By the time she turned 17, after witnessing IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer defeat the world’s best chess player, her world — and her future career — would shift. Quantum computing is a rapidly emerging technology that uses quantum mechanics — the behavior of particles at the subatomic level — to solve complex computational problems. Chess Leads to ScienceZeng grew up in a family where chess was more than a game. My coach was my father, so, of course, I did well.”In 1997, Zeng’s perspective on chess changed forever when IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, marking a historic moment for AI. When I saw Deep Blue beat Kasparov, it shook me,” she said.