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Darian Tyan, a senior at Minot North High school, has spent more than 100 hours on a quantum computing project through a school program that allows students to work with a college professor on a chosen science, technology, engineering and math topic. Tyan chose to work with Dr. Nigel George, a physics professor at Minot State University.
Together, George and Tyan worked on a poster explaining the difference between quantum and classical computing. The project completed by Tyan used Grover’s algorithm, an algorithm meant to help narrow down possibilities to the correct answer, to teach a computer how to play the logic puzzle game Minesweeper. It was displayed at the EPSCoR conference in Minot on Oct. 20.
Tyan said his interest in computing and mechanics stems from the many extracurricular clubs he has been involved in at school, though his interest in fiddling and learning how things work dates to when he was a young child and would deconstruct and reconstruct his toy guns and the home remote.
Tyan started his coding journey learning JAVA script, then Python, two coding languages. The school’s Robotics Team captain, Tyan is involved in nine clubs, holding a position in seven of them. Of the 11 classes he is currently enrolled in, six are Advanced Placement level classes, showing his dedication to furthering his education and understanding of academic subjects. Even with his many other responsibilities stemming from the clubs he participates in and the classes he is enrolled in, the research project was still his number one priority.
Tyan's goal with quantum computing is to someday be in a position with an AI company, or even to start his own, where he can work to further bridge any gaps between the quantum computing field and AI.
Tyan also described being inspired by the Disney movie "Big Hero 6," which includes a character called Baymax, an artificially intelligent caretaker robot. Tyan said he wants to work on a similar idea in which artificial intelligence mixed with robotics could act as a caretaker for the elderly or disabled when a care facility or service lacks adequate staffing or human resources. Another area Tyan believes is important for quantum computing and AI research to focus on is simulating drug interactions in pharmaceutical research.
Tyan said working on the research project was a challenge.
"I had a real big shift in my learning process. So, this was the hardest thing I've ever done academic-wise, as this topic involved me wrapping my head around something that I didn't even know existed just before that, and I had to reread my textbook pages or my book pages multiple times," he said. He said he reread one page around seven times until he understood what was going on.
He said in working with classical computing, he was used to writing code, testing it, then hoping it worked. Whereas, while working with the quantum computer, he had to strive to understand why things happen, specifically the logistics behind code.
He described learning from the research project how to dive deeper than just code. He said he is now more comfortable navigating topics and better understands the impact of annotating and analyzing.
Tyan’s poster gives a bit of explanation on classic computing, then compares and contrasts classical and quantum. In classical code, computing is deterministic, which means when you put in the same inputs, you always get the same output, he said. He described quantum computing as probabilistic in nature, as answers are dependent on probability.
"I put a lot of hours into this project," Tyan said. "I love learning, and learning a topic is already challenging enough, especially when it's really difficult, which this was a really difficult experience for me. I really had to push myself to figure things out and not give up."
Tyan stressed the importance of the guidance from George.
"I thought to be way out of my reach of understanding at that level, but Dr. George kept pushing me, and he showed me that with consistency and actually pushing myself, I could do it,” he said.
Tyan said he loves serving as the captain of the robotics team, saying he enjoys the feeling of introducing younger students to the subject. He said many younger students are scared to step out of their comfort zones, but he wants to be able to help them do that, just as George helped him. George showed him that he was there to learn, he said.
Tyan highlighted the importance of never giving up and said more students should leave their comfort zones, as they might discover something they love. He said goals are often not out of reach, no matter how unattainable they may seem.
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