Quantum Explorers 2023 (Badge : Eminent Scientist). What is Quantum Game Jam?
Global Quantum Computing Event by IBM
The Eminent Scientist badge is a community badge and its topic is 'Quantum Women Invited Talks.' This year on July 24 the guest invited was Laura Piispanen who is a quantum physicist and game developer and she conducts her PhD research at Aalto University School of Science. The host of the talk was Radha Pyari Sandhir.
About Laura Piispanen on how she got into Quantum World:
She did her secondary school in Nordic countries and found Mathematics and Physics interesting. She also completed her Arts diploma project and the people there supported her in both Science and Arts. After getting good grades in her National Matriculation Exam for further university studies she had to choose between Physics and Maths.
She chose Theoretical Physics as her major at the University of Turku. In 3rd year at the time of her Bachelor's thesis, she got an opportunity to work as a summer trainee in the theoretical physics lab.
Her supervisor suggested applying for Perimeter Scholar's International which is a Master's Degree program organized by the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics in Canada. From 100s of applicants, she was selected as one of the 31 students and got to join the 11-month program. More importance was given to collaboration instead of competition in that institute. A few subjects were Quantum Physics, Quantum Information, Special Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, Condensed Matter etc. from which students could choose.
After graduating with a Master of Science she worked at Institute for Quantum Computing which is under the University of Waterloo. There she studied stochastic effects and manipulation of nuclear spins using liquid-state NMR. In short, she had to study a lot of chemistry.
At that time it was difficult to shuttle between 2 countries i.e. Canada and Finland and it was tiring so she took a break and applied for Pedagogical studies at the University of Turku again. She taught Maths and Physics at an International Baccalaureate School of Turku. She also studied Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Physics especially non-causal structures in Quantum Information.
This was the time when she stepped into the world of Quantum Games. Their research group started organizing Quantum Game Jams in 2014 together with Finnish Game Jam Association.
Initially, Quantum Game Jams were onsite events where people from diverse backgrounds used to collaborate to develop games within a weekend. These are creative game-developing events and they bring together game developers, artists, musicians and other experts. Design constraints of Quantum Game Jams are centered on certain aspects of Quantum Theory or any Technological Constraints or it is purely thematic. Now Quantum Game Jams are fully online and are conducted via the discord server. It is a global event where people from different countries can team up to build such games. In 2019 it collaborated with IBM which provided access to Quantum Hardware.
Important Timings for Quantum Game Jam 2023 :
Commencement: September 15th, 2023 at 4:30 pm
Conclude : September 17th, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Link to register for Quantum Game Jam 2023:
Conclusion: IBM has started this great initiative of 'Quantum Women Invited Talks' which becomes an inspiration for many people to get into the Quantum Technology. Attending such event enlightens us on how people pave their way for the career and teaches us to collaborate and share the experience for betterment of the technology.