IBM Partners With HBCUs to Diversify Quantum Computing Workforce – Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

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September 21, 2020 | :

In partnership with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), IBM recently launched a quantum computing research initiative to raise awareness of the field and diversify the workforce.

The IBM-HBCU Quantum Center, a multi-year investment, will fund undergraduate and graduate research, provide access to IBM quantum computers through the Cloud and offer student support.

Quantum computing is considered a fairly young field and quantum computers were not readily available in research labs until 2016. IBM was the first company to put a quantum computer on the Cloud, which allows it to be accessible from anywhere, according to Dr. Abraham Asfaw, global lead of Quantum Education and Open Science at IBM Quantum.

What that implies is that now anyone around the world can participate, he said. This is why we have this broad education effort, to really try and make quantum computing open and accessible to everyone. The scale of the industry is very small but we are stepping into the right direction in terms of trying to get more people into the field.

The 13 HBCUs that will be part of the initiative include Albany State University, Clark Atlanta University, Coppin State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Southern University, Texas Southern University, University of the Virgin Islands, Virginia Union University and Xavier University of Louisiana.

Each of the schools was chosen based on how much the school focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Its very important at this point to be building community and to be educating everyone so that we have opportunities in the quantum computing field for everyone, said Asfaw. While at the same time, we are bringing in diverse perspectives to see where quantum computing applications could emerge.

Dr. Abraham Asfaw

The center encourages individuals from all STEM disciplines to pursue quantum computing. According to Asfaw, the field of quantum computing is considered highly interdisciplinary.

Teaching quantum computing, at any place, requires bringing together several departments, he said. So putting together a quantum curriculum is an exercise in making sure your students are trained in STEM all the way from the beginning to the end with different pieces from the different sciences instead of just one department altogether.

Diversifying the quantum computing workforce can also be looked at in two ways. One is getting different groups of people into the field and the other is bringing different perspectives into the field from the direction of the other sciences that could benefit from quantum computing, according to Asfaw.

We are in this discovery phase now, so really having help from all fields is a really powerful thing, he added.

IBM also plans to donate $100 million to provide more HBCUs with resources and technology as part of the Skills Academy Academic Initiative in Global University Programs. This includes providing HBCUs with university guest lectures, curriculum content, digital badges, software and faculty training by the end of 2020, according to IBM.

Our entire quantum education effort is centered around making all of our resources open and accessible to everyone, said Asfaw. [Our investment] is really an attempt to integrate HBCUs, which also are places of origin for so many successful scientists today, to give them opportunities to join the quantum computing revolution.

According to IBM, the skills academy is a comprehensive, integrated program designed to create a foundation of diverse and high demand skill sets that directly correlate to what students will need in the workplace.

The academy will address topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain, design thinking and quantum computing.

Those HBCUs involved in the academy include Clark Atlanta University, Fayetteville State University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Johnson C. Smith University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, Southern University System, Stillman College, Virginia State and West Virginia State University.

While we are teaching quantum computing, while we are building quantum computing at universities, while we are training developers to take on quantum computer, it is important at this point to be inclusive and accessible as possible, said Afsaw. That really allows the field to progress.

This summer, IBM also hosted the 2020 Qiskit Global Summer School, which was designed for people to further explore the quantum computing field. The program involved three hours of lectures as well as hands-on learning opportunities. Many HBCU students were part of the program.

This shows you thats one piece of the bigger picture of trying to get the whole world involved in quantum education, said Asfaw. Thats the first place where HBCUs were involved and we hope to continue to build on even more initiatives going forward.

Sarah Wood can be reached at swood@diverseeducation.com.

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IBM Partners With HBCUs to Diversify Quantum Computing Workforce - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

What is the quantum internet? Everything you need to know about the weird future of quantum networks – ZDNet

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It might all sound like a sci-fi concept, but building quantum networks is a key ambition for many countries around the world. Recently the US Department of Defense (DoE) published the first blueprint of its kind, laying out a step-by-step strategy to make the quantum internet dream come true, at least in a very preliminary form, over the next few years.

The US joined the EU and China in showing a keen interest in the concept of quantum communications. But what is the quantum internet exactly, how does it work, and what are the wonders that it can accomplish?

WHAT IS THE QUANTUM INTERNET?

The quantum internet is a network that will let quantum devices exchange some information within an environment that harnesses the weird laws of quantum mechanics. In theory, this would lend the quantum internet unprecedented capabilities that are impossible to carry out with today's web applications.

SEE: Managing AI and ML in the enterprise 2020: Tech leaders increase project development and implementation (TechRepublic Premium)

In the quantum world, data can be encoded in the state of qubits, which can be created in quantum devices like a quantum computer or a quantum processor. And the quantum internet, in simple terms, will involve sending qubits across a network of multiple quantum devices that are physically separated. Crucially, all of this would happen thanks to the whacky properties that are unique to quantum states.

That might sound similar to the standard internet. But sending qubits around through a quantum channel, rather than a classical one, effectively means leveraging the behavior of particles when taken at their smallest scale so-called "quantum states", which have caused delight and dismay among scientists for decades.

And the laws of quantum physics, which underpin the way information will be transmitted in the quantum internet, are nothing short of unfamiliar. In fact, they are strange, counter-intuitive, and at times even seemingly supernatural.

And so to understand how the quantum ecosystem of the internet 2.0 works, you might want to forget everything you know about classical computing. Because not much of the quantum internet will remind you of your favorite web browser.

WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION CAN WE EXCHANGE WITH QUANTUM?

In short, not much that most users are accustomed to. At least for the next few decades, therefore, you shouldn't expect to one day be able to jump onto quantum Zoom meetings.

Central to quantum communication is the fact that qubits, which harness the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics, behave very differently to classical bits.

As it encodes data, a classical bit can effectively only be one of two states. Just like a light switch has to be either on or off, and just like a cat has to be either dead or alive, so does a bit have to be either 0 or 1.

Not so much with qubits. Instead, qubits are superposed: they can be 0 and 1 simultaneously, in a special quantum state that doesn't exist in the classical world. It's a little bit as if you could be both on the left-hand side and the right-hand side of your sofa, in the same moment.

The paradox is that the mere act of measuring a qubit means that it is assigned a state. A measured qubit automatically falls from its dual state, and is relegated to 0 or 1, just like a classical bit.

The whole phenomenon is called superposition, and lies at the core of quantum mechanics.

Unsurprisingly, qubits cannot be used to send the kind of data we are familiar with, like emails and WhatsApp messages. But the strange behavior of qubits is opening up huge opportunities in other, more niche applications.

QUANTUM (SAFER) COMMUNICATIONS

One of the most exciting avenues that researchers, armed with qubits, are exploring, is security.

When it comes to classical communications, most data is secured by distributing a shared key to the sender and receiver, and then using this common key to encrypt the message. The receiver can then use their key to decode the data at their end.

The security of most classical communication today is based on an algorithm for creating keys that is difficult for hackers to break, but not impossible. That's why researchers are looking at making this communication process "quantum". The concept is at the core of an emerging field of cybersecurity called quantum key distribution (QKD).

QKD works by having one of the two parties encrypt a piece of classical data by encoding the cryptography key onto qubits. The sender then transmits those qubits to the other person, who measures the qubits in order to obtain the key values.

SEE: The UK is building its first commercial quantum computer

Measuring causes the state of the qubit to collapse; but it is the value that is read out during the measurement process that is important. The qubit, in a way, is only there to transport the key value.

More importantly, QKD means that it is easy to find out whether a third party has eavesdropped on the qubits during the transmission, since the intruder would have caused the key to collapse simply by looking at it.

If a hacker looked at the qubits at any point while they were being sent, this would automatically change the state of the qubits. A spy would inevitably leave behind a sign of eavesdropping which is why cryptographers maintain that QKD is "provably" secure.

SO, WHY A QUANTUM INTERNET?

QKD technology is in its very early stages. The "usual" way to create QKD at the moment consists of sending qubits in a one-directional way to the receiver, through optic-fibre cables; but those significantly limit the effectiveness of the protocol.

Qubits can easily get lost or scattered in a fibre-optic cable, which means that quantum signals are very much error-prone, and struggle to travel long distances. Current experiments, in fact, are limited to a range of hundreds of kilometers.

There is another solution, and it is the one that underpins the quantum internet: to leverage another property of quantum, called entanglement, to communicate between two devices.

When two qubits interact and become entangled, they share particular properties that depend on each other. While the qubits are in an entangled state, any change to one particle in the pair will result in changes to the other, even if they are physically separated.The state of the first qubit, therefore, can be "read" by looking at the behavior of its entangled counterpart. That's right: even Albert Einstein called the whole thing "spooky action at a distance".

And in the context of quantum communication, entanglement could in effect, teleport some information from one qubit to its entangled other half, without the need for a physical channel bridging the two during the transmission.

HOW DOES ENTANGLEMENT WORK?

The very concept of teleportation entails, by definition, the lack of a physical network bridging between communicating devices. But it remains that entanglement needs to be created in the first place, and then maintained.

To carry out QKD using entanglement, it is necessary to build the appropriate infrastructure to first create pairs of entangled qubits, and then distribute them between a sender and a receiver. This creates the "teleportation" channel over which cryptography keys can be exchanged.

Specifically, once the entangled qubits have been generated, you have to send one half of the pair to the receiver of the key. An entangled qubit can travel through networks of optical fibre, for example; but those are unable to maintain entanglement after about 60 miles.

Qubits can also be kept entangled over large distances via satellite, but covering the planet with outer-space quantum devices is expensive.

There are still huge engineering challenges, therefore, to building large-scale "teleportation networks" that could effectively link up qubits across the world. Once the entanglement network is in place, the magic can start: linked qubits won't need to run through any form of physical infrastructure anymore to deliver their message.

During transmission, therefore, the quantum key would virtually be invisible to third parties, impossible to intercept, and reliably "teleported" from one endpoint to the next. The idea will resonate well with industries that deal with sensitive data, such as banking, health services or aircraft communications. And it is likely that governments sitting on top secret information will also be early adopters of the technology.

WHAT ELSE COULD WE DO WITH THE QUANTUM INTERNET?

'Why bother with entanglement?' you may ask. After all, researchers could simply find ways to improve the "usual" form of QKD. Quantum repeaters, for example, could go a long way in increasing communication distance in fibre-optic cables, without having to go so far as to entangle qubits.

That is without accounting for the immense potential that entanglement could have for other applications. QKD is the most frequently discussed example of what the quantum internet could achieve, because it is the most accessible application of the technology. But security is far from being the only field that is causing excitement among researchers.

The entanglement network used for QKD could also be used, for example, to provide a reliable way to build up quantum clusters made of entangled qubits located in different quantum devices.

Researchers won't need a particularly powerful piece of quantum hardware to connect to the quantum internet in fact, even a single-qubit processor could do the job. But by linking together quantum devices that, as they stand, have limited capabilities, scientists expect that they could create a quantum supercomputer to surpass them all.

SEE: Guide to Becoming a Digital Transformation Champion (TechRepublic Premium)

By connecting many smaller quantum devices together, therefore, the quantum internet could start solving the problems that are currently impossible to achieve in a single quantum computer. This includes expediting the exchange of vast amounts of data, and carrying out large-scale sensing experiments in astronomy, materials discovery and life sciences.

For this reason, scientists are convinced that we could reap the benefits of the quantum internet before tech giants such as Google and IBM even achieve quantum supremacy the moment when a single quantum computer will solve a problem that is intractable for a classical computer.

Google and IBM's most advanced quantum computers currently sit around 50 qubits, which, on its own, is much less than is needed to carry out the phenomenal calculations needed to solve the problems that quantum research hopes to address.

On the other hand, linking such devices together via quantum entanglement could result in clusters worth several thousands of qubits. For many scientists, creating such computing strength is in fact the ultimate goal of the quantum internet project.

WHAT COULDN'T WE DO WITH THE QUANTUM INTERNET?

For the foreseeable future, the quantum internet could not be used to exchange data in the way that we currently do on our laptops.

Imagining a generalized, mainstream quantum internet would require anticipating a few decades (or more) of technological advancements. As much as scientists dream of the future of the quantum internet, therefore, it is impossible to draw parallels between the project as it currently stands, and the way we browse the web every day.

A lot of quantum communication research today is dedicated to finding out how to best encode, compress and transmit information thanks to quantum states. Quantum states, of course, are known for their extraordinary densities, and scientists are confident that one node could teleport a great deal of data.

But the type of information that scientists are looking at sending over the quantum internet has little to do with opening up an inbox and scrolling through emails. And in fact, replacing the classical internet is not what the technology has set out to do.

Rather, researchers are hoping that the quantum internet will sit next to the classical internet, and would be used for more specialized applications. The quantum internet will perform tasks that can be done faster on a quantum computer than on classical computers, or which are too difficult to perform even on the best supercomputers that exist today.

SO, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

Scientists already know how to create entanglement between qubits, and they have even been successfully leveraging entanglement for QKD.

China, a long-time investor in quantum networks, has broken records on satellite-induced entanglement. Chinese scientists recently established entanglement and achieved QKD over a record-breaking 745 miles.

The next stage, however, is scaling up the infrastructure. All experiments so far have only connected two end-points. Now that point-to-point communication has been achieved, scientists are working on creating a network in which multiple senders and multiple receivers could exchange over the quantum internet on a global scale.

The idea, essentially, is to find the best ways to churn out lots of entangled qubits on demand, over long distances, and between many different points at the same time. This is much easier said than done: for example, maintaining the entanglement between a device in China and one in the US would probably require an intermediate node, on top of new routing protocols.

And countries are opting for different technologies when it comes to establishing entanglement in the first place. While China is picking satellite technology, optical fibre is the method favored by the US DoE, which is now trying to create a network of quantum repeaters that can augment the distance that separates entangled qubits.

In the US, particles have remained entangled through optical fibre over a 52-mile "quantum loop" in the suburbs of Chicago, without the need for quantum repeaters. The network will soon be connected to one of the DoE's laboratories to establish an 80-mile quantum testbed.

In the EU, the Quantum Internet Alliance was formed in 2018 to develop a strategy for a quantum internet, and demonstrated entanglement over 31 miles last year.

For quantum researchers, the goal is to scale the networks up to a national level first, and one day even internationally. The vast majority of scientists agree that this is unlikely to happen before a couple of decades. The quantum internet is without doubt a very long-term project, with many technical obstacles still standing in the way. But the unexpected outcomes that the technology will inevitably bring about on the way will make for an invaluable scientific journey, complete with a plethora of outlandish quantum applications that, for now, cannot even be predicted.

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What is the quantum internet? Everything you need to know about the weird future of quantum networks - ZDNet

Quantum startup CEO suggests we are only five years away from a quantum desktop computer – TechCrunch

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Today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020, leaders from three quantum computing startups joined TechCrunch editor Frederic Lardinois to discuss the future of the technology. IonQ CEO and president Peter Chapman suggested we could be as little as five years away from a desktop quantum computer, but not everyone agreed on that optimistic timeline.

I think within the next several years, five years or so, youll start to see [desktop quantum machines]. Our goal is to get to a rack-mounted quantum computer, Chapman said.

But that seemed a tad optimistic to Alan Baratz, CEO at D-Wave Systems. He says that when it comes to developing the super-conducting technology that his company is building, it requires a special kind of rather large quantum refrigeration unit called a dilution fridge, and that unit would make a five-year goal of having a desktop quantum PC highly unlikely.

Itamar Sivan, CEO at Quantum Machines, too, believes we have a lot of steps to go before we see that kind of technology, and a lot of hurdles to overcome to make that happen.

This challenge is not within a specific, singular problem about finding the right material or solving some very specific equation, or anything. Its really a challenge, which is multidisciplinary to be solved here, Sivan said.

Chapman also sees a day when we could have edge quantum machines, for instance on a military plane, that couldnt access quantum machines from the cloud efficiently.

You know, you cant rely on a system which is sitting in a cloud. So it needs to be on the plane itself. If youre going to apply quantum to military applications, then youre going to need edge-deployed quantum computers, he said.

One thing worth mentioning is that IonQs approach to quantum is very different from D-Waves and Quantum Machines .

IonQ relies on technology pioneered in atomic clocks for its form of quantum computing. Quantum Machines doesnt build quantum processors. Instead, it builds the hardware and software layer to control these machines, which are reaching a point where that cant be done with classical computers anymore.

D-Wave, on the other hand, uses a concept called quantum annealing, which allows it to create thousands of qubits, but at the cost of higher error rates.

As the technology develops further in the coming decades, these companies believe they are offering value by giving customers a starting point into this powerful form of computing, which when harnessed will change the way we think of computing in a classical sense. But Sivan says there are many steps to get there.

This is a huge challenge that would also require focused and highly specialized teams that specialize in each layer of the quantum computing stack, he said. One way to help solve that is by partnering broadly to help solve some of these fundamental problems, and working with the cloud companies to bring quantum computing, however they choose to build it today, to a wider audience.

In this regard, I think that this year weve seen some very interesting partnerships form which are essential for this to happen. Weve seen companies like IonQ and D-Wave, and others partnering with cloud providers who deliver their own quantum computers through other companies cloud service, Sivan said. And he said his company would be announcing some partnerships of its own in the coming weeks.

The ultimate goal of all three companies is to eventually build a universal quantum computer, one that can achieve the goal of providing true quantum power. We can and should continue marching toward universal quantum to get to the point where we can do things that just cant be done classically, Baratz said. But he and the others recognize we are still in the very early stages of reaching that end game.

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Quantum startup CEO suggests we are only five years away from a quantum desktop computer - TechCrunch

New Microsoft program to help develop the quantum computing workforce of the future in India – Microsoft News Center India – Microsoft

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900 faculty from top Indian institutes to be trained

New Delhi, August 24, 2020: Microsoft is creating a new program to build quantum computing skills and capabilities in the academic community in India. As part of this initiative, Microsoft Garage is organizing a Train the Trainer program in collaboration with Electronics and ICT Academies at Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur and National Institute of Technology, Patna.

This program will train 900 faculty from Universities and Institutes across India through E & ICT Academies at Institutes of National Importance such as IIT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, IIT Roorkee, MNIT Jaipur, NIT Patna, IIIT-D Jabalpur, and NIT Warangal, equipping academics with the required skills to start building their quantum future.

Quantum computing applies the properties of quantum physics to process information. Quantum computers will enable new discoveries in the areas of healthcare, energy, environmental systems, smart materials, and beyond. Microsoft is bringing the capabilities to develop for this quantum future, to the cloud with Azure Quantum.

Azure Quantum is an open cloud ecosystem enabling developers to access diverse quantum software, hardware, and solutions from Microsoft and its partners. It is built on Azure, a trusted, scalable and secure platform, and will continue to adapt to Microsofts rapidly evolving cloud future. Moreover, it delivers the ability to have impact today through quantum inspired solvers running on classical hardware and to explorations on classical hardware using the open source Quantum Development Kit and the Q# programming language.

The Quantum training program through the E & ICT Academies, supports an initiative by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) to enhance the skills of the academicians in imparting next level technological skills for future generations. Key themes that will be covered include an introduction to quantum information, quantum concepts such as superposition and entanglement, processing of information using qubits and quantum gates, as well as an introduction to quantum machine learning and quantum programming.

Rajiv Kumar, Managing Director, Microsoft India Development Center, and Corporate Vice President, Enterprise+Devices India, said, India is renowned across the world for its science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computing (STEM+C) workforce, and a tech-capable citizenry. Through this initiative in India, we aim to develop skills in quantum at scale, which has the potential to trigger the new frontier of innovation, shaping the future of the IT industry in this part of the world.

Inaugurating the program, Ms. Reena Dayal, Director, Microsoft Garage India & Chair for IEEE Quantum SIG, said, Quantum computing holds the potential to solve some of the most pressing issues our world faces today. Through this program, we aim to equip academia in India with the requisite knowledge to develop a comprehensive Quantum learning curriculum in their institutions and help develop these skills among some of the brightest minds in the country.

The training program will be conducted virtually, from August 24 Aug 29, 2020. The program will also cover practical coding for participants using Microsoft Q# & Quantum Development Kit.

Speaking on the collaboration, Prof. Udaykumar R Yaragatti, Director, MNIT Jaipur said, The institute is committed to providing state-of-the-art technologies to students and this collaboration with Microsoft will provide further encouragement to faculty members to explore the different aspects of Quantum Computing.

Prof. Pradip K Jain, Director, NIT Patna said, The COVID situation has given an opportunity for going digital with this program. This partnership will ignite the passion in faculty members who will in turn share the knowledge with their students.

About The Microsoft Garage

The Microsoft Garage is a program that drives a culture of experimentation and innovation at Microsoft. They deliver programs and experiences to our employees, customers, and ecosystem that drive collaboration and creativity. Their motto doers, not talkers continues to be the core. The Garage attracts people who are passionate about making a difference in the world. Garage India works on Cutting Edge Technologies and actively engages with the Ecosystem in India.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 11,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian startups, businesses, and government organizations.

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New Microsoft program to help develop the quantum computing workforce of the future in India - Microsoft News Center India - Microsoft

Fermilab to lead $115 million National Quantum Information Science Research Center to build revolutionary quantum computer with Rigetti Computing,…

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One of the goals of theSuperconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Centeris to build a beyond-state-of-the-art quantum computer based on superconducting technologies.The center also will develop new quantum sensors, which could lead to the discovery of the nature of dark matter and other elusive subatomic particles.

The U.S. Department of Energys Fermilab has been selected to lead one of five national centers to bring about transformational advances in quantum information science as a part of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative, announced the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy today.

The initiative provides the newSuperconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Centerfunding with the goal of building and deploying a beyond-state-of-the-art quantum computer based on superconducting technologies. The center also will develop new quantum sensors, which could lead to the discovery of the nature of dark matter and other elusive subatomic particles. Total planned DOE funding for the center is $115 million over five years, with $15 million in fiscal year 2020 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. SQMS will also receive an additional $8 million in matching contributions from center partners.

The SQMS Center is part of a $625 million federal program to facilitate and foster quantum innovation in the United States. The 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act called for a long-term, large-scale commitment of U.S. scientific and technological resources to quantum science.

The revolutionary leaps in quantum computing and sensing that SQMS aims for will be enabled by a unique multidisciplinary collaboration that includes 20 partners national laboratories, academic institutions and industry. The collaboration brings together world-leading expertise in all key aspects: from identifying qubits quality limitations at the nanometer scale to fabrication and scale-up capabilities into multiqubit quantum computers to the exploration of new applications enabled by quantum computers and sensors.

The breadth of the SQMS physics, materials science, device fabrication and characterization technology combined with the expertise in large-scale integration capabilities by the SQMS Center is unprecedented for superconducting quantum science and technology, said SQMS Deputy Director James Sauls of Northwestern University. As part of the network of National QIS Research centers, SQMS will contribute to U.S. leadership in quantum science for the years to come.

SQMS researchers are developing long-coherence-time qubits based on Rigetti Computings state-of-the-art quantum processors. Image: Rigetti Computing

At the heart of SQMS research will be solving one of the most pressing problems in quantum information science: the length of time that a qubit, the basic element of a quantum computer, can maintain information, also called quantum coherence. Understanding and mitigating sources of decoherence that limit performance of quantum devices is critical to engineering in next-generation quantum computers and sensors.

Unless we address and overcome the issue of quantum system decoherence, we will not be able to build quantum computers that solve new complex and important problems. The same applies to quantum sensors with the range of sensitivity needed to address long-standing questions in many fields of science, said SQMS Center Director Anna Grassellino of Fermilab. Overcoming this crucial limitation would allow us to have a great impact in the life sciences, biology, medicine, and national security, and enable measurements of incomparable precision and sensitivity in basic science.

The SQMS Centers ambitious goals in computing and sensing are driven by Fermilabs achievement of world-leading coherence times in components called superconducting cavities, which were developed for particle accelerators used in Fermilabs particle physics experiments. Researchers have expanded the use of Fermilab cavities into the quantum regime.

We have the most coherent by a factor of more than 200 3-D superconducting cavities in the world, which will be turned into quantum processors with unprecedented performance by combining them with Rigettis state-of-the-art planar structures, said Fermilab scientist Alexander Romanenko, SQMS technology thrust leader and Fermilab SRF program manager. This long coherence would not only enable qubits to be long-lived, but it would also allow them to be all connected to each other, opening qualitatively new opportunities for applications.

The SQMS Centers goals in computing and sensing are driven by Fermilabs achievement of world-leading coherence times in components called superconducting cavities, which were developed for particle accelerators used in Fermilabs particle physics experiments. Photo: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab

To advance the coherence even further, SQMS collaborators will launch a materials-science investigation of unprecedented scale to gain insights into the fundamental limiting mechanisms of cavities and qubits, working to understand the quantum properties of superconductors and other materials used at the nanoscale and in the microwave regime.

Now is the time to harness the strengths of the DOE laboratories and partners to identify the underlying mechanisms limiting quantum devices in order to push their performance to the next level for quantum computing and sensing applications, said SQMS Chief Engineer Matt Kramer, Ames Laboratory.

Northwestern University, Ames Laboratory, Fermilab, Rigetti Computing, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics and several universities are partnering to contribute world-class materials science and superconductivity expertise to target sources of decoherence.

SQMS partner Rigetti Computing will provide crucial state-of-the-art qubit fabrication and full stack quantum computing capabilities required for building the SQMS quantum computer.

By partnering with world-class experts, our work will translate ground-breaking science into scalable superconducting quantum computing systems and commercialize capabilities that will further the energy, economic and national security interests of the United States, said Rigetti Computing CEO Chad Rigetti.

SQMS will also partner with the NASA Ames Research Center quantum group, led by SQMS Chief Scientist Eleanor Rieffel. Their strengths in quantum algorithms, programming and simulation will be crucial to use the quantum processors developed by the SQMS Center.

The Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics has been successfully collaborating with Fermilab for more than 40 years and is excited to be a member of the extraordinary SQMS team, said INFN President Antonio Zoccoli. With its strong know-how in detector development, cryogenics and environmental measurements, including the Gran Sasso national laboratories, the largest underground laboratory in the world devoted to fundamental physics, INFN looks forward to exciting joint progress in fundamental physics and in quantum science and technology.

Fermilab is excited to host this National Quantum Information Science Research Center and work with this extraordinary network of collaborators, said Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer. This initiative aligns with Fermilab and its mission. It will help us answer important particle physics questions, and, at the same time, we will contribute to advancements in quantum information science with our strengths in particle accelerator technologies, such as superconducting radio-frequency devices and cryogenics.

We are thankful and honored to have this unique opportunity to be a national center for advancing quantum science and technology, Grassellino said. We have a focused mission: build something revolutionary. This center brings together the right expertise and motivation to accomplish that mission.

The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center at Fermilab is supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

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Fermilab to lead $115 million National Quantum Information Science Research Center to build revolutionary quantum computer with Rigetti Computing,...

Why quantum computing matters – Axios

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A new government initiative will direct hundreds of millions of dollars to support new centers for quantum computing research.

Why it matters: Quantum information science represents the next leap forward for computing, opening the door to powerful machines that can help provide answers to some of our most pressing questions. The nation that takes the lead in quantum will stake a pole position for the future.

Details: The five new quantum research centers established in national labs across the country are part of a $1 billion White House program announced Wednesday morning that includes seven institutes that will explore different facets of AI, including precision agriculture and forecast prediction.

How it works: While AI is better known and increasingly integrated into our daily lives hey, Siri quantum computing is just as important, promising huge leaps forward in computer processing power.

Of note: Albert Einstein famously hated the concept of entanglement, describing it as "spooky action at a distance." But the idea has held up over decades of research in quantum science.

Quantum computers won't replace classical ones wholesale in part because the process of manipulating quantum particles is still highly tricky but as they develop, they'll open up new frontiers in computing.

What they're saying: "Quantum is the biggest revolution in computers since the advent of computers," says Dario Gil, director of IBM Research. "With the quantum bit, you can actually rethink the nature of information."

The catch: While the underlying science behind quantum computers is decades old, quantum computers are only just now beginning to be used commercially.

What to watch: Who ultimately wins out on quantum supremacy the act of demonstrating that a quantum computer can solve a problem that even the fastest classical computer would be unable to solve in a feasible time frame.

The bottom line: The age of quantum computers isn't quite here yet, but it promises to be one of the major technological drivers of the 21st century.

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Why quantum computing matters - Axios

US to spend US$625m on super-computing research centres – The Business Times

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Thu, Aug 27, 2020 - 6:50 AM

[SAN FRANCISCO] The US on Wednesday said it will spend US$625 million over the next five years on centers to research artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

An additional US$340 million will be contributed by the private sector and academic institutions, bringing the total planned investment close to US$1 billion, according to a release by the Department of Energy.

The money will go to establishing a dozen research institutes focused on artificial intelligence and quantum computing, the DOE said.

"These institutes will be world-class hubs for accelerating American innovation and building the 21st century American workforce," said US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios.

The US invests more than US$500 million annually in AI research and is building on that effort to "advance American competitiveness," according to National Science Foundation director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

A Google official warned in January that in a technological race to the future, China could pour "enormous resources" into developing super-computers with quantum technology.

US officials and scientists in July began laying the groundwork for a more secure "virtually unhackable" internet based on quantum computing technology.

During a presentation at that time, DOE officials issued a report laying out a strategy for the development of a national quantum internet, using laws of quantum mechanics to transmit information more securely than on existing networks.

The agency is working with universities and industry researchers with the aim of creating a prototype within a decade.

"The foundation of quantum networks rests on our ability to precisely synthesize and manipulate matter at the atomic scale, including the control of single photons," David Awschalom, a University of Chicago professor and senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, said at the time.

Not included in the US announcement Wednesday were Google and Honeywell, which have claimed strides in quantum computing research.

US manufacturing and technology group Honeywell earlier this year said it would bring to market "the world's most powerful quantum computer" aimed at tackling complex scientific and business challenges.

The company said it had achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing, which uses subatomic particles to speed up processing.

Quantum computing is based on the use of quantum bits or qubits, which can perform trillions of calculations per second and in some cases outperform the fastest traditional supercomputers.

The Honeywell announcement came after Google claimed last year to have achieved "quantum supremacy" by developing a machine outperforming the world's fastest supercomputers.

Google said that its Sycamore quantum processor solved a computing problem within 200 seconds which would have taken 10,000 years on a traditional computer.

IBM runs its own quantum computing program.

AFP

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US to spend US$625m on super-computing research centres - The Business Times

A continent works to grow its stake in quantum computing – University World News

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AFRICA

South Africa is a few steps ahead in the advancement of quantum computing and quantum technologies in general, said Mark Tame, professor in photonics at Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape.

South Africas University of KwaZulu-Natal has also been working on quantum computing for more than a decade, gradually building up a community around the field.

The buzz about quantum computing in South Africa just started recently due to the agreement between [Johannesburgs] University of the Witwatersrand and IBM, said Professor Francesco Petruccione, interim director, National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Science, and South African Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing and Communication at the School of Chemistry and Physics Quantum Research Group, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Interest was intensified by Googles announcement last October that it had developed a 53-qubit device which it claimed took 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times. The IT company claimed it would take a state-of-the-art digital supercomputer 10,000 years to achieve this.

A University of Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing paper stresses quantum computers ability to express a signal (a qubit) of more than one value at the same time (the superposition ability) with that signal being manifested in another device independently, but in exactly the same way (the entanglement ability). This enables quantum computers to handle much more complex questions and problems than standard computers using binary codes of ones and zeros.

The IBM Research Laboratory in Johannesburg offers African researchers the potential to harness such computing power. It was established in 2015, part of a 10-year investment programme through the South African governments Department of Trade and Industry.

It is a portal to the IBM Quantum Experience, a cloud-based quantum computing platform accessible to other African universities that are part of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), which involves 16 of the continents leading universities (in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa).

Levelling of the playing field

The IBM development has levelled the playing field for students, [giving them] access to the same hardware as students elsewhere in the world. There is nothing to hold them back to develop quantum applications and code. This has been really helpful for us at Stellenbosch to work on projects which need access to quantum processors not available to the general public, said Tame.

While IBM has another centre on the continent, at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2018 the University of the Witwatersrand became the first African university to join the American computing giants Quantum Computing Network. They are starting to increase the network to have an army of quantum experts, said Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, a nuclear physicist, and vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the Witwatersrand.

At a continental level, Vilakazi said Africa is still in a learning phase regarding quantum computing. At this early stage we are still developing the skills and building a network of young students, he said. The university has sent students to IBMs Zurich facility to learn about quantum computing, he said.

To spur cooperation in the field, a Quantum Africa conference has been held every year since 2010, with the first three in South Africa, and others in Algeria and Morocco. Last years event was in Stellenbosch, while this years event, to be hosted at the University of Rwanda, was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growing African involvement

Rwanda is making big efforts to set up quantum technology centres, and I have former students now working in Botswana and the Gambia. It is slowly diffusing around the continent, said Petruccione.

Academics participating at the Stellenbosch event included Yassine Hassouni of Mohammed V University, Rabat; Nigerian academic Dr Obinna Abah of Queens University Belfast; and Haikel Jelassi of the National Centre for Nuclear Sciences and Technologies, Tunisia.

In South Africa, experimental and theoretical work is also being carried out into quantum communications the use of quantum physics to carry messages via fibre optic cable.

A lot of work is being done on the hardware side of quantum technologies by various groups, but funding for these things is not the same order of magnitude as in, say, North America, Australia or the UK. We have to do more with less, said Tame.

Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, is carrying out research into quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing (the ability to detect if a quantum-sent message is being read).

I would like it to grow over the next few years by bringing in more expertise and help the development of quantum computing and technologies for South Africa, said Tame.

Witwatersrand is focusing on quantum optics, as is Petrucciones team, while there is collaboration in quantum computing with the University of Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria.

University programmes

Building up and retaining talent is a key challenge as the field expands in Africa, as is expanding courses in quantum computing.

South Africa doesnt offer a masters in quantum computing, or an honours programme, which we need to develop, said Petruccione.

This is set to change at the University of the Witwatersrand.

We will launch a syllabus in quantum computing, and were in the process of developing courses at the graduate level in physics, natural sciences and engineering. But such academic developments are very slow, said Vilakazi.

Further development will hinge on governmental support, with a framework programme for quantum computing being developed by Petruccione. There is interest from the [South African] Department of Science and Innovation. Because of [the economic impact of] COVID-19, I hope some money is left for quantum technology, but at least the government is willing to listen to the community, he said.

Universities are certainly trying to tap non-governmental support to expand quantum computing, engaging local industries, banks and pharmaceutical companies to get involved in supporting research.

We have had some interesting interactions with local banks, but it needs to be scaled up, said Petruccione.

Applications

While African universities are working on quantum computing questions that could be applicable anywhere in the world, there are plans to look into more localised issues. One is drug development for tuberculosis, malaria and HIV, diseases that have afflicted Southern Africa for decades, with quantum computings ability to handle complex modelling of natural structures a potential boon.

There is potential there for helping in drug development through quantum simulations. It could also help develop quantum computing networks in South Africa and more broadly across the continent, said Vilakazi.

Agriculture is a further area of application. The production of fertilisers is very expensive as it requires high temperatures, but bacteria in the soil do it for free. The reason we cant do what bacteria do is because we dont understand it. The hope is that as quantum computing is good at chemical reactions, maybe we can model it and that would lead to cheaper fertilisers, said Petruccione.

With the world in a quantum computing race, with the US and China at the forefront, Africa is well positioned to take advantage of developments. We can pick the best technology coming out of either country, and that is how Africa should position itself, said Vilakazi.

Petrucciones group currently has collaborations with Russia, India and China. We want to do satellite quantum communication. The first step is to have a ground station, but that requires investment, he said.

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Quantum Computing Market Newest Research Report In PDF by Future Trend, Growth Rate, Opportunity, Industry Experts Analysis – eRealty Express

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Quantum Computing Market 2020: Comprehensive Insights

The GlobalQuantum Computing Marketreport is one of the most comprehensive and important additions to MarketResearch.Bizs market research archive. It offers detailed research and analysis of key aspects of the global Quantum Computing market. The market analysts who produced this report provided in-depth information on the leading growth drivers, constraints, challenges, trends, and opportunities to provide a comprehensive analysis of the global Quantum Computing market. Market participants can use market dynamic analysis to plan effective growth strategies and prepare for future challenges in advance. Each trend in the global Quantum Computing market is carefully analyzed and investigated by market analysts.

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International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, Google Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Qxbranch LLC, Cambridge Quantum Computing Ltd, 1QB Information Technologies Inc, QC Ware Corp., Magiq Technologies Inc, D-Wave Systems Inc, Rigetti Computing

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Quantum-safe security firm evolutionQ awarded contribution from Canada Space Agency for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Network Research and…

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KITCHENER, Ontario (PRWEB) August 10, 2020

evolutionQ was awarded a Space Technology Development Program (STDP) contribution by the CSA to develop solutions to advance satellite-based secure quantum communication services and tools to address challenges related to satellite-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) networks.

Cryptography underpins the secure communications required for the digital, network-based social and financial interactions that are at the heart of modern society and the economy, including banking, the sharing of confidential healthcare data, and the exchange of sensitive information between governmental institutions. However, rapid advancements in quantum computing threaten current encryption methods because quantum computers, when built, will be able to break commonly used cybersecurity systems. It is important to develop tools, like QKD, that will be resistant to such quantum threats.

QKD technologies leverage the fundamental laws of quantum physics to distribute confidential cryptographic keys between two users, while detecting the attempts of malicious third-parties to intercept such keys. Unfortunately, typical terrestrial methods to establish such direct secure connection between locations are limited to relatively short distances, of the order of at most 200 km. This is clearly a challenge for a country as vast as Canada. Satellite-based QKD will enable secure, reliable, and economical key-sharing across Canada.

A powerful quantum computer has the power to decimate todays cryptography. As key quantum computing milestones are achieved, the need for quantum-safe solutions intensifies, said Dr. Michele Mosca, President and CEO of evolutionQ. Robust cryptography is absolutely necessary for our safety and the proper functioning of our digital economy. We must adopt quantum-safe solutions to secure and safeguard our critical infrastructures, financial services and intellectual property."

Quantum Key Distribution is an important tool in addressing the quantum threat. QKD uses the fundamental laws of physics to protect information shared between two parties. CTO of evolutionQ, Dr. Norbert Ltkenhaus remarked. Satellite-based QKD is essential for a vast country like Canada and will help secure communications from coast to coast. evolutionQ is poised to utilize its expertise and develop solutions to help establish satellite QKD, and to integrate it with existing terrestrial solutions.

evolutionQ will develop tools to address the challenges unique to satellite-based QKD. This will be accomplished by modelling the role and performance of QKD satellites, and by designing optimization algorithms to integrate QKD satellites with terrestrial networks. The software solutions will be designed to be integrated with existing and planned satellite hardware. The project is expected to last 24 months.

The initiative will also help Canada safeguard sovereignty in the quantum age and strengthen Canadian leadership in the space and quantum sectors. The initiative aligns with the new Space Strategy for Canada, the safety and security principle in Canadas Digital Charter and the Government of Canadas Innovations and Skills Plan.

This project is undertaken with the financial support of the Canadian Space Agency.

About evolutionQ:evolutionQ is a leading quantum-safe cybersecurity company led by world-renowned quantum computing experts Dr. Michele Mosca and Dr. Norbert Ltkenhaus. evolutionQ delivers quantum-risk management strategy and advisory services along with robust cybersecurity products designed to be safe against quantum computers.

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Cybersecurity in the quantum era – ETCIO.com

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By Tirthankar Dutta

On October 23rd, 2019, Google claimed that they had achieved Quantum supremacy by solving a particularly difficult problem in 200 seconds by using their quantum computer, which is also known as "sycamore." This performance was compared with a Supercomputer known as 'Summit" and built by IBM. According to Google, this classical computer would have taken 10,000 years to solve the same problem.

The advancement of large quantum computers, along with the more computational power it will bring, could have dire consequences for cybersecurity. It is well known that important problems such as factoring, whose considered hardness ensures the security of many widely used protocols (RSA, DSA, ECDSA), can be solved efficiently, if a quantum computer that is sufficiently large, "fault-tolerant" and universal, is developed. However, addressing the imminent risk that adversaries equipped with quantum technologies pose is not the only issue in cybersecurity where quantum technologies are bound to play a role.

Because quantum computing speeds up prime number factorization, computers enabled with that technology can easily break cryptographic keys by quickly calculating or exhaustively searching secret keys. A task considered computationally infeasible by a conventional computer becomes painfully easy, compromising existing cryptographic algorithms used across the board. In the future, even robust cryptographic algorithms will be substantially weakened by quantum computing, while others will no longer be secure at all:

There would be many disconnects on the necessity to change the current cryptographic protocols and infrastructure to counter quantum technologies in a negative way, but we can't deny the fact that future adversaries might use this kind of technology to their benefit. As it allows them to work on millions of computations in parallel, exponentially speeding up the time it takes to process a task.

According to the National, Academies Study notes, "the current quantum computers have very little processing power and are too error-prone to crack today's strong codes. The future code-breaking quantum computers would need 100,000 times more processing power and an error rate 100 times better than today's best quantum computers have achieved. The study does not predict how long these advances might takebut it did not expect them to happen within a decade."

But does this mean that we should wait and watch the evolution of quantum computing, or should we go back to our drawing board to create quantum-resistant cryptography? Thankfully, researchers have been working on a public-key cryptography algorithm that can counter code-breaking efforts by quantum computers. US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) evaluating 69 potential new methods for what it calls "post-quantum cryptography." The institution expects to have a draft standard by 2024, which would then be added to web browsers and other internet applications and systems

No matter when dominant quantum computing arrives, it poses a large security threat. Because the process of adopting new standards can take years, it is wise to begin planning for quantum-resistant cryptography now.

The author is SVP and Head of Information Security at Infoedge.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

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Chicago Quantum Exchange Welcomes Seven New Partners in Tech, Computing and Finance – HPCwire

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CHICAGO, July 8, 2020 The Chicago Quantum Exchange, a growing intellectual hub for the research and development of quantum technology, has added to its community seven new corporate partners in computing, technology and finance that are working to bring about and primed to take advantage of the coming quantum revolution.

These new industry partners are Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Quantum Design, Qubitekk, Rigetti Computing, and Zurich Instruments.

Based at the University of Chicagos Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the Chicago Quantum Exchange and its corporate partners advance the science and engineering necessary to build and scale quantum technologies and develop practical applications. The results of their workprecision data from quantum sensors, advanced quantum computers and their algorithms, and securely transmitted informationwill transform todays leading industries. The addition of these partners brings a total of 13 companies in the Chicago Quantum Exchange to work with scientists and engineers at universities and the national laboratories in the region.

These new corporate partners join a robust collaboration of private and public universities, national laboratories, companies, and non-profit organizations. Together, their efforts with federal and state support will enhance the nations leading center for quantum information and engineering here in Chicago, said University of Chicago Provost Ka Yee C. Lee.

The Chicago Quantum Exchange is anchored by the University of Chicago, the U.S. Department of EnergysArgonne National LaboratoryandFermi National Accelerator Laboratory(both operated for DOE by UChicago), and theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and includes theUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonandNorthwestern University.

Developing a new technology at natures smallest scales requires strong partnerships with complementary expertise and significant resources. The Chicago Quantum Exchange enables us to engage leading experts, facilities and industries from around the world to advance quantum science and engineering, said David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, senior scientist at Argonne, and director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange. Our collaborations with these companies will be crucial to speed discovery, develop quantum applications and prepare a skilled quantum workforce.

Many of the new industry partners already have ongoing or recent engagements with CQE and its member institutions. In recent collaborative research, spectrally entangled photons from a Qubitekk entangled photon source were transported andsuccessfully detectedafter traveling through one section of theArgonne quantum loop.

On another project, UChicago computer scientist Fred Chong and his students worked with both Intel and Rigetti Computing on software and hardware solutions. With Intels support, Chongs team invented a range of software techniques to more efficiently execute quantum programs on a coming crop of quantum hardware. For example, they developed methods that take advantage of the hierarchical structure of important quantum circuits that are critical to the future of reliable quantum computation.

Chicago Quantum Exchange member institutions engage with corporate partners in a variety of collaborative research efforts, joint workshops to develop new research directions, and opportunities to train future quantum engineers. The CQE has existing partnerships with Boeing; IBM; Applied Materials, Inc.; Cold Quanta; HRL Laboratories, LLC; and Quantum Opus, LLC.

The CQEs newest corporate partnerships will help further research possibilities in areas from quantum communication hardware, to quantum computing systems and controls, to finance and cryptography applications.

Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel, looks forward to further collaborations with Chicago Quantum Exchange members.

Intel remains committed to solving intractable challenges that lie on the path of achieving quantum practicality, said Clarke. Were focusing our research on new qubit technologies and addressing key bottlenecks in their control and connectivity as quantum systems get larger. Our collaborations with members of the Chicago Quantum Exchange will help us harness our collective areas of expertise to contribute to meaningful advances in these areas.

The Chicago Quantum Exchanges partnership with JPMorgan Chase will enable the use of quantum computing algorithms and software for secure transactions and high-speed trading.

We are excited about the transformative impact that quantum computing can have on our industry, said Marco Pistoia, managing director, head of applied research and engineering at JPMorgan Chase. Collaborating with the Chicago Quantum Exchange will help us to be among the first to develop cutting-edge quantum algorithms for financial use cases, and experiment with the power of quantum computers on relevant problems, such as portfolio optimization and option pricing.

Applying quantum science and technology discoveries to areas such as finance, computing and healthcare requires a robust workforce of scientists and engineers. The Chicago Quantum Exchange integrates universities, national laboratories and leading companies to train the next generation of scientists and engineers and to equip those already in the workforce to transition to quantum careers.

Microsoft is excited to partner with the Chicago Quantum Exchange to accelerate the advancement of quantum computing, said Chetan Nayak, general manager of Microsoft Quantum Hardware. It is through these academic and industry partnerships that well be able to scale innovation and develop a workforce ready to harness the incredible impact of this technology.

Source: Chicago Quantum Exchange

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Solving problems by working together: Could quantum computing hold the key to Covid-19? – ITProPortal

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Given the enormous potential for quantum computing to change the way we forecast, model and understand the world, many are beginning to question whether it could have helped to better prepare us all for a global pandemic such as the Covid-19 crisis. Governments, organisations and the public are continuing the quest for answers about when this crisis will end and how we can find a way out of the current state of lockdown, and we are all continuing to learn through incremental and experimental steps. It certainly seems plausible that the high compute simulation capabilities of our most revolutionary technology could hold some of the answers and enable us to respond in a more coherent and impactful way.

Big investments have already been made in quantum computing, as countries and companies battle to create the first quantum supercomputer, so they can harness the power of this awesome technology. The World Economic Forum has also recognised the important role that this technology will play in our future, and has a dedicated Global Future Council to drive collaboration between public and private sector organisations engaged in the development of Quantum Computing. Although its unlikely to result in any overnight miracles, its understandable that many are thinking about whether these huge efforts and investments can be turned towards the mutual challenge we face in finding a solution to the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are already some ground-breaking use-cases for quantum computing within the healthcare industry. Where in the past some scientific breakthroughs such as the discovery of penicillin came completely by accident, quantum computing puts scientists in a much stronger position to find what they were looking for, faster. Quantum raises capacity to such a high degree that it would be possible to model penicillin using just a third of the processing power a classical computer would require to do the job meaning it can do more with less, at greater speed.

In the battle against Covid-19, the US Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is already using quantum supercomputers in its search for drug compounds that can treat the disease. IBM has also been using quantum supercomputers to run simulations on thousands of compounds to try and identify which of them is most likely to attach to the spike that Covid-19 uses to inject genetic material into healthy cells, and thereby prevent it. It has already emerged with 77 promising drugs that are worth further investigation and development progress that would have taken years if traditional computing power had been used.

Other businesses are likely to be keen to follow in the footsteps of these examples, and play their own part in dealing with the crisis, but to date its only been the worlds largest organisations that have been using quantum power. At present, many businesses simply dont have the skills and resources needed to fabricate, verify, architect and launch a large-scale quantum computer on their own.

It will be easier to overcome these barriers, and enable more organisations to start getting to work with quantum computing, if they open themselves up to collaboration with partners, rather than trying to go it alone. Instead of locking away their secrets, businesses must be willing to work within an open ecosystem; finding mutually beneficial partnerships will make it much more realistic to drive things forward.

The tech giants have made a lot of early progress with quantum, and partnering with them could prove extremely valuable. Google, for example, claims to have developed a machine that can solve a problem in 200 seconds that would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years imagine adding that kind of firepower to your computing arsenal. Google, IBM and Microsoft have already got the ball rolling by creating their own quantum partner networks. IBM Q and Microsoft Quantum Network bring together start-ups, universities, research labs, and Fortune 500 companies, enabling them to enjoy the benefits of exploring and learning together. The Google AI quantum initiative brings together strong academia support along with start-up collaboration on open source frameworks and tools in their lab. Collaborating in this manner, businesses can potentially play their own part in solving the Covid-19 crisis, or preventing future pandemics from doing as much damage.

Those that are leading the way in quantum computing are taking a collaborative approach, acknowledging that no one organisation holds all the answers or all the best ideas. This approach will prove particularly beneficial as we search for a solution to the Covid-19 crisis: its in everyones interests to find an exit to the global shutdown and build knowledge that means we are better-prepared for future outbreaks.

Looking at the bigger picture, despite all the progress that is being made with quantum, traditional computing will still have an important role to play in the short to medium term. Strategically, it makes sense to have quantum as the exploratory left side of the brain, while traditional systems remain in place for key business-as-usual functions. If they can think about quantum-related work in this manner, businesses should begin to feel more comfortable making discoveries and breakthroughs together. This will allow them to speed up the time to market so that ideas can be explored, and new ground broken, much faster than ever before and thats exactly what the world needs right now.

Kalyan Kumar, CVP & CTO, IT Services, HCL Technologies

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Physicists Just Quantum Teleported Information Between Particles of Matter – ScienceAlert

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By making use of the 'spooky' laws behind quantum entanglement, physicists think have found a way to make information leap between a pair of electrons separated by distance.

Teleporting fundamental states between photonsmassless particles of light is quickly becoming old news, a trick we are still learning to exploit in computing and encrypted communications technology.

But what the latest research has achieved is quantum teleportation between particles of matter electrons something that could help connect quantum computing with the more traditional electronic kind.

"We provide evidence for 'entanglement swapping,' in which we create entanglement between two electrons even though the particles never interact, and 'quantum gate teleportation,' a potentially useful technique for quantum computing using teleportation," says physicist John Nichol from the University of Rochester in New York.

"Our work shows that this can be done even without photons."

Entanglement is physics jargon for what seems like a pretty straightforward concept.

If you buy a pair of shoes from a shop and leave one behind, you'll automatically know which foot it belongs to the moment you get home. The shoes are in a manner of speaking entangled.

If the shopkeeper randomly pulls out its matching partner when you return, you'll think they either remembered your sale, made a lucky guess, or were perhaps a little 'spooky' in their prediction.

The real weirdness arises when we imagine your lonely shoe as being both left and right at the same time, at least until you look at it. At that very moment, the shoe's partner back at the shop also snaps into shape, as if your sneaky peek teleported across that distance.

It's a kind of serendipitous exchange that Einstein felt was a little too spooky for comfort. Nearly a century after physicists raised the possibility, we now know teleportation between entangled particles is how the Universe works on a fundamental level.

While it's not exactly a Star Trek-type teleportation that could beam whole objects across space, the mathematics describing this information jump are mighty useful in carrying out special kinds of calculations in computing.

Typical computer logic is made up of a binary language of bits, labelled either 1s and 0s. Quantum computing is built with qubits that can occupy both states at once providing far greater possibilities that classical technology can't touch.

The problem is the Universe is like a big jumble of shoes, all threatening to turn your delicate game of 'guess which foot' into a nightmare gamble the moment any qubit interacts with its environment.

Manipulating photons to transmit their entangled states is made easier thanks to the fact they can be quickly separated at light speed over huge distances through a vacuum or down an optical fibre.

But separating entangled masses such as pairs of electrons is more of a challenge, given their clunky interactions as they bounce along are almost certain to ruin their mathematically pure quantum state.

It's a challenge well worth the effort, though.

"Individual electrons are promising qubits because they interact very easily with each other, and individual electron qubits in semiconductors are also scalable," saysNichol.

"Reliably creating long-distance interactions between electrons is essential for quantum computing."

To achieve it, the team of physicists and engineers took advantage of some strange fine print in the laws that govern the ways the fundamental particles making up atoms and molecules hold their place.

Any two electrons that share the same quantum spin state can't occupy the same spot in space. But there is a bit of a loophole that says nearby electrons can swap their spins, almost as if your feet could swap shoes if you bring them close enough.

The researchers had previously shownthat this exchange can be manipulated without needing to move the electrons at all, presenting a potential method for teleportation.

This latest advance helps bring the process closer to technological reality, overcoming hurdles that would connect quantum weirdness with existing computing technology.

"We provide evidence for 'entanglement swapping,' in which we create entanglement between two electrons even though the particles never interact, and 'quantum gate teleportation,' a potentially useful technique for quantum computing using teleportation," says Nichol.

"Our work shows that this can be done even without photons."

Of course, we're still some way off replacing photons with electrons for this kind of quantum information transfer. The researchers haven't gone as far as measuring the states of electrons themselves, meaning there could still be all kinds of interference to iron out.

But having strong evidence of the possibility of teleportation between electrons is an encouraging sign of the possibilities open to future engineers.

This research was published in Nature Communications.

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Physicists Just Quantum Teleported Information Between Particles of Matter - ScienceAlert

Menten AIs combination of buzzword bingo brings AI and quantum computing to drug discovery – TechCrunch

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Menten AI has an impressive founding team and a pitch that combines some of the hottest trends in tech to pursue one of the biggest problems in healthcare new drug discovery. The company is also $4 million richer with a seed investment from firms including Uncork Capital and Khosla Ventures to build out its business.

Menten AIs pitch to investors was the combination of quantum computing and machine learning to discover new drugs that sit between small molecules and large biologics, according to the companys co-founder Hans Melo.

A graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator, which also participated in the round alongside Social Impact Capital*, Menten AI looks to design proteins from scratch. Its a heavier lift than some might expect, because, as Melo said in an interview, it takes a lot of work to make an actual drug.

Menten AI is working with peptides, which are strings of amino acid chains similar to proteins that have the potential to slow aging, reduce inflammation and get rid of pathogens in the body.

As a drug modality [peptides] are quite new, says Melo. Until recently it was really hard to design them computationally and people tried to focus on genetically modifying them.

Peptides have the benefit of getting through membranes and into cells where they can combine with targets that are too large for small molecules, according to Melo.

Most drug targets are not addressable with either small molecules or biologics, according to Melo, which means theres a huge untapped potential market for peptide therapies.

Menten AI is already working on a COVID-19 therapeutic, although the companys young chief executive declined to disclose too many details about it. Another area of interest is in neurological disorders, where the founding team members have some expertise.

Image of peptide molecules. Image Courtesy: D-Wave

While Menten AIs targets are interesting, the approach that the company is taking, using quantum computing to potentially drive down the cost and accelerate the time to market, is equally compelling for investors.

Its also unproven. Right now, there isnt a quantum advantage to using the novel computing technology versus traditional computing. Something that Melo freely admits.

Were not claiming a quantum advantage, but were not claiming a quantum disadvantage, is the way the young entrepreneur puts it. We have come up with a different way of solving the problem that may scale better. We havent proven an advantage.

Still, the company is an early indicator of the kinds of services quantum computing could offer, and its with that in mind that Menten AI partnered with some of the leading independent quantum computing companies, D-Wave and Rigetti Computing, to work on applications of their technology.

The emphasis on quantum computing also differentiates it from larger publicly traded competitors like Schrdinger and Codexis.

So does the pedigree of its founding team, according to Uncork Capital investor, Jeff Clavier. Its really the unique team that they formed, Clavier said of his decision to invest in the early-stage company. Theres Hans the CEO who is more on the quantum side; theres Tamas [Gorbe] on the bio side and theres Vikram [Mulligan] who developed the research. Its kind of a unique fantastic team that came together to work on the opportunity.

Clavier has also acknowledged the possibility that it might not work.

Can they really produce anything interesting at the end? he asked. Its still an early-stage company and we may fall flat on our face or they may come up with really new ways to make new peptides.

Its probably not a bad idea to take a bet on Melo, who worked with Mulligan, a researcher from the Flatiron Institute focused on computational biology, to produce some of the early research into the creation of new peptides using D-Waves quantum computing.

Novel peptide structures created using D-Waves quantum computers. Image Courtesy: D-Wave

While Melo and Mulligan were the initial researchers working on the technology that would become Menten AI, Gorbe was added to the founding team to get the company some exposure into the world of chemistry and enzymatic applications for its new virtual protein manufacturing technology.

The gamble paid off in the form of pilot projects (also undisclosed) that focus on the development of enzymes for agricultural applications and pharmaceuticals.

At the end of the day what theyre doing is theyre using advanced computing to figure out what is the optimal placement of those clinical compounds in a way that is less based on those sensitive tests and more bound on those theories, said Clavier.

*This post was updated to add that Social Impact Capital invested in the round. Khosla, Social Impact, and Uncork each invested $1 million into Menten AI.

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How This Bangalore Based Startup Is Driving Innovation With Quantum Technology-Based Products – Analytics India Magazine

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India has been a frontrunner when it comes to implementing new-age technology such as AI, machine learning and quantum technologies. In fact, Union Budget 2020 saw an allocation of INR 8,000 crore towards the development of technologies such as Quantum Cryptography and Quantum Communication.

Further building on quantum technology, and with a vision to drive disruptive innovations across multiple sectors with AI and quantum technology, Bengaluru-based Archeron Group is providing cutting-edge solutions for multiple industries.

Analytics India Magazine got in touch with the founder of Archeron Group to understand the tech behind it. Founded in 2015 by Aviruk Chakraborty, Archeron Group was established with a vision to drive disruptive innovations across multiple sectors that can help transform the world for the better.

The company is co-headquartered in Abu Dhabi and San Francisco. It has a state-of-the-art Global Development and Delivery Centre (GDDC) in Bengaluru. It holds strategic importance for the Group and is responsible for creating the entire solution portfolio of the groups which it has been able to take to the Middle East (UAE and KSA), North America, and the European Union.

Archeon extensively integrates AI and quantum computing in its flagship products. Chakraborty explained them as below:

1| Automated and Remote Sensing Agri Platform: This is an Agri analysis platform that uses remote sensing-based technologies to map the yield, the productivity of that field not only for the past 20 years but also to predict the next years yield and productivity.

Chakraborty stated, We have developed a vast array of solutions which include agricultural insurance automation, agriculture loan automation, crop classification and identification, soil analysis, fertilizer and pesticide requirement analysis, disease detection and real-time monitoring of the field, to name a few.

2| Bank/ NBFC automation using AI: The company is building a Quantum AI Bank using quantum technologies and artificial intelligence, which will be completely autonomous in its decision making. According to Chakraborty, the larger parameters of the bank such as risk ratios and macroscopic directives will be set by the board on a quarterly basis which gets translated into algorithmic performance parameters and hence executed for the next quarter.

3| Predictive Diagnostic Platforms: Archeron group has created an integrated national radiology platform using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, where the radiological plates of all the patients all over the country is analysed and a diagnostic support system is created in which the doctors are given a second opinion on the radiological plates.

4| Quantum Cryptography: The company has designed Quantum Cryptography with a view to strengthen the payments infrastructure in India and make them 100% secure and unhackable. They used three-factor authentication as well as Quantum One Time pad to offer an end to end secure platform.

On being asked how the products are different from others in the market, Chakraborty pointed out that-

The company is using deep neural networks and cutting edge mathematical models such as Q-learning and GAN. They also use Remote Sensing, IoT, and Crispr-Cas9.

Chakraborty said, We are language agnostic developers as we have to not only develop solutions but also integrate them with the existing framework for existing clients. Archeron Group is using C++/ Python for the ML algorithms and prefers to build the ML models from scratch rather than using a pre-trained model.

They also work on the domains of blockchain, satellite imagery analysis, IoT, brain-computer interface, genetic programming for creating synthetic life along with standard machine learning and quantum computing, cryptography and communication frameworks.

Chakraborty said that in the next five years, the focus would be on increasing the adoption of healthcare, banking and agricultural solutions in UAE, India and the USA. The company is also focusing on global implementation of already developed technology and iteratively refining it to make the tech stack better.

A Technical Journalist who loves writing about Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. A lover of music, writing and learning something out of the box. Contact: ambika.choudhury@analyticsindiamag.com

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How This Bangalore Based Startup Is Driving Innovation With Quantum Technology-Based Products - Analytics India Magazine

Quantum Computing Market Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts to 2026 – Jewish Life News

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Quantum Computing Market Overview

The Quantum Computing market report presents a detailed evaluation of the market. The report focuses on providing a holistic overview with a forecast period of the report extending from 2018 to 2026. The Quantum Computing market report includes analysis in terms of both quantitative and qualitative data, taking into factors such as Product pricing, Product penetration, Country GDP, movement of parent market & child markets, End application industries, etc. The report is defined by bifurcating various parts of the market into segments which provide an understanding of different aspects of the market.

The overall report is divided into the following primary sections: segments, market outlook, competitive landscape and company profiles. The segments cover various aspects of the market, from the trends that are affecting the market to major market players, in turn providing a well-rounded assessment of the market. In terms of the market outlook section, the report provides a study of the major market dynamics that are playing a substantial role in the market. The market outlook section is further categorized into sections; drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges. The drivers and restraints cover the internal factors of the market whereas opportunities and challenges are the external factors that are affecting the market. The market outlook section also comprises Porters Five Forces analysis (which explains buyers bargaining power, suppliers bargaining power, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition in the Quantum Computing) in addition to the market dynamics.

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Leading Quantum Computing manufacturers/companies operating at both regional and global levels:

Quantum Computing Market Scope Of The Report

This report offers past, present as well as future analysis and estimates for the Quantum Computing market. The market estimates that are provided in the report are calculated through an exhaustive research methodology. The research methodology that is adopted involves multiple channels of research, chiefly primary interviews, secondary research and subject matter expert advice. The market estimates are calculated on the basis of the degree of impact of the current market dynamics along with various economic, social and political factors on the Quantum Computing market. Both positive as well as negative changes to the market are taken into consideration for the market estimates.

Quantum Computing Market Competitive Landscape & Company Profiles

The competitive landscape and company profile chapters of the market report are dedicated to the major players in the Quantum Computing market. An evaluation of these market players through their product benchmarking, key developments and financial statements sheds a light into the overall market evaluation. The company profile section also includes a SWOT analysis (top three companies) of these players. In addition, the companies that are provided in this section can be customized according to the clients requirements.

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Quantum Computing Market Research Methodology

The research methodology adopted for the analysis of the market involves the consolidation of various research considerations such as subject matter expert advice, primary and secondary research. Primary research involves the extraction of information through various aspects such as numerous telephonic interviews, industry experts, questionnaires and in some cases face-to-face interactions. Primary interviews are usually carried out on a continuous basis with industry experts in order to acquire a topical understanding of the market as well as to be able to substantiate the existing analysis of the data.

Subject matter expertise involves the validation of the key research findings that were attained from primary and secondary research. The subject matter experts that are consulted have extensive experience in the market research industry and the specific requirements of the clients are reviewed by the experts to check for completion of the market study. Secondary research used for the Quantum Computing market report includes sources such as press releases, company annual reports, and research papers that are related to the industry. Other sources can include government websites, industry magazines and associations for gathering more meticulous data. These multiple channels of research help to find as well as substantiate research findings.

Table of Content

1 Introduction of Quantum Computing Market

1.1 Overview of the Market1.2 Scope of Report1.3 Assumptions

2 Executive Summary

3 Research Methodology of Verified Market Research

3.1 Data Mining3.2 Validation3.3 Primary Interviews3.4 List of Data Sources

4 Quantum Computing Market Outlook

4.1 Overview4.2 Market Dynamics4.2.1 Drivers4.2.2 Restraints4.2.3 Opportunities4.3 Porters Five Force Model4.4 Value Chain Analysis

5 Quantum Computing Market, By Deployment Model

5.1 Overview

6 Quantum Computing Market, By Solution

6.1 Overview

7 Quantum Computing Market, By Vertical

7.1 Overview

8 Quantum Computing Market, By Geography

8.1 Overview8.2 North America8.2.1 U.S.8.2.2 Canada8.2.3 Mexico8.3 Europe8.3.1 Germany8.3.2 U.K.8.3.3 France8.3.4 Rest of Europe8.4 Asia Pacific8.4.1 China8.4.2 Japan8.4.3 India8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific8.5 Rest of the World8.5.1 Latin America8.5.2 Middle East

9 Quantum Computing Market Competitive Landscape

9.1 Overview9.2 Company Market Ranking9.3 Key Development Strategies

10 Company Profiles

10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financial Performance10.1.3 Product Outlook10.1.4 Key Developments

11 Appendix

11.1 Related Research

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Our 250 Analysts and SMEs offer a high level of expertise in data collection and governance use industrial techniques to collect and analyse data on more than 15,000 high impact and niche markets. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research.

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Quantum Computing Market Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts to 2026 - Jewish Life News

Verizon tunes up quantum-based technology trial in Washington D.C. to bolster security – FierceTelecom

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In order to better keep communications safe and secure from hackers, Verizon recently conducted a trial of quantum key distribution (QKD) in Washington D.C. Verizon said the successful trial positioned it as one of the first carriers in the U.S. to pilot the use of QKD.

Quantum cryptography could provide a solution for the vulnerability of current cryptographic key implementations. Today, cryptographic techniques encrypt data using a secure key, which is only known to the parties using that key for decrypting the messages between them.

Those cryptographic techniques for key generation are based on highly complex mathematical problems that require long calculations to be resolved. With the growth of computational capacity, the time required to solve these problems becomes shorter, which reduces the security of the keys.

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With the advent of quantum computers, the principles of quantum mechanics could be applied to break the keys used in today's security implementations. By contrast, QKD could be applied to exchange a key between the two ends of a communication. QKD provides protection against the threat posed by quantum computing to current cryptographic algorithms and provides a high level of security for the exchange of data.

RELATED: Telefnica, Huawei trial quantum cryptography on optical network using SDN

Two years ago, Telefnica and Huawei conducted a successful field trial of quantum cryptography on commercial optical networks by using SDN.

In Verizon's QKD trial, live video was captured outside of three Verizon locations in the D.C. area, including the Washington DC Executive Briefing Center, the 5G Lab in D.C and Verizons Ashburn, Virginia office. Using a QKD network, quantum keys were created and exchanged over a fiber network between Verizon's locations.

In the trial, video streams were encrypted and delivered more securely allowing the recipient to see the video in real-time while instantly exposing hackers. A QKD network derives cryptographic keys using the quantum properties of photons to prevent against eavesdropping.

Verizon also demonstrated that data could be further secured with keys generated using a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) that, as the name suggests, creates random numbers that cant be predicted. With QKD, encryption keys are continuously generated and are immune to attacks because any disruption to the channel breaks the quantum state of photons, which signals that eavesdroppers are present.

"The use of quantum mechanics is a great step forward in data security, said IDC Analyst Christina Richmond, in a statement. Verizon's own tests, as well other industry testing, have shown that deriving 'secret keys' between two entities via light photons effectively blocks perfect cloning by an eavesdropper if a key intercept is attempted.

"Current technological breakthroughs have proven that both the quantum channel and encrypted data channel can be sent over a single optical fiber. Verizon has demonstrated this streamlined approach brings greater efficiency for practical large-scale implementation allowing keys to be securely shared over wide-ranging networks.

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Verizon tunes up quantum-based technology trial in Washington D.C. to bolster security - FierceTelecom

Study: How the automotive industry will benefit from quantum computing – eeNews Europe

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After companies such as IBM with its Q System One or D-Wave Technologies made headlines in recent years with supposedly usable quantum computers, various companies in the automotive value chain have taken a closer look at this technology - the promises made by manufacturers were too seductive. According to their pledges, quantum computers are ideal for solving certain problems that the best scientists have long been brooding over, such as route optimisation, fuel cell optimisation and the durability of materials.

According to the McKinsey study, some of these early users have already achieved a certain success. Volkswagen, for example, has teamed up with D-Wave to develop a traffic management system that optimises the routes of buses in urban traffic. The automotive supplier Bosch has invested $21 million in the start-up company Zapata Computing (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

However, the reluctance still far outweighs the commitment to this innovative computing technology, write the authors of the McKinsey study. The novelty of the technology and the still very narrow market have so far discouraged many companies from intensively engaging in quantum computing. It will take another five to ten years before this technology has become established in the long term. By then, quantum computing will have overcome several hurdles: Quantum Supremacy must be achieved; the practical benefit must be proven beyond doubt; application software must be available to solve concrete problems; and above all, a Quantum Turing Machine must be available. The latter means that a universally applicable quantum architecture with quantum memory and conventional main memory (RAM) must be available. Such a machine, as described by the experts at McKinsey, will be able to work with the number of qubits required by the users and execute arbitrary algorithms. Such a machine will be available in one to two decades, the study says.

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Study: How the automotive industry will benefit from quantum computing - eeNews Europe

BBVA Uncovers The Promise Of Quantum Computing For Banking And Financial Services – Forbes

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Computers have underpinned the digital transformation of the banking and financial services sector, and quantum computing promises to elevate this transformation to a radically new level. BBVA, the digital bank for the 21st centuryestablished in 1857 and today the second largest bank in Spainis at the forefront of investigating the benefits of quantum computing.

Will quantum computing move banking to a new level of digital transformation?

We are trying to understand the potential impact of quantum computing over the next 5 years, says Carlos Kuchkovsky, global head of research and patents at BBVA. Last month, BBVA announced initial results from their recent exploration of quantum computings advantage over traditional computer methods. Kuchkovskys team looked at complex financial problems with many dimensions or variables that require computational calculations that sometimes take days to complete. In the case of investment portfolio optimization, for example, they found that the use of quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms could represent a significant speed-up compared to traditional techniques when there are more than 100 variables.

Carlos Kuchkovsky, Global Head of Research and Patents, BBVA

After hiring researchers with expertise in quantum computing, BBVA identified fifteen challenges that could be solved better with quantum computing, faster and with greater accuracy, says Kuchkovsky. The results released last month were for six of these challenges, serving as proofs-of-concept for, first and foremost, the development of quantum algorithms and also for their application in the following five financial services tasks: Static and dynamic portfolio optimization, credit scoring process optimization, currency arbitrage optimization, and derivative valuations and adjustments.

Another important dimension of BBVAs quantum computing journey is developing an external network. The above six proofs-of-concept were pursued in collaboration with external partners bringing to the various investigations their own set of skills and expertise: The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the startups Zapata Computing and Multiverse, the technology firm Fujitsu, and the consulting firm Accenture.

Kuchkovsky advises technology and business executives in other companies, in any industry, to follow BBVAs initial stepssurveying the current state of the technology and the major players, developing internal expertise and experience with quantum computing and consolidating the internal team, identifying specific business problems, activities and opportunities where quantum computing could provide an advantage over todays computers, and develop an external network by connecting to and collaborating with relevant research centers and companies.

As for how to organize internally for quantum computing explorations, Kuchkovsky thinks there could be different possibilities, depending on the level of maturity of the research and technology functions of the business. In BBVAs case, the effort started in the research function and he thinks will evolve in a year or two to a full-fledged quantum computing center of excellence.

Quantum computing is evolving rapidly and Kuchkovsky predicts that in five years, companies around the world will enjoy full access to quantum computing as a service and will benefit from the application of quantum algorithms, also provided as a service. Specifically, he thinks we will see the successful application of quantum computing to machine learning (e.g., improving fraud detection in the banking sector). With the growing interest in quantum computing, Kuchkovsky believes that in five years there will be a sufficient supply of quantum computing talent to satisfy the demand for quantum computing expertise.

The development of a talent pool of experienced and knowledgeable quantum computing professionals depends among other things on close working relationships between academia and industry. These relationships tend to steer researchers towards practical problems and specific business challenges and, in turn, helps in upgrading the skills of engineers working in large corporations and orient them toward quantum computing.

In Kuchocvskys estimation, the connection between academia and industry is relatively weaker in Europe compared to the United States. But there are examples of such collaboration, such as BBVAs work with CSIC and the European Unions Quantum Technologies Flagship, bringing together research centers, industry, and public funding agencies.

On July 29, Fujitsu announced a new collaboration with BBVA, to test whether a quantum computer could outperform traditional computing techniques in optimizing asset portfolios, helping minimize risk while maximizing returns, based on a decades worth of historical data. In the release, Kuchkovsky summarized BBVAs motivation for exploring quantum computing: Our research is helping us identify the areas where quantum computing could represent a greater competitive advantage, once the tools have sufficiently matured. At BBVA, we believe that quantum technology will be key to solving some of the major challenges facing society this decade. Addressing these challenges dovetails with BBVAs strategic priorities, such as fostering the more efficient use of increasingly greater volumes of data for better decision-making as well as supporting the transition to a more sustainable future.

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BBVA Uncovers The Promise Of Quantum Computing For Banking And Financial Services - Forbes