Hannah Earley

My name is Hannah Amelie Earley. I am CTO & Cofounder of a startup. and an affiliate lecturer at the University of Cambridge. I work on forms of unconventional computing, with special interests in reversible computing and molecular computing. My research centers on the physics and computer science of abstract forms of these systems, whilst my future directions will expand into their practical implementation. My PhD was completed under the supervision of Gos Micklem and based in Cambridge.

research

reversible bond logic

Molecular programming allows for the programming of the structure and behavior of matter at the molecular level, even to the point of encoding arbitrary computation. Current approaches have achieved impressive results, but can we go further? Can we manipulate arbitrary complex macromolecular structures, and can we exploit reversibility while we do so to approach the efficiency and modularity of biological systems? This project introduces an abstract model of molecular programming, Reversible Bond Logic (RBL), which aims to do just this. We show example systems such as a common fuel supply that can be used for all RBL machines, similar to ATP, a biased walker that doesn't use up its track, and a number of computational programs demonstrating control structures such as conditional branching, looping, and subroutines.

preprint

on the performance and programming of reversible molecular computers

My thesis comprised the following two projects, ‘engines of parsimony’ and ‘the ℵ calculus’.

preprintpublisheddoi:10.17863/cam.79111

engines of parsimony

This project focuses on the maximum rate of computation that can be achieved by any physical computer within a given region of space and provided a given supply of power and rate of heat dissipation. In part i, we find general scaling laws independent of whether the computers are quantum or classical, and also find how these depend on whether the computers are reversible or irreversible. We also extend to the cases of very small and very large computers. In parts ii and iii, we consider the consequences of this performance maximisation on cooperative/concurrent reversible computers from the perspectives of communication and resource sharing respectively.

when general relativistic effects such as gravitational collapse become important

the ℵ calculus

Inspired by the recommendation of reversible computing obtained in engines of parsimony, we developed a model of computation—the ℵ calculus—and an associated programming language—alethe—for declarative reversible computation. Being declarative, it is amenable to composition and high level programming. Other select features include automatic parallelisation, and explicit but intuitive separation of effects from 'pure' code. What we feel is most novel about ℵ is that it models the reversibility of not just the transformation of data, but also the program state itself. This makes it a good model for building physical reversible computers. In particular it is well suited for molecular implementations, and supports interaction and communication between non-local computational entities.

teaching

conferences etc

qualifications

select skills

societies

awards & scholarships

other employment

referees

~ available on request ~