Tag: Andrea Schiano di Colella

Poster by A. Schiano di Colella at the Protein Folding in Real Time conference, Stockholm, 11 March 2026

Schematic representation of the architecture of a quantum circuit for application in variational problems. (Image by A. Schiano di Colella.)
Quantum computing for variational problems
Andrea Schiano di Colella, Antonio Ciarlo, Mats Granath, Giovanni Volpe
Date: 11 March 2026
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
Place: Aula Medica, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Conference: Protein Folding in Real Time

Quantum computing is a field of study that aims to exploit quantum mechanical effects for the purposes of computation. Due to the intrinsic capacity of qubits of efficiently represent an exponentially large configuration space, quantum computation has been identified as a promising candidate for complex physical chemistry simulations, including investigating the dynamics of protein folding. This work illustrates the use of quantum computing for variational problems, and the use of alternative training methods such as genetic algorithms to avoid the “barren plateau” phenomenon, which prevents the training of general quantum circuits by means of the usual gradient descent.

MSCA-DN GREENS training event in Göteborg, 10-14 November 2025

GREENS Logo. (Image from MSCA-DN GREENS)
The Soft Matter Lab hosted the first training event of the MSCA-DN GREENS from the 10th to the 14th of November 2025.
Both Andrea Schiano di Colella and Eduard Andrei Duta Costache, the two doctoral candidates based at the University of Gothenburg, participated to the event along with the other doctoral candidates of the network.

The training event consisted of a series of lectures on different topics such as small scale robots and their actuation mechanisms, theoretical aspects of the simulation of the dynamics of bodies immersed in fluids at low Reynolds numbers, working principles and applications of swarm robotics, and finally artificial intelligence and its applications to data analysis in experiments.

The event included a visit to the Swedish Algae Factory (SAFAB) and Smogenlax on the topic of circular economy, and concluded with a series of meetings between the representatives of the participating institutions, from both accademia and industry, to exchange research questions and plan secondments.

Andrea Schiano di Colella joins the Soft Matter Lab

Andrea Schiano di Colella. (Photo by A. Ciarlo.)
Andrea Schiano di Colella started his PhD at the Physics Department of the University of Gothenburg on the 24th of October 2025.

Andrea has a Master degree in Theoretical Physics from the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy.

During the course of his PhD, as part of the GREENS MSCA Doctoral Network he will focus on the development of deep learning based protocols for accurate autonomous microscopy.