Monthly Archives: September 2021

Breakthroughs in quantum computing keep coming the latest quantum processor designed by Google has solved a complex mathematical calculation in less than four minutes; the most advanced conventional computers would require 10,000 years to get to an answer. Heres the problem though: even as scientists perfect the quantum computing hardware, there arent many people with the expertise to make use of it, particularly in real-life settings.

Joe Fitzsimons, the founder of Horizon Quantum Computing, believes he is well-placed to help here. Fitzsimons left academia in 2018 following years of research at Oxford University and the Quantum Information and Theory group in Singapore, spotting an opportunity. Were building the tools that will help people take advantage of these advances in the real world, he explains.

To understand Horizons unique selling point does not require a crash course in quantum computing. The key point is that while conventional computing uses binary processing technique a world reduced to 0 or 1 quantum computing operates using many combinations of these digits simultaneously; that means it can get results far more quickly.

The problem for anyone wanting to take advantage of this speed and power is that conventional computer programs wont run on quantum computing. And not only do you need a different language to tell your quantum computer what to do, the program also needs to be able to work out the best way for the machine to achieve a given outcome; not every possible route will secure an advantage.

A further difficulty is that quantum computer programmers are in short supply. And quantum computer programmers who also understand the intricacies of commercial problems that need solving in financial services, pharmaceuticals or energy, say are non-existent.

Horizon aims to fill this gap. Our role is to make quantum computing accessible by building the tools with which people can use it in the real world, he explains. If there is a problem that can be addressed by quantum computing, we need to make it more straightforward to do so.

Think of Horizon as offering a translation service. If you have written a programme to deliver a particular outcome on a conventional computer, Horizons translation tool will turn it into a programme that can deliver the same outcome from a quantum processor. Even better, the tool will work out the best possible way to make that translation so that it optimises the power of quantum computing to deliver your outcome more speedily.

Horizon's Joe Fitzsimons wants to drive access to quantum computing

In the absence of such tools, real-life applications for quantum computing have been developing slowly. One alternative is to use one of the libraries of programmes that already exist for quantum computing, assuming there is one for your particular use case. Another is to hire a team of experts or buy expertise in from a consultant to build your application for you, but this requires time and money, even if talent with the right skills for your outcome is actually out there.

Instead, we are trying to automate what someone with that expertise would do, adds Fitzsimons. If youre an expert in your particular field, we provide the quantum computing expertise so that you don't need it.

We are not quite at the stage of bringing quantum computing to the masses. For one thing, hardware developers are still trying to perfect the machines themselves. For another, we dont yet have a clear picture of where quantum computing will deliver the greatest benefits, though it is increasingly clear that the most promising commercial use cases lie in industries that generate huge amounts of data and require complex analytics to drive insight from that information.

Nevertheless, Fitzsimons believes widescale adoption of quantum computing is coming closer by the day. He points to the huge volumes of funding now going into the industry not least, private sector investment is doubling each year and the continuing technical breakthroughs.

From a commercial perspective, the forecasts are impressive. The consulting group BCG thinks the quantum computing sector could create $5bn-$10bn worth of value in the next three to five years and $450bn to $850bn in the next 15 to 30 years. And Horizon is convinced it can help bring those paydays forward.

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How Horizon Plans To Bring Quantum Computing Out Of The Shadows - Forbes

IONQ

The relationship between higher education and the tech companies I cover as an analyst is close and mutually beneficial. The private sector often provides technology resources, capital, expertise, and knowledge of industry needs and challenges to research institutions, the sandbox of tomorrows tech innovators and leaders.

Quantum technology is at an exciting crossroads now, where it is beginning to migrate out of the realm of research and academia to seek out early commercialization opportunities. Much quicker and more powerful than traditional computing, quantum technology promises to revolutionize everything from medicine to climate science. It could very well change the world as we know it within our lifetimes.

So naturally, I immediately perked up at this weeks news of the University of Maryland (UMD)s $20 million, 3-year investment in quantum computing, the majority of which will go to IonQ, to co-develop a groundbreaking quantum laboratory at the College Park campus of the University.

The National Quantum Lab at Maryland, or Q-Lab for short, looks to be an ambitious project that could pay significant dividends in the efforts to advance and commercialize quantum technology. While I had initially viewed the word investment as a balance sheet impact, versus revenue, IonQ announced today it has tripled its bookings forecast for 2021, suggesting the UMD deal is very much a revenue event. To be clear, the tripling of bookings isnt only UMD, but includes other customers, too.

Lets look at the players, the deal and what it includes.

Something is happening in College Park

Based in College Park, MD, IonQ was founded in 2015 by Christopher Monroe, a professor at the University of Maryland and Jungsang Kim, a professor at Duke University (a great example of higher eds interconnectivity with the private sector). Built on its founders 25 years of academic quantum research, IonQs bread and butter is a subcategory of quantum computing known as trapped ion quantum computing. While a full explanation of trapped ion computing is well beyond the scope of this blog and more in Moor Insights & Strategys Quantum principal analyst Paul Smith-Goodson, know that it is one of the more promising proposed approaches to achieving a large-scale quantum computer.

UMD College Park, for its part, is known as a leading public research universityparticularly in the field of quantum computing. Marylands flagship university has invested approximately $300 million into the field of quantum science over the last 30-plus years and currently hosts over 200 quantum researchers and seven quantum facilities. The campus is already home to the Quantum Startup Foundry and the Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance, two organizations committed to advancing the nascent quantum ecosystem.

Q-lab promises to be the worlds first on-campus, commercial-grade quantum user facility. The stated goal of the Q-lab is to significantly democratize access to IonQs state-of-the-art technology, giving students, faculty and researchers hands-on experience with technology such as the companys 32-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer (the most performant quantum computer in operation). Lab users also stand to benefit from the opportunity to collaborate with IonQs quantum scientists and engineering experts, who will co-locate within the lab (which will be located next door to IonQs College Park headquarters).

IonQs market momentum

The announcement of the Q-lab comes along with a flurry of other exciting activity at IonQ. Last month, the company demonstrated its 4X16 Reconfigurable Multicore Quantum Architecture (RMQA), an industry first. IonQ says this breakthrough could enable it to boost its qubit count up to the triple digits on a single chip, also laying the groundwork for theoretical future Parallel Multicore Quantum Processing Units.

Another significant recent announcement from IonQ was that it will now offer its quantum systems on Google Cloud (the first quantum player to do so). For that matter, it is now the only quantum provider available via all three of the major cloud platforms (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS) and through direct API access. I see this as another crucial way in which IonQ is democratizing access to quantum computers.

Additionally, the company recently announced a strategic integration with IBM Qiskit. This quantum software development kit will make it easier for quantum programmers to get up and running with IonQs systems. Rounding out the new developments was the announcement of a partnership with SoftBank Investment Advisors to facilitate enterprise deployment of quantum solutions worldwide.

All of these developments, including the Q-lab, considered, its no wonder today IonQ recently tripled its expectations for its 2021 contract bookings, from an original goal of $5 million to an ambitious $15 million. To be clear, the tripling of bookings isnt only UMD, but includes other customers, too. All of this must look good to investors, who will soon get a crack at the Quantum company when it goes public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) later this month (a merger with dMY Technology Group, Inc) under $DMYI.

Wrapping up

With both a preeminent quantum research school and a private sector quantum leader located in College Park, the Maryland city could soon be a (if not the) veritable epicenter of quantum technology in the United States. The Q-lab has the potential to produce the next generation of quantum innovators, generate new quantum IP and draw even more quantum startups and scientific and engineering talent to College Park.

Were likely a bit away from recognizing quantum computings full potential as a paradigm shift. However, IonQs moves this summer demonstrate that the technology is entering a new, exciting phase of commercialization, which should only accelerate the process of innovation at research locations such as the new Q-lab. Ill be watching with interest.

From the business point of view, it is great to see IonQ drive orders and subsequently revenue. I hear from some of the uninformed that theres no money in quantum. I think the doubters are wrong and when we all get a closer look at IonQs financials, I believe there will be some surprises.

Moor Insights & Strategy, like all research and analyst firms, provides or has provided paid research, analysis, advising, or consulting to many high-tech companies in the industry, including 8x8, Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Applied Micro, ARM, Aruba Networks, AT&T, AWS, A-10 Strategies,Bitfusion, Blaize, Box, Broadcom, Calix, Cisco Systems, Clear Software, Cloudera,Clumio, Cognitive Systems, CompuCom, Dell, Dell EMC, Dell Technologies, Diablo Technologies, Digital Optics,Dreamchain, Echelon, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, Flex, Foxconn, Frame (now VMware), Fujitsu, Gen Z Consortium, Glue Networks, GlobalFoundries, Google (Nest-Revolve), Google Cloud, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Honeywell, Huawei Technologies, IBM, Ion VR,IonQ, Inseego, Infosys, Intel, Interdigital, Jabil Circuit, Konica Minolta, Lattice Semiconductor, Lenovo, Linux Foundation,MapBox, Marvell,Mavenir, Marseille Inc, Mayfair Equity, Meraki (Cisco),Mesophere, Microsoft, Mojo Networks, National Instruments, NetApp, Nightwatch, NOKIA (Alcatel-Lucent), Nortek,Novumind, NVIDIA, Nuvia, ON Semiconductor, ONUG, OpenStack Foundation, Oracle, Poly, Panasas,Peraso, Pexip, Pixelworks, Plume Design, Poly,Portworx, Pure Storage, Qualcomm, Rackspace, Rambus,RayvoltE-Bikes, Red Hat,Residio, Samsung Electronics, SAP, SAS, Scale Computing, Schneider Electric, Silver Peak, SONY,Springpath, Spirent, Splunk, Sprint, Stratus Technologies, Symantec, Synaptics, Syniverse, Synopsys, Tanium, TE Connectivity,TensTorrent,TobiiTechnology, T-Mobile, Twitter, Unity Technologies, UiPath, Verizon Communications,Vidyo, VMware, Wave Computing,Wellsmith, Xilinx, Zebra,Zededa, and Zoho which may be cited in blogs and research.

Patrick was ranked the #1 analyst out of 8,000 in the ARInsights Power 100 rankings and the #1 most cited analyst as ranked by Apollo Research. Patrick founded Moor

Patrick was ranked the #1 analyst out of 8,000 in the ARInsights Power 100 rankings and the #1 most cited analyst as ranked by Apollo Research. Patrick founded Moor Insights & Strategy based on in his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasnt getting from analysts and consultants. Moorhead is also a contributor for both Forbes, CIO, and the Next Platform. He runs MI&S but is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the software-defined datacenter and the Internet of Things (IoT), and Patrick is a deep expert in client computing and semiconductors. He has nearly 30 years of experience including 15 years as an executive at high tech companies leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.Before Patrick started the firm, he spent over 20 years as a high-tech strategy, product, and marketing executive who has addressed the personal computer, mobile, graphics, and server ecosystems. Unlike other analyst firms, Moorhead held executive positions leading strategy, marketing, and product groups. He is grounded in reality as he has led the planning and execution and had to live with the outcomes.Moorhead also has significant board experience. He served as an executive board member of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the American Electronics Association (AEA) and chaired the board of the St. Davids Medical Center for five years, designated by Thomson Reuters as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in America.

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IonQ Scores Quantum Computing Deal With University Of Maryland And Announces Its Tripling 2021 Bookings - Forbes

Sept. 8, 2021 How can one predict a materials behavior on the molecular and atomic levels, at the shortest timescales? Whats the best way to design materials to make use of their quantum properties for electronics and information science?

These broad, difficult questions are the type of inquiries that UC Santa Barbara theorist Vojtech Vlcek and his lab will investigate as part of a select group of scientists chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop new operating frameworks for some of the worlds most powerful computers. Vlcek will be leading one of five DOE-funded projects to the tune of $28 million overall that will focus on computational methods, algorithms and software to further chemical and materials research, specifically for simulating quantum phenomena and chemical reactions.

Its really exciting, said Vlcek, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and one of, if not the youngest researcher to lead such a major endeavor. We believe we will be for the first time able to not only really describe realistic systems, but also provide this whole framework for ultrafast and driven phenomena that will actually set the scene for future developments.

I congratulate Vojtech Vlcek on being selected for this prestigious grant, said Pierre Wiltzius, dean of mathematical, physical and life sciences at UC Santa Barbara. Its especially impressive and unusual for an assistant professor to lead this type of complex, multi-institution research project. Vojtech is in a league if his own, and I look forward to future insights that will come from the teams discoveries.

A Multilayer Framework

As part of the DOEs efforts toward clean energy technologies, scientists across the nation study matter and energy at their most fundamental levels. The goal is to design and discover new materials and processes that can generate, manipulate and store energy techniques that have applications in a wide variety of areas, including energy, environment and national security.

Uncovering these potentially beneficial phenomena and connecting them to the atoms they come from is hard work work that could be assisted with the use of the supercomputers that are housed in the DOEs national laboratories.

DOEs national labs are home to some of the worlds fastest supercomputers, and with more advanced software programs we can fully harness the power of these supercomputers to make breakthrough discoveries and solve the worlds hardest to crack problems, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. These investments will help sustain U.S. leadership in science, accelerate basic energy and advance solutions to the nations clean energy priorities.

Among these hard-to-crack problems is the issue of many interacting particles. Interactions are more easily predicted in a system of a few atoms or molecules, or in very regular, periodic systems. But add more bodies or use more elaborate systems and the complexity skyrockets because the characteristics and behaviors of and interactions between every particle have to be accounted for. In some cases, their collective behaviors can produce interesting phenomena that cant be predicted from the behavior of individual particles.

People have been working with small molecules, or characterizing perfectly periodic systems, or looking at just a few atoms, Vlcek said, and more or less extending their dynamics to try to approximate the behaviors of larger, more complex systems.

This is not necessarily realistic, he continued. We want to simulate surfaces. We want to simulate systems that have large-scale periodicity. And in these cases you need to consider systems that are not on nanometer scales, but on the scale of thousands of atoms.

Add to that complexity non-equilibrium processes, which are the focus of Vlceks particular project. He will be leading an effort that involves an additional seven co-principal investigators from UC Berkeley, UCLA, Rutgers University, University of Michigan and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Essentially these systems are driven by some strong external stimuli, like from lasers or other driving fields, he said. These processes are relevant for many applications, such as electronics and quantum information sciences.

The goal, according to Vlcek, is to develop algorithms and software based on a multilayer framework with successive layers of embedding theories to capture non-equilibrium dynamics. The team, in partnership with two DOE-supported Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Institutes at Lawrence Berkeley and Argonne National Laboratories, begins with the most fundamental assumptions of quantum theory. That foundation is followed by layers that incorporate novel numerical techniques and neural network approaches to take advantage of the intensive computing the supercomputers can perform.

We still stay with the first principles approach, but were making successive levels of approximations, Vlcek explained. And with this approach well be able to treat extremely large systems. Among the many advantages of the methodology will be the ability for the first time to describe experimental systems in real-time, as they are driven by external forces.

The outcome of the project will be bigger than the sum of its parts, said Vlcek. Not only will it provide a method of studying and designing a wide variety of present and future novel materials, the algorithms are also meant for future supercomputers.

One interesting outcome will be that we will also try to connect to future computational platforms, which could possibly be quantum computers, he said. So this framework will actually allow future research on present and future novel materials as well as new theoretical research.

Source: UC Santa Barbara

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Quantum Computing Theorist Vojtech Vlcek Receives Research Award from DOE - HPCwire

The University of Maryland and IonQ, a College Park-based quantum computing company, announced Wednesday that they will join forces to develop a facility that will give students, faculty, staff and researchers access to a commercial-grade quantum computer.

The new facility, which will be known as the National Quantum Lab at Maryland or Q-Lab for short is the product of a nearly $20 million investment from this university. As the nations first facility of its kind, it will also provide training related to IonQs hardware and allow visitors to collaborate with the companys scientists and engineers, according to a news release.

No other university in the United States is able to provide students and researchers this level of hands-on contact with commercial-grade quantum computing technology and insights from experts working in this emerging field, university President Darryll Pines said in the news release.

The Q-Lab will be located in the Discovery District next to IonQs headquarters by the College Park Airport, the news release stated.

Quantum computing attempts to evolve computer technology, striving to create a machine that can solve more problems at a faster rate.

[Whats new, whats coming, whats moving: The business scene in College Park]

Around the time IonQ announced its plans to go public earlier this year, Pines explained that classical computing uses a stream of electrical pulses called bits, which represent 1s and 0s, to store information. However, on the quantum scale, subatomic particles known as qubits are used to store information, greatly increasing computing speed.

Most importantly, we wanted to put our scientists at the cutting edge of quantum computers because we know that we already use supercomputers, Pines said Wednesday. But why not use the best computers that are right in our backyard?

Recent advancements in quantum computing also support research in areas such as biology, medicine, climate science and materials development, the release noted, adding that the creation of the Q-Lab may also attract additional entrepreneurs and startups to College Park.

We could not be more proud of IonQs success and we are excited to establish this strategic partnership, further solidifying UMD and the surrounding region as the Quantum Capital of the world, Pines added.

The development of the Q-Lab builds upon the universitys $300 million investment in quantum science and more than 30-year history of advancements in the field, according to the news release. The university also currently houses more than 200 researchers and seven centers specializing in quantum-related work.

We are very proud that the nations leading center of academic excellence in quantum research chose IonQs hardware for this trailblazing partnership, said Peter Chapman, the president and CEO of IonQ.

[UMD students allege poor living conditions, maintenance at University Club apartments]

Chris Monroe, a professor in this universitys physics department, and Jungsang Kim co-founded IonQ, which is set to become the first publicly traded commercialized quantum computing company. The company is estimated to go public with a valuation of nearly $2 billion.

The company recently became the first quantum computer supplier whose products are available on all major cloud services providers such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, according to the release.

Monroe and Kim also joined the White Houses National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee in an effort to accelerate the development of the national strategic technological imperative, the news release stated.

UMD has been at the vanguard of this field since quantum computing was in its infancy, and has been a true partner to IonQ as we step out of the lab and into commerce, industry, and the public markets, Chapman said in the news release.

Senior staff writer Clara Niel contributed to this report.

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UMD, IonQ join forces to create the nation's first quantum computing lab in College Park - The Diamondback

When it comes to people pushing the frontiers of science, few institutions can match the talent of the Department of Defense, the intelligence agencies and the U.S. national laboratory system. With ample budgets and flexible oversight under that aura of national security, ambitious scientists and engineers are working on everything from quantum computing to next-generation satellites.

That wealth of talent is often left behind in the frenetic product development and fundraising world of Silicon Valley. Langley, Arlington and Los Alamos are a far cry from Palo Alto or New York City. Even more challenging is the career transition: the government is, well, the government, and the private sector is, well, the private sector. Moving from one to the next can be quite jarring.

Scout Ventures wants to act as the bridge between the startup world and that vast science and technology workforce, with a particular focus on veterans of the military, intelligence agencies and national labs. Founded about a decade ago in 2012 by Brad Harrison, the firm raised two funds and invested in several dozen companies at the earliest stages, including identity verification platform ID.me (now valued at $1.5 billion), mens subscription service Bespoke Post and youth sports management platform LeagueApps. It also incubated companies like health services company Unite Us.

The firm announced this morning that is has raised a $55 million third fund, which will continue its focus on backing veterans while centering its investment thesis on frontier tech in areas like machine learning, robotics, drones, physical security, quantum computing and space (that said, the firm does not invest in weapons).

Harrison, who has been a long-time angel investor prior to forming Scout Ventures and is a West Point grad and Army Airborne Ranger, said that when he started to look at the track records of the most successful founders he backed, many of them happened to be veterans. So he started doubling down on that thesis, eventually hiring Wes Blackwell who graduated from the Naval Academy and Sam Ellis in Brooklyn from West Point as his co-partners.

Scout Ventures partners Wes Blackwell, Brad Harrison and Sam Ellis. Image Credits: Scout Ventures.

Scout is a traditional seed stage fund, and Harrison said that the firm targets roughly a deal per month, with a typical check between $500,000 and $1 million targeting 10% ownership. The firm also reserves $2-3 million in capital for follow-on investments.

One of the firms unique differentiators is taking advantage of ample non-dilutive funding from government programs and locking that in for its portfolio companies. Harrison said that the firm typically can secure three dollars of such funds for each dollar it invests, allowing its portfolio companies to grow faster for longer and with less dilution. Were seeing the most active money flowing through Air Force number one, Army number two, and then you are seeing some money flowing through the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, Harrison said.

In terms of companies, the target is so-called dual-use startups that have applications that can be used by both the public and private sectors. These are core, disruptive technologies that we believe are going to bring a shift change, so they inherently have applications to the DoD and the commercial sector, he said. They are hard to find, and that is why we talk to so many companies.

As examples of startups within this thesis, Harrison pointed to four companies in quantum computing and others in electronic warfare, where applications can be as important to the NSA as to telecoms like Verizon and T-Mobile. He also pointed out companies like De-Ice, which is using electromagnetic technology to make deicing of planes and other equipment faster and safer. Such technology could improve operations for the Air Force as well as civilian carriers.

Ultimately, Scout hopes that its unique network and focus will allow it to access these hard-to-reach founders who are really distrustful of most VCs, Harrison said. That makes us competitive.

Among the LPs of the new fund are the New Mexico State Investment Council (home of the Los Alamos National Laboratory), former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons, Auctus Investment Group, restaurateur and brewer David Kassling, and Michael Loeb.

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With $55M third fund, Scout Ventures is funding veterans ready to tackle the hardest technical challenges - TechCrunch