OMAR SHEHAB

Quantum Algorithm Designer

IonQ, Inc.
shehab@ionq.co
+14435312727
www.umbc.edu/~shehab1

COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP
Bangladesh

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Quantum machine learning, quantum programming languages, quantum computing for chemistry,
quantum complexity theory, quantum computational group theory, quantum annealing, graph theory,
high performance computing, adiabatic quantum computing.

EDUCATION
2017 - 2017 Advanced Special Graduate Student in Physics
University of Maryland
Audited Methods of Statistical Physics by Paulo Bedaque.

2010 - 2016 PhD in Computer Science

University of Maryland Baltimore County
Research Advisor - Prof. Samuel J. Lomonaco Jr.
Dissertation:
Solving mathematical problems in quantum regime.

2001 - 2006 Bachelor of Computer Science & Engineering

Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh

WORK HISTORY
2017 - IonQ, Inc.
Quantum Algorithm Designer
-Working as a quantum algorithm designer.

2017 - University of Maryland

Research Affiliate
-Working as a quantum algorithm designer.

2016 - 2017 University of Maryland Baltimore County

Visiting Assistant Professor
-Teaching Principles of programming languages, Discrete structures, and
Programming Language II.
-Mentoring one masters and one undergraduate student.
2016 - 2017 NSF Center for Multicore Productivity Research, UMBC
Faculty Investigator
PI: Milton Halem, Sam Lomonaco
- Working as an investigator for the NASA-AIST grant titled, Computational
Technologies: Feasibility Studies of Quantum Enabled Annealing Algorithms
for Estimating Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes from OCO-2 and the LIS Model
(NNH14ZDA001N), a collaboration between UMBC, NASA Goddard, and
Columbia University. Studying the relationship between the theory of
Boltzmann machines and quantum annealing computing, using TensorFlow
to implement classical neural networks to approximate CO2 flux using satellite
data, studying hybrid architectures for neural network using classical clusters
and quantum annealing computers.
- Received the NNH16ZDA001N-AIST grant titled An Assessment of Hybrid
Quantum Annealing Approaches for Inferring and Assimilating Satellite Surface
Flux Data into Global Land Surface Models as a Co-I.
- Working as an investigator in a DWave funded project to investigate scalable
noisy image segmentation using Markov random fields in the quantum
annealing regime.
- Collaborating with a researcher from the National Security Agency on
quantum computational group theory with potential application in
cybersecurity.

2016 - 2016 A collaboration of universities and industry

PI: Ken Zick
Helped the potential PIs to put together a proposal for the IARPA Quantum
Enhanced Optimization program (IARPA-BAA-15-13). Contributions included
a proposed research program for quantum annealing algorithm to approach the
MAX-CUT problem and use the same architecture to implement restricted
Boltzmann machines. Also proposed protocols to verify quantumness for the
same program.

2015 - 2016 NSF Center for Multicore Productivity Research, UMBC

Graduate Research Assistant
PI: Milton Halem, Sam Lomonaco
Worked for the NASA-AIST grant titled, Computational
Technologies: Feasibility Studies of Quantum Enabled Annealing Algorithms
for Estimating Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes from OCO-2 and the LIS Model
(NNH14ZDA001N), a collaboration between UMBC, NASA Goddard, and
Columbia University. Developed quantum annealing algorithm for image
compression.

2015 - 2015 US Army Research Lab, Adelphi, MD

Summer Research Assistant
Host: Radhakrishnan Balu
Investigated the capacity of Hopfield networks implemented on quantum
annealing computers.

2012 - 2015 Dept. of CSEE, UMBC, Baltimore, MD

Teaching Assistant
Assisted for Algorithms, Coding theory.
2014 - 2014 Information Sciences Institute, Arlington, VA
Visiting Research Assistant
Host: Kenneth M. Zick
Developed and implemented the first quantum annealing algorithm for graph
isomorphism on a quantum annealing computer.

2013 - 2013 Audacious Inquiry, Baltimore, MD

Software Engineering Intern
Worked as a software engineer for a government health care project.

Summer, 2012 Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

Visiting Scholar
Taught object oriented programming to a class of sixteen students from eight
Asian countries.

2011 - 2012 Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA

Software Engineering Intern
Worked as a J2EE developer for the Cisco IP Interoperability and
Collaboration System.

2010 - 2011 Erill Lab, Dept. of Biology, UMBC, Baltimore, MD

Research Assistant
PI: Ivan Erill
Developed jFitom, a multi-platform GUI-enabled standalone software for
detection of binding sites in genetic sequences.

2006 - 2010 Nilavo Technologies, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Software Engineer
Worked as a J2EE developer for the Biscom Secure File Transfer platform.

TEACHING
CMSC 202 Computer Science II for Majors
Spring 2017
- Undergraduate class
- Enrollment: 100
- Overall Student Rating: TBA
- Managed three TAs

CMSC 203 Discrete Structures

Fall 2016
- Undergraduate class
- Enrollment: 41
- Overall Student Rating: 3.6/5
- Managed one grader

CMSC 331 Principles of Programming Languages

Fall 2016, Spring 2017
- Undergraduate class
- Enrollment: 39, 24, 40, 40
- Overall Student Rating: 4.2/5, 4.5/5, TBA, TBA
- Managed two graders
CSCI 3002 Java: Object Oriented Programming
Summer 2012
- Undergraduate class
- Enrollment: 16

CMSC 643 Quantum Computation

Spring 2014, 2015
- Graduate class
- Teaching Assistant to Prof. Sam Lomonaco

CMSC 441 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

Fall 2013, 2014, Spring 2014, 2015
- Undergraduate
- Teaching Assistant to Profs. Sam Lomonaco, Alan Sherman, Richard Chang

CMSC 442/653 Information and Coding Theory

Fall 2014
- Undergraduate/graduate class
- Teaching Assistant to Prof. Sam Lomonaco

PUBLICATIONS/PREPRINTS
Quantum Fourier Sampling is Guaranteed to Fail to Compute Automorphism Groups of
Easy Graphs, Omar Shehab, Samuel J. Lomonaco Jr., arXiv:1705.00760, 2017.
Exponential capacity of associative memories under quantum annealing recall, Siddhartha
Santra, Omar Shehab, Radhakrishnan Balu, arXiv: 1602.08149, 2016 currently under review.
Experimental quantum annealing: case study involving the graph isomorphism problem,
Kenneth M Zick, Omar Shehab, Matthew French, Scientific Reports vol 5, article number:
11168, 2015.
Five Quantum Algorithms Using Quipper, Safat Siddiqui, Mohammed Jahirul Islam, Omar
Shehab, arXiv: 1406.4481, 2014.
The Lomonaco-Kauffman Conjecture, Takahito Kuriya and Omar Shehab Journal of
Knot Theory and Its Ramifications vol 23, 1450003 (2014).

TALKS/ SEMINARS/ PRESENTATIONS

(Poster) Scalable Noisy Image Segmentation using Quantum Markov Random Field, presented
at CHMPR IAB Meeting, 2017, Rutgers University.
(Invited talk) Theres Plenty of Room Still at the Bottom, ACM Speaker, March 2017, Loyola
University, Maryland.
(Poster) Quantum Fourier Transform Fails to Compute Automorphism Group of Easy Graphs,
presented at February Fourier Talks, 2017, University of Maryland.
(Poster) Quantum annealing architectures and restricted Boltzmann machines, presented at
AGU Fall Meeting, December 2016, San Francisco, California.
 (Poster) Feasibility of Performing Arithmetic on a Quantum Annealing Computer, presented
at Adiabatic Quantum Computing Conference, 2016, Google LA, California.
(Contributed talk) The Graph Isomorphism Problem and Adiabatic Algorithms, presented at
Discrete Mathematics, 2016, Atlanta, Georgia.
(Poster) An overview of the quantum wavelet transform, focused on earth science applications
, presented at AGU Fall Meeting, December 2015, San Francisco, California.
(Contributed talk) A quantum benchmark for the D-Wave computer Quantum Informa-
tion and Computation XII, SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing April, 2014,
Baltimore.
(Poster) Locality of different clock Hamiltonians for unitary evolution of Deutschs algorithm,
presented at NIST-UMD Workshop on Quantum Information and Computer Sci-
ence, March 2014, College Park, Maryland.
(Poster) UNKNOTTING as a k-local Hamiltonian problem, presented at Quantum Infor-
mation Processing, February 2014, Barcelona, Spain.
(Poster) Adiabatic Hamiltonian complexity of Trefoil knot presented at 45th ACM Sym-
posium on the Theory of Computing, 2013, Stanford University, Palo Alto.
(Contributed talk) Adiabatic quantum computational properties of Hopf link APS March
Meeting, 2013, Baltimore.
(Contributed talk) All optical XOR, CNOT gates with initial insight for quantum computa-
tion using linear optics Quantum Information and Computation X, SPIE Defense,
Security, and Sensing April, 2012, Baltimore.
(Contributed talk) A variable mechanical optical attenuator Enabling Photonics Tech-
nologies for Defense,Security, and Aerospace Applications VIII, SPIE Defense,
Security, and Sensing April, 2012, Baltimore.
(Contributed talk) Grid2Mosaic2Grid: A Complete Pair of Polynomial Knot Algorithms
KNOTS IN WASHINGTON XXXIII: Categorification of Knots, Algebras, and
Quandles; Quantum Computing December, 2011, Washington DC.

ASSISTANTSHIP, AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

UMBC Supplement for Undergraduate Research Grant, 2016 to mentor an undergraduate
student in a quantum information project using the IBM five qubit quantum computer.
Research Assistantships in the NASA-AIST grant titled Feasibility Studies of Quantum En-
abled Annealing Algorithms for Estimating Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes from OCO-2 and the
LIS Model.
GSA and organizers travel grants to attend 14th Canadian Quantum Information Summer
School, 2014, University of Guelph, Ontario.
GSA and organizers travel grants to attend 11th Canadian Quantum Information Student
Conference, 2014, University of Guelph, Ontario.
Visiting Research Assistantship for Summer 2014 at Information Sciences Institute, Arlington,
VA.
Teaching Assistantships since 2011 for the following courses - quantum computation, graduate
algorithm, undergraduate algorithm, coding theory.
Accepted at Quantum Games and Protocols 2014, Simons Institute for the Theory of Com-
puting, UC Berkeley, CA.
GSA & QIP Travel Grants for Quantum Information Processing, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.
 Clay Mathematics Institute Travel Grant to attend 2013 Clay Research Conference and Quan-
tum Mathematics and Computation 2013, Oxford, UK.
GSA & NSF Travel Grants to attend 45th ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing,
2013 in Palo Alto, CA.
GSA & NSF Travel Grants to attend IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, 2013
in Palo Alto, CA.
GSA Travel Grants to attend APS March Meeting, 2013 in Baltimore, MD.
Departmental, GSA & NSF Travel Grants for Quantum Information Processing, 2013 in
Beijing, China.
Travel Grant by Joint Quantum Institute, UMD College Park for QIS Workshop in Computer
and Natural Sciences 2012, Maryland.
Visiting Scholar position at Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh for summer
2012 (taught Java/OOP to sophomores).
Departmental and GSA Travel Grant for Quantum Information and Computation X, 2012.
GSA Travel Grant for KNOTS IN WASHINGTON XXXIII: Categorification of Knots,Algebras,
and Quandles; Quantum Computing, 2011.

POPULAR SCIENCE
Review of: A Wealth of Numbers: An Anthology of 500 Years of Popular Mathematics
Writing by Benjamin Wardhaugh, Omar Shehab ACM SIGACT News Column, Volume
46 Issue 1, 2015.
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World by Ian Stewart, Omar
Shehab ACM SIGACT News Column, Volume 45 Issue 1, 2014.
Book review of The Dots and Boxes Game: Sophisticated Childs Play by Elwyn Berlekamp,
Omar Shehab ACM SIGACT News Column, V 44, I 1, 2013.
Book review of The Cryptoclub: Using Mathematics to Make and Break Secret Codes by
Janet Beissinger and Vera Pless, Omar Shehab ACM SIGACT News Column, V 43, I
1, 2012.

SERVICE
- Graduate admission committee for Fall 2017 of the Dept. of CSEE, UMBC.
- Reviewer for Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical and Mathematical Reviews and
Involve.
- Maintainer of The Big Table of Quantum Artificial Intelligence (http://bit.ly/2lK5dPc).

REFERENCES
Samuel J. Lomonaco Jr. Ph.D. PhD Supervisor lomonaco@umbc.edu
Milton Halem Ph.D. PI halem@umbc.edu
Kenneth M. Zick Ph.D. Internship mentor kenneth.zick@ngc.com
Siddhartha Santra Ph.D. Internship co-mentor santra@usc.edu
John E. Dorband Ph.D. co-PI dorband@umbc.edu