Dr Mohammad Rowshan joins the Sydney Quantum Academy Experts Network

The Sydney Quantum Academy (SQA) welcomes Dr Mohammad Rowshan to its growing Experts Network.

Dr Rowshan is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Quantum Software and Information (QSI) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where he researches quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computing. Drawing on his background in classical coding theory, he develops approaches to make quantum error correction more efficient and better suited to the demands of large-scale quantum computers.

"Quantum information is fragile," said Dr Rowshan. "Errors arise from noise, imperfect gates, measurements and control. Even very small error rates become a serious problem when computations involve many qubits and a very large number of operations."

Tackling one of quantum computing's biggest challenges

Building a useful quantum computer requires more than simply increasing the number of qubits. Quantum information must also be stored and processed reliably despite the errors introduced by noise and imperfect hardware.

Quantum error correction addresses this by encoding quantum information across multiple physical qubits, allowing errors to be detected and corrected without directly measuring the encoded quantum state. The challenge is to do this efficiently while also carrying out computations without allowing errors to spread through the system.

"This is especially important for large fault-tolerant machines, which may require millions of physical qubits for demanding applications in areas such as cryptography, chemistry and materials science," he said. "Without effective error correction, computations at that scale would not remain reliable for long enough to be useful."

Building more efficient quantum error-correcting codes

Dr Rowshan is working to turn high-rate quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes into a practical platform for universal quantum computing.

“qLDPC codes can reduce the number of physical qubits needed for error correction, but we still need efficient ways to perform a universal set of logical operations on the encoded data without giving up that advantage,” he said.

He is particularly interested in using the algebraic structure of the codes to simplify difficult logical operations, including non-Clifford gates, and in reducing the overhead of methods such as magic-state preparation.

At the same time, these codes need to be adapted to quantum hardware constraints, including limited connectivity, biased noise, modular architectures and finite decoding and communication times.

"The broader goal is to bridge the gap between mathematically powerful codes and architectures that can actually be built," said Dr Rowshan. "Ultimately, we want to reduce both the qubit and time overhead required for fault-tolerant quantum computation."

Looking towards the future

Dr Rowshan is excited to see the field move from demonstrating individual pieces of fault tolerance towards designing complete error-corrected systems.

"The next major advances will come not from codes, hardware, decoding or logical gates in isolation, but from designing them together. There is still a great deal to discover about the algebraic structure of qLDPC codes, how they can support efficient universal computation, and how they should be adapted to real hardware, “ he said.

If these pieces come together," he said, "we could move from small error-corrected demonstrations to sustained quantum computations that are genuinely beyond what classical computers can do."

Interested in pursuing a PhD with Dr Rowshan as your supervisor? Explore his available research projects and review our guide to apply for an SQA PhD Scholarship.

About Dr Mohammad Rowshan

Dr Mohammad Rowshan is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Quantum Software and Information (QSI) at the University of Technology Sydney.

He received a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from the University of Nottingham in 2015, graduating first in his cohort, a Master of Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2016, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Monash University in 2021. Before joining UTS, he held research and academic positions at UNSW Sydney.

Dr Rowshan serves as an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. He is also a co-author of the Wiley-IEEE books Polar Codes: From Theory to Practice and the forthcoming The Algebra of Polar Codes.