William Oates

Tell us a little about your background – where did you receive your undergraduate / graduate degrees.

After growing up in Georgia, I attended Georgia Southwestern State University through a dual-degree undergraduate program with Georgia Tech. I have a bachelor’s in mathematics and mechanical engineering. Upon taking a year off while working in the automotive industry, I returned to Georgia Tech in their Mechanical Engineering Department, where I received my MS and PhD degrees. I then spent two years as a post doc in the Mathematics Department at North Carolina State University.

When did you join FSU? What made you choose your university to build your research program?

I joined FSU in 2006 in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. They had a strong track record of research in the field of fluid dynamics and flow control, which matched well with my background in multifunctional materials, adaptive structures, and nonlinear control.

 

When did you become interested in quantum research? Who or what inspired you?

I first heard about increased interest in quantum computing from a colleague of mine in Mathematics at FSU—Prof. M. Yousuff Hussaini. This was circa 2017 when the D-Wave machine began to gain traction with research at NASA Ames and Lockheed. We conducted some machine learning & uncertainty analysis research on this machine in collaboration with researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Dr. Travis Humble). This later transitioned to work on quantifying the performance of the IBM quantum machine.

What are your current research interests? Could you give an example of some recent result that you feel especially passionate about?

We have a Center of Excellence on aerospace applications (AEROMORPH). We are integrating analog computing concepts into the skins of aircraft to quantify and control turbulent flow. The information processing of these systems relies on what are called physical reservoir computers. In principle, this concept can be extended to the quantum domain. If successful, this could dramatically change the way we design autonomous vehicles so they anticipate danger while navigating complex environments.

 

How would you describe your research to the general public? Why is your topic important?

The research we are currently focused on is based on developing new mathematical tools to help design autonomy into land, sea, and air vehicles. It is similar to how the nervous system in the body senses and responds to the environment. We want to design multifunctional material systems to perform similarly in vehicles to make transportation of humans and goods safer and more efficient. The ability to expand our algorithms to quantum circuits could dramatically impact performance.

What do you think about the future of quantum research? How can FSU contribute to that future?

Quantum research remains a risky endeavor, but with an extraordinary pay-off if it can be engineered into reliable systems that can compute or sense like nothing ever possibly imagined. It is a perfect topic for university research to mitigate risk and accelerate technology transition towards commercialization. Quantum computing is highly interdisciplinary, requiring collaborations across many fields of research. FSU is well poised to support this effort given the collaborative and congenial environment of people working in mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and engineering.

What are your interests outside of research? What do you like to do in your free time?

My son, who just transferred into FSU, talked me into training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu about 3 years ago. I try to keep up with him a couple of times a week. I’m otherwise turning wrenches on my 1978 BJ40 (diesel) Land Cruiser and 1972 Chevy Impala. One of them is always in need of a little TLC!