The Xanadu Residency Program accepts applications from enthusiastic students (including PhD students) and fresh graduates for the 2025 cohort until November 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (EST). If this program sounds like a fit for you, apply as soon as possible and join us on our mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere! And if you're on the fence, read on and see why you should spend next summer at Xanadu.
Applications for the 2025 cohort of Xanadu's Residency Program, one of the most exclusive and exciting summer programs in quantum computing, will close in only two weeks. If you are a student (or fresh graduate) in engineering, science, or computer science, this is your chance to beat hundreds of applicants from around the world and spend 17 weeks at the Xanadu offices in Toronto, working on exciting projects with some of the biggest names in the field.
Xanadu Residents join our software, research, and education teams and spend their time at the home of PennyLane contributing to the future of quantum machine learning, quantum computing, quantum chemistry, software development and photonics. They each dive into breakthrough projects in quantum research, software, and education, master a project in their field of specialization, and have a great time learning and enjoying summer in Toronto with their peers and colleagues.
Apply to become a 2025 Xanadu Resident before the November 15 deadline, find out more about 2024 Residents' projects, and read on to learn about their background, experiences, and advice they have to share with future applicants!
Xanadu Residents are exceptional students from all over the world, but local faces aren't amiss in the cohort, either. Serene Shum from the University of Toronto joined the Algorithms Team and worked on developing algorithms for simulating vibrational spectroscopy on a quantum computer (under the supervision of Juan Miguel Arrazola), which was close to her PhD research topic. Already having spent four years studying for her PhD, Serene was an experienced researcher, but she quickly noticed one surprising difference at Xanadu: "I'm collaborating and discussing with a lot more people at Xanadu and applying my knowledge, not just working on individual projects or doing pen-and-paper research."
Serene was joined in this year's Residency Program by Praveen Jayakumar, who has been working on his PhD in chemical physics at the University of Toronto for the past few years. Praveen spent his Residency in Xanadu's Quantum Error Correction Team (supervised by Priya J. Nadkarni and Michael Vasmer), where he worked on developing new methods to improve GKP code decoders, and noticed some of the same differences between his academic research and work at Xanadu. "I had some preconceived notions about research in industry and I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick to academia after my PhD, but this experience has broadened my horizons and made me question my previous choices," he says.
Praveen and Serene's PhD research hadn't afforded them as much opportunity to collaborate on code and debugging with others, but they had a leg up when it came to learning. Praveen and Serena joined a team to compete at QHack 2024, where they challenged themselves with building a hackathon project and even won a prize in the Seeing the Future category.
And even though their experience in the Xanadu Residency Program didn't include an exciting temporary move to a completely diffent environment, both Serene and Praveen have had a great time seeing Toronto from the eyes of their fellow Residents. For Praveen, getting to know his fellow Residents and colleagues at Xanadu was a particular highlight on top of the cutting-edge projects and research he worked on. "I've been studying in Toronto for two years, but I hadn't really explored it as much as I wanted to. It was fun relaxing and enjoying the city, or even visiting the Toronto Islands for the first time with other Residents," he shares. As a long-term Torontian, Serene has also found that joining a summer program so close to home can really change your perspective. "It's actually been exciting. I've lived in the area my whole life, but we've gone to a Toronto Blue Jays game, to Canada's Wonderland, and I went to the Leviathan roller coaster for the first time — and we even went on a camping trip to Algonquin," she shares.
Siddhu Chelluri, a quantum information PhD student who paused his studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany to join the Residency Program, has also had a fantastic time exploring the area. "Toronto is such a multicultural city, and I had an amazing time living here and enjoying food from all over the world, everything from sushi to African food," Siddhu explains.
While planning the final stages of his PhD studies, where he worked on the theoretical analysis of quantum repeaters and networks, Siddhu found himself wondering about the world outside of academia. "I wanted to see how research works in industry, this was something completely new to me," he explains. As part of the Xanadu Residency Program, Siddhu joined the Architecture Team (under the supervision of Ilan Tzitrin) and immersed himself into the vibrant community of Xanadu's various teams, from algorithms researchers to educators and hardware experts. "This was a different field from my PhD. In the beginning I had so many papers to read and so much to learn, it was a bit overwhelming. But I met amazing people, experts from so many different fields all in one place; it was a unique experience," he shares.
His fellow Resident Kasper Nielsen also faced a plethora of new research topics. As a PhD student in the field of nonlinear photonic circuits, Kasper stepped away from the familiar experimental setups at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and into the world of continuous variable photonics at Xanadu's Architecture Team (supervised by Filippo Miatto and Eli Bourassa).
Kasper worked on developing a fast and accurate photonic circuit simulator for MrMustard, and he admits that he found the process of getting up to speed with Xanadu's top-of-the-line research projects challenging, but by reading and discussing with colleagues, this quickly changed. "It takes time to learn something new, and people know it takes time. I was worried that I wasn't efficient enough, but my supervisors were super open to questions and gave me encouraging feedback until it all made sense," he says. After all the hard work, Kasper is excited to see the results of his project, and the way other teams at Xanadu will benefit from it. "PhD timelines can be very different than those in industry, and I've felt very motivated being here. I thrive in this research environment," Kasper shares.
Sometimes research take time; and in some cases, Xanadu Residents can enjoy seeing the impact of their work almost immediately. This summer, Ahmed Darwish, who was finishing up his master's degree at the Technical University of Munich in Germany joined the PennyLane Core Team together with Emiliano Godinez, who had, coincidentally, just submitted his master's thesis at the same place. Finally joining forces as Xanadu Residents (under the supervision of Alex Preciado), they found themselves immersed in a dynamic software engineering team that challenged them to put together all their knowledge of quantum computing and skills in software development.
"From the very first task, I was already learning something new," Emiliano says. By transitioning from being a PennyLane user to becoming a Resident in the team that develops our favorite quantum machine learning library, he's gained a different perspective about PennyLane. The way changes get implemented into PennyLane from one release to another and all the work that goes into the decisions that get made have now emerged from under the surface. "For example, when you see the warnings while you're coding, you don't pay too much attention to them… Now I was the one making the warnings, and I expected people to look at them," he explains. Ahmed agrees that their time at Xanadu and conversations with their team and supervisor have always been productive and insightful. "I keep forgetting that Xanadu is a start-up," Ahmed adds, "and I'm so glad to have been here to experience this process firsthand. There are still some limitations in place with PennyLane and it's not about perfection — it's about setting up the right systems and refining them to improve quantum computing for everyone."
From living in Munich as foreigners with imperfect German language skills, to moving to Toronto for the summer, both Ahmed and Emiliano found that they felt comfortable and accepted at Xanadu, enjoying new sports (from football to table tennis), learning about programming, keeping away from the free office snacks and exploring the city. "People here are much more diverse than in Munich, and the Residents are some of the kindest people in the world," Ahmed adds.
It was the people behind PennyLane that first inspired Jorge Martinez de Lejarza (or Gorka, as he prefers) to join the Xanadu Residency Program this year. "I've always been a huge fan of PennyLane," Gorka says, "so I wanted to come here to work with the people who build it and learn more about it." Gorka paused his PhD studies at the Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC) in Spain and at CERN, where he explores the practical applications of quantum computing in high-energy physics, and spent the summer learning new topics, finding the best ramen in Toronto, and enjoying daily ping-pong games at the Xanadu headquarters.
At the start of his Residency, Gorka joined the PennyLane Product Team (under the supervision of Alvaro Ballon), where he worked on educational projects, some of which you may have already seen: the Variational Quantum Algorithms module of the PennyLane Codebook and PennyLane coding challenges for the Singapore Quantum Cup. In the second half of his Residency, Gorka also joined a different team — the Algorithms Team (under the supervision of Soran Jahangiri and Guillermo Alonso) — and worked on quantum arithmetics. "My master's degree was in quantum field theory, so I started my PhD by watching Guillermo's videos to learn about quantum computing," he says, "and I wanted to make content that explains this topic to others. I've had a lot of fun and it's been really fulfilling."
Becoming a Xanadu Resident can help you open as many doors for your professional development as you'd like, and learning opportunities abound. "While working in the PennyLane Core Team, I actually realized that I'm more passionate about writing code to solve a specific research question — not pure software development — and I'll start my PhD with that in mind," Emiliano shares. In all cases, we at PennyLane believe that learning and fun should always come together, and we are excited to welcome Residents who feel the same.
To join the 2025 Xanadu Residency Program, apply now and show us why you should be selected. The application period will close on November 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (EST).
To learn more about the projects of 2024 Xanadu Residents or get in touch with them, visit their PennyLane profiles linked here or read the 2024 Residency Program post on the Xanadu Blog.
About the author
Ivana Kurečić
🐢 Focused on the adoption and implementation of innovative technologies