NSF Award
2409823
The 12th installment of the "Beyond IID in Information Theory" conference series will take place from July 29-August 2, 2024 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The main subject of the conference is theoretical quantum information science, underpinning future technologies that rely on quantum computers and devices. The conference brings together scientists from both classical and quantum information science with the aim of communicating exciting research trends to the quantum workforce and igniting compelling new research directions. Following the tradition of previous installments, this conference consists of a careful balance of cutting-edge, high-impact research talks and time slots for academic discussions and collaborations. This format has been highly successful as it produced a substantive body of work acknowledging progress achieved during previous Beyond IID conferences. A particular focus of the conference is on support, active engagement, and career development of junior researchers (i.e. graduate students and postdocs) from all backgrounds. Several events aimed at these participants have been planned, including a career panel and poster session helping to train the next generation of quantum scientists and connect them with the larger research community. In addition, having the event at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign highlights the robust and dynamic quantum ecosystem within the state of Illinois, including the on-campus Illinois Quantum Information and Science Center (IQUIST), the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), and others. Notably, the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area was recently chosen as a quantum Regional Technology and Innovation Hub by the US Economic Development Administration. Finally, Beyond IID is the only conference of its size and focus in North America in 2024, providing a unique opportunity for many researchers on this continent to learn about the current results in this field.<br/><br/>The scientific content of the Beyond IID conference series covers the information-theoretic and mathematical aspects of quantum information science, and its connections to classical information theory and mathematical physics. Core topics discussed in previous Beyond IID conferences include one-shot and finite-blocklength information theory, quantum Shannon theory, cryptography, generalized resource theories, entropy inequalities and matrix analysis. The conference aims to provide a venue for classical and quantum information theorists to report recent progress, identify open problems, and advance current research in quantum information. The latter two objectives are facilitated by an open problems session, an integral part of the conference that continues to drive research in the above areas. Each day will start with an hour-long invited talk giving a broad overview of selected topics by prominent researchers. This year, two of the invited talks are dedicated to the memory of Christopher King and Mary Beth Ruskai, whose work had an immense impact on quantum information theory. The invited talks are followed by contributed talks on exceptional recent results rigorously selected by a program committee. The full scientific program appears on the conference website https://beyondiid2024.iquist.illinois.edu/.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
