CAMBRIDGE, Mass.\u00a0\u2013\u2013\u00a0A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student from Cumberland is\u00a0receiving national recognition and a\u00a0hefty\u00a0scholarship\u00a0for his research into\u00a0quantum computers.<\/p>\n
Christopher Gilbert, 19, has been awarded a $25,000 Davidson Fellows\u00a0Scholarship.<\/p>\n
The scholarship \u201crecognizes, nurtures and supports profoundly intelligent young people, and provides opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference,\u201d according to the Davidson Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so stunned,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cI was, like, so excited, and\u00a0I think I\u00a0just\u00a0immediately\u00a0called my mom and ran up to the house yelling, \u2018I won it! I won it!\u2019 It was, like, unbelievable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gilbert,\u00a0a\u00a0Greeley High School\u00a0graduate, is a\u00a0freshman\u00a0at\u00a0MIT\u00a0where he is studying quantum computing. He said the subject has fascinated him ever since fourth grade, when he began watching videos on YouTube about quantum mechanics.<\/p>\n
Quantum mechanics was developed primarily to help study subatomic particle physics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just amazed by how different and at times incomprehensible it is to me, like how strangely the world kind of works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Quantum mechanics\u00a0has\u00a0since been applied to computing, with the goal of building faster computers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scientists\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0build\u00a0quantum computers\u00a0yet, Gilbert said. One of the barriers has been reducing the \u201cerror rate,\u201d \u2013\u2013 the number of mistakes a quantum computer would make.<\/p>\n
Since high school, Gilbert has been studying how to reduce the error rate.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Gilbert developed a way to build much simpler\u00a0quantum\u00a0computers and\u00a0hopes his discovery will drive innovation toward the next\u00a0generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some very interesting problems that quantum computers show promise for, but we just haven\u2019t been able to build them,\u201d Gilbert said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, Gilbert said, a great\u00a0amount\u00a0energy is spent creating ammonia-based fertilizers for crops. Scientists know of an enzyme in the bacteria in the roots of bean plants that would allow the world to produce the same fertilizer with comparatively less energy.\u00a0Reproducing the enzyme, however, requires using computers to map out its molecular structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t model the enzyme,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0too big.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0too complicated. Our best supercomputers\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0do it. So, stuff like that is where quantum computing will really shine.\u201d<\/p>\n
As to what the future holds, Gilbert said he hopes to continue studying quantum computing at MIT. He plans to do more research on the subject\u00a0someday and\u00a0maybe become a professor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love\u00a0to teach\u00a0people,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMBRIDGE, Mass.\u00a0\u2013\u2013\u00a0A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student from Cumberland is\u00a0receiving national recognition and a\u00a0hefty\u00a0scholarship\u00a0for his research into\u00a0quantum computers.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":312303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[157483,23598,157482,745,9829,2741,80385,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-312302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-app-around-maine","9":"tag-app-in-the-community","10":"tag-around-maine-more-maine-news","11":"tag-computing","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-maine","14":"tag-sean-murphy","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115392857142102832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}