This talk introduces the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s next large astrophysics mission, launched Christmas Day, 2021. Webb’s science goals: detection of the universe’s first light, assembly of galaxies, birth of stars and observation of planets and exo-planets are introduced. We will explore how the design responds to mission requirements and produces the performance necessary to achieve the mission’s goals. Many of the unique elements of the architecture will be explored. The main engineering challenges for largest telescope ever built-in space are discussed and illustrated. Finally, the current status of the hardware and path to science operations will be explored.

Quantum computation has captivated the minds of many for almost two decades. For much of that time, it was seen mostly as an extremely interesting scientific problem. In the last few years, we have entered a new phase as the belief has grown that a large-scale quantum computer can actually be built. Quantum bits encoded in the spin state of individual electrons in silicon quantum dot arrays have emerged as a highly promising direction. In this talk, I will present our vision of a large-scale spin-based quantum processor with integrated on-chip classical electronics, and ongoing work to realize this vision. We have achieved two-qubit gate fidelities of more than 99.5% and universal control of up to six qubits. In close collaboration with our engineering colleagues and Intel, we have implemented universal qubit control using a cryogenic control chip, which will help overcome the wiring bottleneck. We have also performed preliminary experiments with switched capacitor circuits integrated on the qubit chip. Finally, we have tested the impact of higher operating temperatures on the qubit performance. When combined, the progress along these various fronts can lead the way to scalable systems of high-fidelity spin qubit registers for computation and simulation.

Adiabatic quantum flux parametron (AQFP) is an extremely energy-efficient superconductive logic device due to the adiabatic switching in the logic operation. Its switching energy is close to the quantum limit and can be reduced proportionally to the operation frequency. The minimum switching energy can be reduced even lower than the thermal limit kBTln2 known as the Landauer limit. This talk will present the latest research status in superconductive integrated circuit technologies based on the AQFP logic, which includes microprocessors for high-performance computing (Fig. 1), detection and control circuits for quantum computers, stochastic processors for neuromorphic computing, and readout circuits for superconductive image sensors. The research activities toward the reversible computing paradigms using AQFP logic will also be presented.