We begin the final day of Q-SITE 2026.

Join us for an insightful technical talk by IonQ!Sainath Motlakunta is a Senior Scientist in IonQ’s Quantum Networking division, where he develops architectures for connecting trapped-ion quantum computing nodes through photonic channels. Before joining IonQ, he co-founded LightFlow Optics, an optics startup that developed CAD-based design tools for building compact and stable optical systems. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow and PhD student in Dr. Rajibul Islam’s group at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. There, he developed novel optical-addressing techniques and built trapped-ion quantum simulators. His research interests include distributed quantum information processing, quantum networking, and quantum simulation using trapped ions.This talk provides an accessible introduction to trapped-ion quantum computing, beginning with superposition and entanglement and progressing to the hardware that makes them possible. I will explain how ions are loaded, trapped, cooled, and encoded as qubits; how lasers initialize, manipulate, and measure them; and how collective ion motion enables entangling operations. I will conclude with approaches for scaling trapped-ion systems, including ion-chain shuttling, electronic qubit control, and photonic interconnects linking multiple quantum processors. No prior trapped-ion experience is required.

We take an hour long break before resuming conference activities.

Join us for an insightful technical talk by Professor Peter Love!What properties of quantum mechanics are responsible for the power of quantum computers? How can we most effectively use quantum and classical computing together in hybrid approaches such as variational quantum algorithms or quantum-centric supercomputing? In this talk I will describe an approach to these questions based on contextuality that has led to the contextual subspace method. This enables the separation of ground state problems into classical and quantum pieces, reducing the quantum resource requirements by only solving the quantum part on the quantum computer.

Join us for an insightful technical talk by CQIQC!

Join us for an insightful lightning talk by Aqora!

Quantum Sensors: Where Quantum Meets the Real WorldJoin us for an insightful keynote talk by Professor Paola Cappellaro!

Join us for closing at the end of day 2 and award ceremony!