Melanie Warrick gives a stellar intro to machine learning at Pycon 2014.
Computing prime factors may sound like an elementary math problem, but try it with a large number, say one that contains more than 600 digits, and the task becomes enormously challenging and impossibly time-consuming. Now, a group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has designed and fabricated a quantum processor capable of factoring a composite number –– in this case the number 15 –– into its constituent prime factors, 3 and 5.