Welcome to our ‘Behind the Scenes’ podcasts dedicated to EU research and innovation. In this series, journalist Jennifer Baker spends time with some of Europe’s most brilliant scientists and innovators, whose discoveries are having a lasting and important impact on our daily lives.
From Atlantic ocean health checks, pioneering cancer vaccines and quantum computing games to zero-waste houses, new-breed organic farming, and recycling textile. These and other compelling stories await listeners in our latest pods.
Earlier in the series to celebrate the annual Research & Innovation Days we explored everything from the inner-secrets of biophysics, fungal architectures, robotics and automatic control, and we ventured to the outer-reaches of Arctic research, radio astronomy, and computer engineering.
Behind the Scenes SEASON TWO brings you inspiring science but also the stories and journeys of the people behind them.
This podcast series is an initiative of the European Commission. It brings together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and the public to debate and shape the future of Research and Innovation in Europe and beyond.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to our ‘Behind the Scenes’ podcasts dedicated to EU research and innovation. In this series, journalist Jennifer Baker spends time with some of Europe’s most brilliant scientists and innovators, whose discoveries are having a lasting and important impact on our daily lives.
From Atlantic ocean health checks, pioneering cancer vaccines and quantum computing games to zero-waste houses, new-breed organic farming, and recycling textile. These and other compelling stories await listeners in our latest pods.
Earlier in the series to celebrate the annual Research & Innovation Days we explored everything from the inner-secrets of biophysics, fungal architectures, robotics and automatic control, and we ventured to the outer-reaches of Arctic research, radio astronomy, and computer engineering.
Behind the Scenes SEASON TWO brings you inspiring science but also the stories and journeys of the people behind them.
This podcast series is an initiative of the European Commission. It brings together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and the public to debate and shape the future of Research and Innovation in Europe and beyond.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episode two in this latest series of ‘Behind the Scenes’ finds Carla Caro Villanova, a physics student, Spanish Physics Olympiad, prestigious CiMs-Cellex scholar, and a self-declared quantum-computing fan at her faculty in the University of Barcelona. Quantum theory is basically a branch of particle physics popularly described as “spooky science” which allows particles to be in two states at the same time.
She tells our host, journalist Jennifer Barker, about her prize-winning research – yes, she won the 2021 EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) using D-Wave’s quantum annealer. Her winning EUCYS work is about optimising quantum processes that mimic nature’s search for the easiest path/most energy efficient landscape (e.g. objects naturally wanting to slide downhill). Once solved, quantum computing can take on larger and more complex problems and get better, faster answers to real-world problems, from climate change prediction and adaptation measures to fail-safe engineering.
A natural communicator and keen for others to understand the power of quantum computing, Carla developed on a ‘gamified’ analogy, the so-called n-Queen problem, which basically asks how many queens can you fit on a chess board before they kill each other. “It’s just a game!” she assures us.
Find out more:
· Read the Horizon Magazine article on the 2021 EUCYS winners
· Learn about Carla Caro Villanova’s project
· Discover the EU Youth Portal
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.