Next Seminars

Sara Tarquini, GSSI, June 4, 2026 h 16:30 Aula A 2.5 - Ricamo

Title: From Quantum Physics to Emergency Hubs Location: A hybrid quantum-classical workflow with Neutral Atoms for logistics optimization 

Abstract: Quantum computing is emerging as a new computational paradigm that exploits the laws of quantum mechanics to process information. While classical computers encode information in bits, quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in superposition and exhibit quantum correlations such as entanglement. These features offer a fundamentally different way to explore solution spaces.

This presentation introduces the basic concepts of quantum computing, from qubits and quantum phenomena to digital and analog approaches. Digital quantum computing is illustrated through examples such as Deutsch’s and Shor’s algorithms, while analog quantum computing is presented as a way to encode optimization problems into the energy landscape of a physical system.

The main application considered is emergency hub location for disaster-response scenarios. After floods or earthquakes, roads may be damaged or unavailable, making aerial response with drones and helicopters essential. The goal is to place the minimum number of emergency hubs while ensuring that every point of interest is reachable within a maximum response time. This can be modeled as a Minimum Dominating Set problem on a graph.

Finally, the presentation introduces a hybrid quantum-classical workflow based on neutral-atom quantum processors. Through the Rydberg blockade mechanism, neutral atoms naturally encode graph constraints and sample independent-set-type information. Classical post-processing then transforms these samples into candidate dominating sets for emergency hub placement.