Jessica Pointing
About
Jessica has lived in Reading, England
Jessica has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark
Jessica is living in California, USA
Quantum Computing Researcher at Stanford, Harvard, MIT • Founder of Harvard College and Stanford Quantum Computing Associations • Founder of Optimize Guide • Speaker
Jessica Pointing has engaged in quantum computing research at Stanford University, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is currently a PhD student specializing in quantum computing at Stanford University and has been awarded the Knight-Hennessy Fellowship. She completed her Bachelors degree in Physics and Computer Science, with high honors and as a member of the academic honors society Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard University after spending her first two years of university studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
She founded the Stanford Quantum Computing Association and the Harvard College Quantum Computing Association. Jessica was the audience-voted winner for the Quantum Matters Science Communication Competition. Jessica has been invited to speak about quantum computing at conferences internationally, including IBM’s annual conference, Oracle’s Code One conference, and as a panelist at the Forbes CIO Summit.
Jessica has interned as a software engineer at Google, management consultant at McKinsey and Company, investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and strategist at Morgan Stanley. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Optimize Guide, a blog about life optimization and founded the Now Know Organization, which received funding from Google to teach technology to young people.
Jessica was selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the Science category. Jessica won the IBM Q Quantum Computing Award for winning, with a team, IBM's first quantum computing hackathon. She was also a prize-winner at the Creative Destruction Lab quantum computing hackathon. She has been awarded the McKinsey Women's Impact Award, MIT Award for Distinguished Achievement in Leadership, and has been named a Google Anita Borg Scholar and John Harvard Scholar for being in the top 5% of the class at Harvard. She is also a Microsoft Scholar, Palantir Scholar, Adobe Research Scholar, Morgan Stanley Scholar, Goldman Sachs Scholar, Neo Scholar, Society of Women Engineers Scholar and Society of Geophysicists Scholar.
Speaking
QCWare Q2B Conference: Practical Quantum Computing
Moderator for Scott Aaronson Session
San Jose, USA, December 2019
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Computer Science and Software Engineering Conference (CASCON)
Keynote
Canada, October 2018
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Canada, October 2018
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John Hennessy's Computer Systems Architecture Course
Guest Lecturer
Stanford, USA, March 2019
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Oracle's International Day of the Girl Celebration
Talk
Oracle Santa Clara, USA, October 2019
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Education
Stanford University
PhD Student
PhD Student
Knight-Hennessy Scholar
Started Sep 2018
Working on quantum computing
Harvard University
Bachelors in Physics and Computer Science (double major), with citation in Danish
High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa (honors society), John Harvard Scholar (top 5% in class for the 16-17 academic year)
Bachelors in Physics and Computer Science (double major), with citation in Danish
High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa (honors society), John Harvard Scholar (top 5% in class for the 16-17 academic year)
2016 - 2018
Favourite Course: How to Make Anything (graduate course) - Grade: A
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Former Candidate for Bachelors in Physics and Computer Science (double major)
Former Candidate for Bachelors in Physics and Computer Science (double major)
2014 - 2016
Favourite Course: Quantum Computation (graduate course) - Grade: A
Copenhagen International School
Valedictorian
(graduated with the highest grades in the class)
Valedictorian
(graduated with the highest grades in the class)GPA: 4.0/4.0
Physics Research at Technical University of Denmark (DTU); Sprinter at British and Danish Championships; Student Government President
Science Award, Academic Award, Outstanding Student Award, Citizenship Award, Leadership Award, Student of the Year Award
IB Higher Level Maths - Grade: 7 out of 7, IB Higher Level Physics - Grade: 7 out of 7, IB Higher Level Economics - Grade: 7 out of 7, IB Higher Level Chemistry - Grade: 7 out of 7
Awards
IBM Q Quantum Computing Award
2019
Awarded at IBM Q's first quantum computing hackathon. Our team won out of around 20 teams (about 135 people).
Creative Destruction Lab Hackathon Award
2019
Awarded the IBM prize and 2nd-overall prize.
Quantum Matters Science Commnuication Award
2018
1st place winner for audience choice award and 2nd place winner for judges choice award.
Neo Scholar
2018
Chosen by Ali Partovi to be a part of the community of engineers. Read more information on Neo.
Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society
2018
Awarded at Harvard University
John Harvard Scholar
2017
Awarded for being in the top 5% of the class (highest honorary scholarship), based on the grade point average of the academic year.
Adobe Research Scholar
2017
This scholarship recognizes outstanding undergraduate female students anywhere in the world who are studying computer science.
Palantir Scholar
2016
Awarded for demonstration of excellence in technology.
Google Scholar
2016
Awarded for a strong academic record, and exemplifying leadership and demonstrating passion in the field of computer science.
Microsoft Scholar
2016
Awarded for demonstrated passion for technology, academic excellence and leadership while working to push the software industry forward.
McKinsey Impact Award
2016
Awarded for leadership and potential for having a lasting impact in the community
Goldman Sachs Scholar
2016
Awarded for embodying Goldman Sach's Business Principles, including: creativity and imagination, excellent teamwork, intense effort in work, and integrity and honesty.
Hackathon Finalist, Prizewinner
2016
Awarded for building a web application allowing Medicare patients to seamlessly contact their providers. Built at the Hackathon at Brown Univeristy.
Morgan Stanley Scholar
2015
This scholarship program is a competitive undergraduate scholarship program established to provide outstanding students with $15,000 for exceptional academic achievement and a summer internship.
MIT Leadership Award
2015
Awarded to one student in the freshman class at MIT for distinguished achivement in leadership. Awarded for working with others in a common effort and enriching the quality of campus life.
SWE (Society of Women Engineers) Scholar
2015
Selected from over 1,600 applications for demonstrating outstanding academic achievement as well as strong engineering potential.
SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) Scholar
2015
Awarded for achievement in physics.
Work Experience
Undegraduate Researcher
Harvard and MIT Quantum Computing Labs
Cambridge, MA
Worked in experimental and theoretical quantum computing research groups. Collaborated with PhD students to build tools and technologies for quantum computation. Previously created circuits and performed simulations of theories in quantum computing.
Software Engineering Intern
Mountain View, CA
Worked on machine learning and web development projects that were launched to over 3.5 million users during internship.
Consulting Intern
McKinsey
Palo Alto, CA
Worked with a tech client and took the initiative to code a machine learning application that was recognized by some Partners and saves around $1 million in potential value for the client. Published an internal document as a guide for managers.
Investment Banking Intern
Goldman Sachs
New York City, NY
Took the initiative to code a tool for the team that made a certain process (to evaluate companies) 10,000 times quicker. Created presentations and financial models for companies worth billions of dollars.
Teaching Assistant
MIT
Cambridge, MA
Helped MIT students with their career path and finding internships. Provided advice and mentorship to the MIT students.
Strats (Quant) Intern
Goldman Sachs
New York City
Programmed two investment-banking tools, which are being used for Goldman Sachs’ clients within the Tech and Merger and Acquisition groups. Her work was recognized by heads in Investment Banking.
Strats (Quant) Intern
Morgan Stanley
New York City
Programmed a tool in the trading division that will save the firm over $1,000,000 in a period of five years.
IT Consultant
MIT
Cambridge, MA
Provided solutions and assistance for questions from over 200 members of the MIT community for problems concerning computers, software, and network access on campus.
Advertising Manager
The Tech (MIT's Student Newspaper)
Cambridge, MA
Initiated online advertising for the first time in The Tech's 20 year online history. Communicated with over 50 clients, which contributed to over $10,000 in revenue.
Leader
Kobenhavn Kulturcenter
Copenhagen, Denmark
Led the adult volunteers and workers as a teenager at the largest church in Denmark, planned and coordinated meetings, attended local and overseas leadership conferences. Started as a volunteer and later was offered a job.
Organizations
Stanford Quantum Computing Association
Founder, President
Stanford Quantum Website
The mission is to educate the Stanford community about quantum computing and to develop the future scientists and engineers involved in quantum computing and related fields. More than 200 members. Collaborated with companies such as Microsoft and Rigetti
Harvard College Quantum Computing Association
Founder
Harvard Quantum Website
Founder of the organization at Harvard and served as President my senior year until graduation. The organization continues with new leadership.
Optimize Guide
Founder, Editor-In-Chief
Optimize Guide Website
Optimize Guide is a blog with advice about job, internship and college applications that has been read more than 200,000 times; the content of the blog has been featured in news articles around the world.
Now Know
Founder, Teacher
Now Know Website
Sparking young people’s interest in technology using strategies from research; received thousands of dollars in funding from Google; taught over 600 middle and high school students technology courses.
MIT Philosophy Club
Founder, President
MIT Philosophy Club Website
Founded the first and only philosophy club at MIT. The Club now has over 200 members. Created events that fostered philosophical discussions in the MIT community and collaborated with Harvard Review of Philosophy.
Lean On Me
Financial Officer
Lean On Me Website
Lean On Me is a text-based service that allows people to talk about their problems anonymously. The service is being used at three universities across the country.
NavTalent
Associate
NavTalent Website
Jessica is an associate at NavTalent - she connects Harvard students with technology startups. Through her, Harvard students have received job offers at the best technology startups.
Franklin Fellowship
Franklin Fellow
FF Website
Franklin Fellows have dinners together with guest speakers and other students - the fellows share a passion for self-improvement and a love of giving.
Projects
ClassRate
More Info
Jessica built a physical product that produces real-time feedback during lectures. She designed and built all the circuitry as well as the product itself, and wrote the code to connect the different components together.
Voice Care
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Jessica, along with her team, built a web application allowing Medicare patients to seamlessly contact their providers. Voice Care was built at the Brown University Hackathon - they were finalists and won a prize.
Finbucks
More than 3/4 of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. FinBucks is an app that helps people manage their finances and save money. Finbucks was voted as the best project in the graduate finance technology course Jessica took her sophomore fall.
Front Encrypt
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Jessica built the first front-facing encryption chrome extension that encrypts the plaintext on your browser.
Ideate
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Jessica built a web application that allows all voices to be heard in a meeting. In order to build this she used Angularjs, Express, Nodejs and MongoDB.
Quiz Me
Jessica and her friend built an educational tool that allows you to quiz yourself. You can enter a piece of text and using natural lanaguage processing, their algorithm generates questions from the piece of text so that you can quiz yourself.
For a portfolio of other random things she has built, visit her 'How to Make (Almost) Anything' website.
News
These articles have been read by more than one million people
Social