridging the gap between advanced technology and historical inquiry, the Odeuropa project not only enhances our understanding of art but also enriches our knowledge of historical life’s olfactory aspects. Discover the challenges involved in teaching machines to "see" smells and the solutions we've developed to overcome them. The Odeuropa image analysis illustrates the potential of computer vision to unlock new perspectives in art interpretation and cultural heritage.

The aim is to offer a non-technical non-expert introduction on the current state of quantum computing. We will start with the basics that make quantum computers different from classical ones, namely superposition, entanglement, and probabilistic measurements. This will help us to grasp the potential of using quantum logic compared to classical one. At least as importantly, it tells us on a high level about fundamental restrictions in the foreseeable future. For example, why quantum applications will need to be complicated problems with simple (low-dimensional) solutions due to low data in and output capabilities, or how very limited data access across the computation makes potential quantum Machine learning ideas fundamentally different and more challenging than classical ML. Next, we will touch on some potential applications that are still believed to be likely candidates for useful quantum computing applications. In the near, non-error-corrected, term, those are typically close-to-hardware problems from quantum physics and quantum chemistry. For the error-corrected age there are provable algorithms offering an exponential speed-up compared to the best known classical alternative. Most famously this is very likely Shor discrete logarithm and factorization algorithm, which will make RSA encryption obsolete if we had large error-corrected quantum computers. However, today and also within the upcoming years, we do not and still will not have sufficiently powerful quantum computers. Hence, to conclude we will briefly review the current state of the hardware platforms, like superconducting circuits, ion traps, or neutral atom arrays. This will also motivate why the parallel 2-qubit gate error is currently the main figure of merit to look out for.

Our brains contain billions of neurons, which make numerous connections over long distances. The question of how neurons know where to grow and to connect during brain development has fascinated scientists for over a century. During past decades, we have learned a lot about how chemical signals guide growing neurons to help them finding the right path. Yet, many open questions remain. So far, less attention has been paid to mechanical interactions of neurons with their surrounding tissue. However, neurons live in a physical world and obey physical laws, and in order to move they need to exert forces on their environment. Our lab focuses on how mechanical cues impact brain development, and how the knowledge gained can be used to better understand disorders of the nervous system.