The past few weekends have been full of marking activities. I'm pretty stressed out with the tasks and at times I went into a slight depression. The student clients ('bosses') kept asking when will they get their results and my fellow colleagues also asking the same, on behalf of their own students. In a way, I have started to regret my trip to Thailand. Not only have it caused financial stresses (yes, I know, my own doing) but it also came at the busy period of marking. By going to the conference, it had caused further delay of my marking (not helping with the expectations of current job). As I have commented before, what was I thinking when I accepted the invitation. Perhaps I have attached too much importance of my participation as a Malaysian representative to the conference (nobody really cared or noticed, right?). Thinking back, will there be any difference with my participation in the conference with the otherwise situation of my absence from the conference. Back to the marking, I have actually delayed marking scripts of my own group of students (to their displeasure) and gave priority to the scripts of the students of my colleagues. Of the two subjects, Linear Algebra was the one harder to mark particularly those involving row reduction procedure since there are many ways to do them (some perhaps not considered by the marking scheme). I have finished my marking of Linear Algebra, and now I am left with just scripts of my Applied Calculus students, which I hope to finish this weekend.
Yesterday, after my replacement class at XMUM in the morning, I drove to UPM for EQuaLS2024. I was invited to the forum in the afternoon. I was told that I should share my experience of building the quantum research ecosystem.
I started off by saying what I have done (the so-called 30 years) can only be of historical note, but what is more important how we forge the path ahead. The EQuaLS series is part of this history, a continuation of the lecture series I initiated in ITMA (TSL Expository Lecture Series). When I renamed it to EQuaLS, I was actually asked the reason why I did not name the lectures after the name of the lab. Having experienced being moved from one institute to another, and then from one lab to another, I thought it was best to name it appropriately after the research theme that it should carry. In this way, the lecture series is independent of the hosting institute and laboratory. Indeed, there was the vision of EQuaLS could be a national event, that may be held by a different university. It almost did until the intended organizer backed off. In the forum, I explained the intent of the lecture series is to bring us to the level of international experts with enough mathematical sophistication and maturity and of course, this could take years. Without such level, no one will take us seriously and it is highly unlikely for us to progress without substantial amount of acceptance of the relevant (international) community.
The other thing we did, mentioned in the forum for a historical note is our regular weekly meetings, that we called QuEST.
The point of the meeting is to allow members to share what they have read or worked on with other members. This inculcates a culture of critical discussions among members, which would be necessary steps to attain the mathematical sophistication and maturity mentioned before. The other problem is the fact we have limited reading capacity, while thousands of publications being produced daily. So if we wanted to be well-rounded and be aware/on top of current issues being discussed, then we need to distribute the 'responsibility' of reading/reporting among the members. Perhaps another matter that can be instilled with the weekly meetings is the sense of urgency in facing research. Having said all this, a danger would be falling into the trap of having meetings for the sake of meetings. Every now and then, there should be some form of renewal of the spirit of these meetings. So a good thing to have (which we did not do), is to assess the situation at some regular intervals.
All of the above points raised seem to be out of synch with the topics raised by the other panel members; they touched upon policies, working papers, financial issues. If ever some criticise what I have raised is too idealistic or emotive or whatever, I can also retort that some of the issues raised are really like putting the cart before the horse, when we are still facing very basic issues. However, the point here is not to put anyone down; everyone's contribution should be welcomed, particularly when the meet is meant to foster collaboration among us. In any case, we do need realizable actions from all these discussions, so that whatever being discussed does not end with the forum itself.
At some point in the discussions, I did raise my concern of unhealthy attitude that may take place while pursuing these quantum agendas. With the recent attention of the government on quantum technologies, there may be tussle about who should take lead. This may happen when personal agendas are placed above the overarching national agenda. Ideally, everyone should be leading in areas that they are familiar with. Opportunities should be open to all with complementary contributions from each group. Dreaded are ideas of sabotage or wanting others to fail; if there are any, then rightfully such persons should be shunned from the collaborative efforts. I also stressed the fact that no single person can carry the quantum agenda for the country on his/her own; we need all the help/contribution that we can get. I hope that by saying this, I will not offend anyone but it is a sincere thought from me.
After the forum, I met me with my junior colleagues. As a follow-up to the forum, I did say that we need to come up with some coherent direction for the group, something that we could say to the world, these are our contributions. It is quite easy to say that we need to work on topics that are close to experiments, but what precise is that? Perhaps using the Thailand experience, we should turn the question around, we need experimentalists to work closely with theorists. The cooperation between theorists and experimentalists should be organic and this takes time (maybe we give, say another five years?). During the forum, I did point out that Singapore had started off with high energy physics in the beginning (80s). It was only later (90s) that they turned to quantum foundations and quantum information with topics like Bell inequalities and qutrits, before they arrive to where they are now.
It was nice to meet with my junior colleagues. I left the place feeling rather estranged, not knowing my future. I wish my younger colleagues all the success and hope that they can carry out the national quantum agenda successfully.
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