Photonics is being pursued across three distinct computing paradigms: classical unconventional (Ising machines, photonic neural networks), quantum-inspired (coherent Ising machines, variational circuits), and genuinely quantum (photonic qubits, boson sampling); yet these communities rarely converge. Each claims advantage for different problem classes and timescales, and the boundary between them is no longer clean. This joint N2/SC-Q workshop/symposium maps the full spectrum in a single structured session, asking where photonic computing delivers practical advantage today, where it plausibly will within five years, and whether any paradigm represents a discontinuous leap rather than incremental gain over classical electronics.
Organizers
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John Jarman
Nu Quantum, United States
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Metej Hejda
Hewlett Packard Labs, Belgium
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Natalia Herrera Valencia
Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom
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Patty Stabile
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands