Brisbane Quantum Shorts screening and Q&A wrap-up

Earlier this month (9 November), EQUS hosted another screening of the Quantum Shorts film festival finalists, at Palace James St Cinemas in Brisbane.  Given the competition is wrapping up after the current short stories round, this is likely to be our last ever Quantum Shorts event!  Quantum Shorts has been a wonderful opportunity for outreach, so we’ll be sad to see it end but are excited to see what comes next.
 
At the Brisbane event, around 30 people enjoyed popcorn and soft drinks while watching the 9 finalists.  From the audience reaction, the favourite seemed to be ‘Many Excuses Interpretation’, a comedy by Paul, Felix, Alfie, Petra and Ezra Ratner, in which two brothers argue over broken gadgets and the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics.  After the films, attendees were able to ask questions of the panel—PhD student Stefan Zeppetzauer and Comms & Engagement Manager Kristen Harley—about the films, the underlying quantum and anything else they wished to know.  Of particular interest was Stefan’s research on quantum clocks and superconducting quantum devices, and the paths into and skills needed for careers in quantum.
 
The current round of Quantum Shorts, which calls for short stories inspired by quantum that include the phrase “nobody said this was going to be easy”, closes to submissions on 8 January 2024.  After that, EQUS will be working with the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore, which runs Quantum Shorts, on potential legacy activities for the competition.  So maybe there will be further screening events in the future after all, or even a book!

Quantum Shorts is an international competition that showcases quantum-inspired short films.  It is organised by the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore, with media partners Scientific American and Nature, and scientific partners EQUS, the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, Canada, the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech, QuTech, and the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme.  The shortlisted films are available to watch on the Quantum Shorts website (https://shorts.quantumlah.org/).