Salvador Venegas-Andraca is deeply interested in the development of classical and quantum algorithms for NP-hard and NP-complete problems. His interests are on the theoretical algorithmic analysis of NP-hard/NP-complete problems (especially in the parlance of optimization theory), based on different models on computation, as well as on the application of such classical and quantum algorithms on science and industry.

In particular, Dr Venegas-Andraca is interested in the physical and algorithmic properties of quantum walks, as well as on the development of algorithms based on quantum adiabatic computation. Dr Venegas-Andraca is very interested in understanding how unconventional models of computation (both classical and quantum) can be used to solve challenging problems from the disciplines of molecular biology (protein folding) and simulation of quantum systems.

For quantum computing practitioners, computer simulation is crucial in order to understand and to develop intuition about the behavior of quantum systems used for computational purposes, as well as to realize the approximate behavior of practical implementations of quantum algorithms. A significant part of Dr Venegas-Andraca’s research efforts is focused on the development of classical computer algorithms for simulating quantum algorithms and quantum systems. Dr Venegas-Andraca has already developed simulation programs for n-particle quantum systems interacting in beam-splitters, several models of quantum walks and he is currently working of a set of Python-based software tools for simulating quantum circuits and quantum walks. So far, he has mainly worked on stand-alone platforms but expects to start simulations on distributed computer platforms shortly.

Dr Venegas-Andraca is a strong supporter of the application of science and technology on the creation of wealth. Thus, he works as a consultant for small and medium size companies since 1993. Dr Venegas-Andraca’s activities in this area include non-published (i.e. confidential) research developed for those companies he has worked for.