Last year Google leapt into Quantum Computing by hiring Dr. Martinis and his quantum computing research group from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Here is an article on that hiring to catch you up. The hiring of Dr. Martinis by Google was another indication of its strong commitment to creating a Quantum Computer.

Recently in the journal Nature, google announced a crucial error correcting step needed to make quantum computing practical. Much of the work was done before Dr. Martinis' hiring, however it will no doubt prove useful to his efforts at Google. Here's an article detailing the recent error checking advancement.

Google Researchers Make Quantum Computing Components More Reliable

Researchers from a university and Google demonstrate a crucial error-correction step needed to make quantum computing practical.

A solution to one of the key problems holding back the development of quantum computers has been demonstrated by researchers at Google and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Many more problems remain to be solved, but experts in the field say it is an important step toward a fully functional quantum computer. Such a machine could perform calculations that would take a conventional computer millions of years to complete.+

The Google and UCSB researchers showed they could program groups of qubits-devices that represent information using fragile quantum physics-to detect certain kinds of error, and to prevent those errors from ruining a calculation. The new advance comes from researchers led by John Martinis, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who last year joined Google to set up a quantum computing research lab. Martinis now holds a joint position between UCSB and Google, leading work on superconducting aluminum chips that operate at a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Most of the work behind the new results, reported today in the journal Nature, took place before Martinis joined Google.

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