Q&A with Corey Mullin

What project are you working on?

I am currently doing research in integrated photonics, exploring how optical systems can be used to study and simulate complex quantum systems. In particular, I am interested in developing integrated photonic implementations of Ising machines to solve quantum many-body problems.

What problem(s) are you aiming to address through your research?

My research aims to address the challenge of efficiently modeling and solving complex quantum systems that are difficult to compute using classical computers. By studying how light can represent and process information through photonic implementations of the Ising model, I hope to help advance scalable approaches that could impact a wide range of fields, from physics and computation to engineering and material science.

What inspired you to pursue this program of study?

During my undergraduate studies in applied physics and computer science, I became fascinated by the physics of light and its unique behaviours. Later, I learned how photonics could be used for computation, bridging two areas that had always interested me. The connection between these two fields inspired me to pursue graduate research in integrated photonics, where I can explore how light can be engineered to perform  complex computational tasks.