Times Union: Quantum leap for computers
Published:
Tuesday, October 6, 2015 - 10:32
SUNY Poly professor receives $380,000 grant to develop an ion instrument
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="701"]
Mengbing Huang, SUNY Polytechnic CNSE associate professor of
Nanoscience, inspects a sample to be tested. The potential of
Huang's work could pave the way for the development of more advanced
devices with wide application to everyday life, improving everything
from computers and medical devices to sensors. (Photo courtesy of
SUNY Poly)[/caption]
Albany
Imagine a future when the smartphone in your hand is as powerful as a super computer in a climate-controlled university research lab.
Mengbing Huang can.
Huang, an associate professor of nanoscience at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, is part of a growing segment of research and development in the semiconductor industry focusing on what's known as quantum computing that is expected to one day revolutionize the computer industry.
Just as computers today work using so-called "bits" of binary code that travel through microchips as electrons, quantum computers will use what is known as "qubits," which is a term that scientists use for quantum bits created from manipulating single atoms or photons.
Normal bits used in the binary code that runs computers can be either "1" or "0."
By Larry Rulison
