Almost any student in the mathematical sciences has heard of quantum physics and quantum computers, but few have any idea what a quantum computer is or why you would want one.
Over the course of two lectures I'll talk a little about quantum physics, a little about what a quantum computer is and how one theoretically works, but more importantly I'll spend a lot of time talking about what I would do if I had one.
It turns out that if you have a quantum computer there are a couple of extra things you can do. One of those things, Grover's Algorithm, is so powerful that it offers a chance to rederive the entire field of algorithms: from minimum-finding to dynamic programming to shortest paths, almost nothing is immune. Grover's offers a chance to be one of the first on the ground: if you've ever seen a classic algorithm and thought "I could have come up with that!" this is the field where you get to try ideas and have them be really new.