Quantum Furball - mediahttps://quantumfurball.net/2016-12-31T00:00:00-05:00Now in convenient blog form!Our airborne QKD trials were mentioned in The Globe and Mail2016-12-31T00:00:00-05:002016-12-31T00:00:00-05:00Brendon L. Higginstag:quantumfurball.net,2016-12-31:/our-airborne-qkd-trials-were-mentioned-in-the-globe-and-mail.html<p>September of 2016 was a busy month for a few reasons, one of these being the two weeks I was (with the rest of our IQC team) in Smiths Falls outside Ottawa conducting trials of our prototype quantum key distribution system. Ultimately this involved transmitting quantum signals from our ground-station quantum source to our receiver on a flying NRC aircraft—quite successfully, I might add. In the intervening time to now (and modulo one vacation to Australia and New Zealand) we wrote-up our results into a paper, the pre-print of which recently appeared <a class="reference external" href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.06396">on the arXiv</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time (not coincidentally) an article about our work appeared in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail—page 1 on Dec. 21, in our region—as well as the Waterloo Region Record (pg. 2, Dec. 22). You can read the <a class="reference external" href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/canadians-use-photons-to-solve-key-puzzle-for-future-of-encryption/article33397375/">online edition of the article</a>.</p>
<p>So that's neat.</p>
Hey look-it, I'm on the TV!2015-06-16T00:00:00-04:002015-06-16T00:00:00-04:00Brendon L. Higginstag:quantumfurball.net,2015-06-16:/hey-look-it-im-on-the-tv.html<p>So it seems my face has now graced (or disgraced, perhaps) North American television. Some folks from DMG Productions were in the lab a while ago gathering footage for a segment on IQC for Innovations with Ed Begley, Jr. Though my supervisor fielded the actual spoken material, you can spot me in the background of various “action shots” discussing <em>clearly very important things</em>™ with students and colleagues.</p>
<p>Here's the <a class="reference external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kMG5VyXHX4">segment in question</a>, first broadcast on Discovery Channel, May 25, 2015.</p>
<p>I've similarly been on Australian TV before, so that makes two continents that have had to deal with my mug on air.</p>