< Summer program >
WISER Quantum and AI Program 2026
Optimization is everywhere. Every time a system needs to find the best solution among an astronomical number of possibilities - in drug discovery, energy grids, financial markets, materials design, machine learning, or quantum hardware itself - it's an optimization problem. The question is not whether optimization applies. It's which tools are powerful enough to solve it. This summer program is your answer. The WISER Quantum + AI Optimization Program 2026 brings three computing methods: classical algorithms, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, into a single program for tackling the world's hardest optimization challenges. You'll learn how they compare to each other, limits of each one, and how combining them unlocks solutions that none could reach alone. Six weeks of live, hands-on training. Learn from the best.
Are you a student or a scholar? You can attend for FREE if accepted. Apply today!
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How each approach contributes unique strengths to solving complex optimization challenges: the scalability of classical HPC systems, the emerging potential of quantum hardware for certain problem structures, and the adaptive learning capabilities of AI. The curriculum moves from foundational theory to production-grade tools, with hands-on experience building hybrid workflows.
Participants will Explore:
Are you an executive who wants to understand optimization techniques with using new AI models and quantum algorithms? Skip the more intensive workshops and select the executive option. Register Today!
Overview of classical methods (linear programming, branch and bound), QUBO formulation, and learning heuristics.
June 8, 10:30am-11:30am EST
Scott Crowder
IBM
Discuss general rules and expectations as well as logistics.
June 8, 11:30am-12:00am EST
WISER Team
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June 10, 10:30am - 11:30am EST
Seongmin Kim
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
In this session, participants will learn how to leverage PennyLane to design quantum algorithms. From inspiration to implementation, participants will gain the practical software know-how needed to build at the frontier of research. This hands-on session will step beyond the standard models and explore a new framework: train classical, deploy quantum.
Using PennyLane, an open-source platform for designing, compiling, and realizing meaningful quantum algorithms, participants will learn the core tools needed to construct and explore applications such as IQP circuit optimization. This session pushes beyond basic simulation and leverages PennyLane’s advanced ecosystem to explore generative machine learning tools and resource estimation.
June 12, 10:30am - 12:00pm EST
Catalina Albornoz
Xanadu
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June 15, 10:30am - 12:00am EST
WISER
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June 17, 10:30am - 11:30am EST
Emily Tucker
Clemson University
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June 19, 10:30am - 11:30am EST
Vardaan Sahgal, WISER
Clemson University
Achieving superpolynomial speedups for optimization has long been a central goal for quantum algorithms. I will discuss Decoded Quantum Interferometry (DQI), a quantum algorithm descended from Regev's reduction, that uses the quantum Fourier transform to reduce optimization problems to decoding problems. For approximating optimal polynomial fits over finite fields, DQI achieves a superpolynomial speedup over known classical algorithms. The next frontier is whether DQI can also attain quantum advantage for more generic optimization problems such as max-k-XORSAT. This talk will target a broad audience without assuming background in quantum algorithms.
June 22, 10:30-11:30am EST
Stephen Jordan
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June 24, 10:30-11:30am EST
Monica Van Dieren
NVIDIA
Monica Van Dieren
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June 24, 11:30-12:00am EST
Nitya Raju, WISER
Monica Van Dieren
This session explores how quantum interference can open new approaches to solving optimization problems beyond traditional classical and Hamiltonian-based methods. We will dive into a hands-on example of Decoded Quantum Interferometry, solving a max-XORSAT optimization problem with PennyLane.
June 26, 10:30-11:30am EST
Catalina Albornoz
Xanadu
We will briefly overview some key areas of AI for quantum in the past several years, as well as discuss some of my team's recent research projects.
June 29, 10:30-11:30am EST
Taylor Patti
NVIDIA
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June 29, 11:30-12:00am EST
Davide Corbelletto, Intesa San paolo
The main challenge of current large language models is that, although they can reason using techniques such as chain-of-thought, they often generate redundant, inconsistent, or low-quality reasoning steps. As task complexity increases, selecting and combining the most relevant reasoning fragments becomes a highly difficult computational problem. The QR-LLM approach addresses this issue by reformulating reasoning as a combinatorial optimization problem, where only the most coherent and useful reasoning paths are selected. To efficiently solve this complexity, the framework leverages hybrid quantum optimization methods, enabling the handling of high-order interactions that classical approaches struggle to scale.
July 1, 10:30-11:30am EST
Carlos Flores
Kipu Quantum
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July 1, 11:30-12:00am EST
Nitya Raju
This session will feature selected clips from Our Quantum Future, followed by a guided discussion on the people, technologies, risks, and possibilities shaping the future of quantum. The conversation will help participants think beyond the technical details and consider how quantum is communicated, understood, and connected to society.
July 6, 10:30-11:30am
Guy Ellis
Teralon Media
This session will introduce participants to post-quantum cryptography through a practical, enterprise-focused lens. Kyla will share her own path into PQC, explain what PQC is and why it matters, discuss key threats, timelines, implementation challenges, and organizational impacts, and close with takeaways and possible career pathways for students interested in quantum readiness, cybersecurity, and governance.
July 6, 11:30am - 12:00pm EST
Kyla Koos
Keybank
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July 8, 11:30am - 12:00pm EST
Tom Finke, Applied Quantum Software
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July 10, 10:30am - 11:30pm EST
Maxime Dupont
Rigetti
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July 13, 10:30-11:30am EST
Monica Van Dieren
NVIDIA
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July 13, 11:30-12:00am EST
Michael Dascal,
Fidelity Center for Applied Technology
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July 15, 10:30-11:30am EST
John van de Wetering
University of Amsterdam
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July 15, 11:30-12:00am EST
Nitya Raju, WISER
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July 17, 10:30-11:30am EST
Javier Lopez Piqueres
JP Morgan Chase
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July 17, 10:30-11:30am EST
WISER Team
