Yale Wang Fan
Oregon
Yale Wang Fan, 18, of Beaverton, demonstrated the power of quantum computing in
solving "NP-complete" (NPC) problems for his Intel Science Talent Search physics
& space sciences project. NPC problems, such as the fastest way to win
battleship, or finding solutions to complicated constraint equations, are among the toughest
problems to solve using traditional computing. Yale used quantum computing to
identify which algorithms would be best suited to the NPC challenge. His results
could give physicists another tool for exploring lattice models of physical theories.
Yale is a Davidson Fellow Laureate, won best of fair at the Intel
Northwest Science Expo three years in a row, and earned a first place grand
award in the physics and astronomy category at the Intel ISEF in 2009. He
lectures on quantum computing at Portland State University and is the sole
author of a published research paper on quantum logic. A largely self-taught
pianist, Yale attends The Catlin Gabel School in Portland, where he plays
varsity tennis, competes on the robotics team and captains the science bowl
team. The son of Jinsheng Fan and Jian Wang, Yale aspires to attend Harvard or
MIT and become a physics professor.
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