Robin Kaarsgaard Sales

Project title

FunQ: Quantum Programming Beyond the Circuit Model

What is your project about?

Quantum computing holds enormous potential in areas such as cybersecurity, optimization, and the simulation of physical systems. However, to harness this potential, we must use programming languages specifically designed for quantum computers. Unfortunately, the current programming languages for quantum computing mostly resemble those from the early days of classical computing, where only nerds like myself possessed the expert knowledge required to program them. This research project focuses on the development of quantum programming languages that allow users to describe computations at a conceptual level, as we know it from modern programming languages.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

I’ve been interested in programming since I was around 9 or 10 years old, so the fact that I ended up working with programming languages specifically is probably not much of a surprise. I became interested in quantum computing by learning about something entirely different - namely, a branch of mathematics called category theory - thanks to a PhD course on the subject taught by Rasmus Møgelberg (professor of computer science at the IT University of Copenhagen) during the second year of my master’s. Category theory has been a major eye-opener for me, and it has profoundly shaped the way I think about computation, including quantum computation.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

Classical computation can be described through computational abstractions - a kind of "primodial computations" that do not require us to specify the exact machine they run on, how data is precisely represented and manipulated during execution, and so on. This provides a way to describe computations independently of the computer that executes them. We do not yet have computational abstractions that allow us to describe quantum computation in the same way — which means that we must describe them in a very concrete and low-level manner, often far removed from the way we, as humans, conceptually think about computation. My project is about developing such computational abstractions for quantum computations, along with the mathematical foundations that underpin them.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

Thanks to decades of research and development in programming languages since the early days of computing — not least by the Danish pioneer Peter Naur — we now have modern programming languages that require little more than interest and curiosity to learn. The ultimate goal of my research in quantum programming languages is to make it possible for experts from fields that are radically different from computer science — be it pharmaceutical chemistry, materials science, or quantitative sociology — to use quantum computing in their work.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

It is a tremendous privilege and a major recognition of both my research and my field to receive a Sapere Aude Starting Grant. The Sapere Aude grant enables me to start my own research group and finally put into practice many of the ideas I’ve developed over the past few years, in collaboration with talented early-career researchers and my international partners. I’m also very much looking forward to using the results of this project in teaching the quantum computer scientists of the future.

Background and personal life

I was born and raised just outside Svendborg, and after living in Copenhagen and Edinburgh, I now live in Svendborg again — which is great, but also quite surprising to me. I'm married with two young daughters and a cat. In my free time, I love spending time with my family, cooking, and playing nerdy card games with my friends. In fact, I have a particular talent for geeking out about almost anything - especially if it’s consumable: beer, (natural) wine, coffee, etc.