QISCA Newsletter - August 2025
- koreaquantumclubs
- Sep 17
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 25
August QISCA Introductory Seminar and Journal Club Held
By Haeju Jung
The August 2025 QISCA Introductory Seminar and Journal Club sessions were successfully held on August 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th.
During the August 4th session, Chanho Won from QIYA delivered an introductory seminar titled "Introduction to Classical Shadow." He presented the concepts of classical shadow, introducing it as a methodology capable of reducing the number of measurements required for quantum state estimation. In the following journal club, Woojin Jung from SQRT presented on "Van der Waals Quantum Sensing." He presented that the quantum sensing technology can image a material's minute magnetic fields, temperature, and current distribution using spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride.
During the August 11th session, Kangmin Ha from QIYA delivered an introductory seminar titled "Quantum Teleportation." He explained the fundamental concepts and principles of Quantum Teleportation. In the following journal club, Takil Son from EQS presented on "What is Quantum Chaos / Pseudochaos." He explained quantum chaos phenomena and methods for measuring them.
During the August 18th session, Juhyun Song from QUICK delivered an introductory seminar titled "Measurement Device Independent-QKD." She covered the fundamental concepts of QKD, security threats, MDI-QKD as a solution, and its advancement, Twin-Field QKD. In the following Journal Club, Eunsoo Eun from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies presented on "QNLP." She explained QNLP, introducing the mechanisms of quantum graph transformers, quantum transformer models, and quantum-enhanced attention.
During the August 25th session, Oh Seokhoon Oh from SQRT delivered an introductory seminar titled "Introduction to Superconducting Qubits." He explained superconducting states and Josephson junctions, introducing how they are used to define and control the energy states of qubits. In the following Journal Club, Minki Kim from QUICK presented on "In the Shadow of the Hadamard Test: Using the Garbage State for Good and Further Modifications." He introduced methods to enhance the efficiency of quantum computing by utilizing information from system registers and auxiliary qubits in quantum algorithms.
QISCA 2025 Second Half President/Vice President Election Results
Aug 1, 2025 (Fri)
By Sungbin Lee
The new President and Vice President who will lead QISCA for the next six months were elected on Friday, August 1, 2025, at 10:00 PM. Eligibility to run was granted to current and former QISCA board members and club representatives, while voting rights were held by current QISCA board members and club representatives. In the President election, Sungbin Lee was re-elected with 12 votes in favor and 1 abstention out of 13 votes cast. In the Vice President election, Sunggeun Park was re-elected with 12 votes in favor and 1 abstention out of 13 votes cast.
Tour of the Korean Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS)
Aug 11, 2025 (Mon)
By Sungbin Lee
Twenty QISCA members gathered at the Advanced Industrial Measurement Lab. of the KRISS in Daejeon on Monday, August 11, 2025. During the approximately 60-minute tour, the first 30 minutes consisted of an introduction to the institute by Dr. Changki Hong from the Center for Superconducting Quantum Computing System. Afterwards, the group split into two teams to tour the Superconducting Quantum Computing Systems Research Group and the Neutral Atom Research Group. It was an excellent opportunity to witness the development of quantum information technology firsthand by actually seeing the interior of the 20-qubit superconducting quantum computer, the first of its kind successfully built in Korea.
Interview with Dr. Changki Hong of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS)
Aug 11, 2025 (Mon)
By Sungbin Lee
Five student journalists from Quantum Wave, the QISK Webzine, interviewed Dr. Changki Hong of the KRISS for about 30 minutes. It was a meaningful opportunity to hear Dr. Hong's insights on various topics, starting with how quantum technology can contribute to establishing national standards, followed by the direction for commercializing quantum computers, the strengths of the research environment at the KRISS, the role KRISS plays in strengthening the quantum ecosystem, and solutions for overcoming technical barriers. At the end, Dr. Hong emphasized that to become a successful quantum technology researcher, the ability to engage in deep discussions with individuals possessing extensive specialized knowledge is crucial. He stated that QISCA's activities hold great significance in this regard.
QIYA Swept Qiskit Hackathon Taiwan 2025
Aug 13-15, 2025 (Wed-Fri)
By Sungeun Kim
Students from Yonsei University's QIYA team swept all top three places at Qiskit Hackathon Taiwan 2025, held alongside the NTU-IBM Quantum System Users Meeting 2025. This hackathon, an international event co-hosted by IBM Quantum and National Taiwan University, is a competition where participants develop and compete with ideas for solving problems using quantum computing based on Qiskit. During the event, each team tackled different topics for three days, with QIYA members included in all of the winning teams.
Participation in the 1st Norma Quantum AI Hackathon
Aug 18-19, 2025 (Mon-Tue)
By Sungbin Lee
Two current QISCA board members participated in the 1st Quantum AI Hackathon hosted by Norma, a domestic quantum computing cloud service startup. Serving as mentors, they witnessed participants intensely collaborating and immersing themselves in problem-solving despite the tight schedule, thus demonstrating the potential of quantum AI and the passion surrounding it. Particularly notable was the participants' attitude of passionately tackling challenges through the night, along with their ability to self-learn, adapt quickly, and solve problems, which embodied a spirit of challenge and a strong will to learn. This competition highlighted the growth of Korea's quantum information community. Alongside Norma, which hosted the Quantum AI Competition with substantial prizes, including 3 million won for the first-place team, QISCA will also dedicate efforts to enhancing networking opportunities with Norma.
Information-Sharing Channel Established
Aug 20, 2025 (Wed)
By Sungbin Lee
An information-sharing channel has been established to foster academic exchange with the numerous outstanding seniors in the United States. The goal is to gain significant academic stimulation by interacting with them in the United States, home to the world's foremost quantum technology base. It has already successfully established, receiving substantial information from graduate students who have advanced to Princeton University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. It has achieved major accomplishments, including producing Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies (KFAS) scholarship recipients in the field of physics.
QISCA Member Team IQ-Rhythm Selected for IonQ Research Mentoring Program
Aug 20, 2025 (Wed)
By Eunsoo Eun
IQ-Rhythm, a team formed within QISCA, has been selected for the IonQ Research Mentoring Program. With this program, the team researches quantum encoding techniques and optimization on IonQ's hardware and simulator. Moreover, the team received $1,000 in credits through the IonQ Cloud, providing access to quantum hardware. They also hold weekly meetings with IonQ researchers to review their research progress and receive guidance.
QISCA-UChicago Quantum Society Joint Journal Club
Aug 21, 2025 (Thur)
By Sungbin Lee
QISCA held a joint journal club with the UChicago Quantum Society, a quantum information club at the University of Chicago, one of the leading institutions in quantum information science in the United States. From the QISCA, Hyungmin Lim from Yonsei University gave a one-hour presentation titled "Fixed depth Hamiltonian simulation with Cartan decomposition." From the UChicago Quantum Society, Rick Yoon, the President of the UChicago Quantum Society, held a one-hour seminar on "Fracton phases of matter and fracton models." We saw how new academic achievements can be made at the boundaries between disciplines by hearing about Hamiltonian simulations that can utilize quantum computers in solid-state physics and three-dimensional fracton matter applicable to high-dimensional quantum error correction. Following this exchange, we agreed to hold regular joint journal clubs with the University of Chicago and are currently coordinating the schedule.
DQQQ and DGIST Physics Club D-orbital Hold Networking Conference
Aug 27, 2025 (Wed)
By Haeju Jung
DGIST's quantum information science club DQQQ and physics club D-orbital held an academic networking conference. The event lasted approximately two hours over lunch, with students from both clubs presenting on their respective research interests. From DQQQ, Eunji Park presented on "Error mitigation in quantum phase estimation," Chanwoo Kim on “Practical challenges in QKD and their solution, MDI-QKD," and Haeju Jung on "Toward three-dimensional surface codes in hyperbolic space."
Meeting with the Co-Presidents of QSCA, UCLA's Quantum Computing Student Association
Aug 29, 2025 (Fri)
By Sungbin Lee
QISCA held a meeting with Victor Yu and Alexander Jurgens, co-presidents of the Quantum Computing Student Association (QCSA) at UCLA, one of the leading universities in the field of quantum information science in the United States. We learned that UCLA has already established an undergraduate quantum community of over 600 members and is in the process of building a Western US quantum network, including Caltech, USC, UCSD, and UCSB. We agreed with Victor Yu to hold regular journal clubs and joint mentoring programs, and decided to maintain contact via Discord and Slack. Considering that QISCA has 500 members as of August 2025, this is fewer than the 600-member community at UCLA alone. This emphasizes that the foundation of Korea's quantum infrastructure cannot be compared to that of the US and suggests that QISCA still has a long way to go to activate the Korean student network.
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