Category Archives: Quantum Computing

Atom Computing

Atom Computing, a quantum computing company headquartered in Berkeley, California, seems to be on the fast track for funding.

This week Atom announced it had secured$60MSeries B round of financing led by Third Point Ventures. The round also included Prime Movers Lab and insiders Innovation Endeavors, Venrock, and Prelude Ventures.

Atom was founded in 2018 with $5M in seed funds by Benjamin Bloom and Jonathan King. Over two years, the duo used those funds to secretly staff and build a quantum computer with a unique technology. What set Atoms computer apart from other quantum machines was that it was the first quantum computer to use nuclear-spin qubits created from optically-trapped neutral atoms.

First-Generation Quantum Computer, Phoenix

In July 2021, Atom Computingreceived an additional $15M in Series A funding from investorsVenrock, Innovation Endeavors, and Prelude Ventures, plus three grants from the National Science Foundation.

According to a statement on Atom's press release by Rob Hays, Atom Computing's president and CEO, there was no shortage of investment interest. "We've seen a tremendous amount ofinvestor interest in what many are starting to believe is a more promising way to scale quantum computers neutral atoms, he said. Our technology advancements and this investment give us the runway to continue our focus on delivering the most scalable and reliable quantum computers."

Whats different about its technology

Most of todays quantum computers use two types of qubits, either superconducting (IBM & Google) or trapped-ion (Quantinum or IonQ). Amazon doesnt yet have a quantum computer, but it plans to build one using superconducting hardware. In contrast, Psi Quantum and Xanadu use photons of light that act as qubits.

Atom computing chose to use a different technology -nuclear-spin qubits made from neutral atoms.Phoenix, the name of Atoms first-generation, gate-based quantum computer platform, uses 100 optically trapped qubits.

These qubits are created from an isotope of Strontium, a naturally occurring element considered to be a neutral atom. Goingdeeper, neutral atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons. However, isotopes of Strontium have varying numbers of neutrons. These differences in neutrons produce different energy levels in the atom that allow spin qubits to be created. Atom Computing uses the isotope Strontium-87 and takes advantage of its unique energy levels to create spin qubits.

It is important for qubits to remain in a quantum state long enough to complete running the quantum circuits. The time that a qubit retains its quantum state is called its coherence time. Neutral atom qubits have a longer coherence time than most other qubit technologies.

Lasers instead of wires are used for precision control of the strontium-87 qubits. Lasers eliminates wiring, which can create radiation and noise that negatively affects coherence.

There are many other technical reasons for using neutral atom spin qubits but beyond the scope of this article.

Second generation plans

Artist rendering of Atom Computings second-generation quantum

With its latest $60M Series B funding, Atom Computing plans to build a larger, second-generation neutral-atom quantum computer. Many additional qubits will give the system increased computational ability. Atom Computing is currently likely to have undisclosed customer trials and use cases in progress. However, we expect new and more significant use cases to be publicly announced once the new quantum system is operational.

Patrick Moorhead, president and chief analyst of Moor Insights and Strategy, said, Qubit coherence, fidelity, and scalability are essential factors for achieving quantum advantage. Atom Computing has already demonstrated that Phoenix, its first-generation 100+ nuclear-spin qubit quantum processor, has the potential to check all those boxes. With the additional $60M Series B funding, I believe Atom could build a large qubit, second-generation quantum system that either brings it to the edge of quantum advantage or possibly even achieves it.

Analyst notes:

Note: Moor Insights & Strategy writers and editors may have contributed to this article.

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Atom Computing Plans To Build A Bigger And Better High-Tech Quantum Computer With Its Latest $60 Million Series B Funding - Forbes

Cambridge-based quantum engineering company Riverlane is at the heart of two related initiatives to troubleshoot problems and advance risk-free adoption worldwide.

It has head-hunted leading scientist Dr Earl Campbell to accelerate efforts to solve quantum error correction and only last month joined an influential consortium to build error corrected quantum processor.

As head of architecture, Dr Campbell will lead technical development to support the operating system for fault-tolerant quantum computers.

He joins Riverlane from Amazon Web Services Quantum Computing group, and has held a number of academic positions over the past 16 years. His game-changing efforts include leading contributions to quantum error correction, fault-tolerant quantum logic and compilation and quantum algorithms.

He has also made pioneering contributions to random compilers, including the qDRIFT algorithm, which is the only known efficient method for simulating systems with highly complex interactions.

Additionally, while working with IBM and University College London, Earl contributed to the development of near-Clifford emulators that were integrated into Qiskit IBMs open-source software development kit for quantum computers.

At Amazon Web Services he was a leading contributor to its paper proposing a novel quantum computing architecture and established a team working on quantum algorithms.

At Riverlane he will be working alongside leaders who have joined from Microsoft, ARM, Samsung, Intel and the White House! Backed by some of Europes leading venture-capital funds and the University of Cambridge, Riverlane is bringing together leading talent from the worlds of business, academia, and industry to design its modular operating system to work with all hardware providers, whatever the type of qubit.

Riverlane has already partnered with a third of the worlds quantum computing hardware companies, and has successfully tested Deltaflow.OS with multiple hardware approaches, including trapped ions and superconducting circuits.

Dr Campbell said: Error correction is the next defining challenge in quantum computing and we will need to deliver fast, effective software to solve it. Over the past 16 years, I have been tackling questions like this as an academic and Im looking forward to putting theory into practice.

Ive followed Riverlane since its early days and Ive always been drawn to challenging work with the promise of delivering widespread social and commercial impact. Im excited to join a diverse team with a proven track record in developing software used by hardware companies around the world.

Steve Brierley, CEO and founder of Riverlane added: Solving error correction will be key to unlocking quantum usefulness across a range of foundational challenges, including clean energy, drug discovery, material science, and advanced chemistry.

Were delighted that Earl is bringing his world-class expertise in this challenge to the Riverlane team to accelerate our efforts and unlock the potential of this technology.

Just before Christmas, Riverlane joined a 7.5 million consortium to build an error corrected quantum processor working with a range of UK partners, including Rolls-Royce to apply this toward new applications in the aerospace industry. The funding comes via the UK governments National Quantum Technologies Programme.

The project, led by quantum computer manufacturer Universal Quantum, calls on Riverlanes software and expertise to tackle quantum error correction on a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Error correction is a crucial step in unlocking the promise of fault tolerant quantum computers capable of a range of transformative applications, and is at the core of everything Riverlane does.

The work with Rolls-Royce will explore how quantum computers can develop practical applications toward the development of more sustainable and efficient jet engines.

This starts by applying quantum algorithms to take steps to toward a greater understanding of how liquids and gases flow, a field known as fluid dynamics. Simulating such flows accurately is beyond the computational capacity of even the most powerful classical computers today.

The consortium also includes: academic researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Sussex; the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre; supply chain partners Edwards, TMD Technologies and Diamond Microwave; and commercialisation and dissemination experts Sia Partners and Qureca.Fluids behave according to a famous set of partial differential equations called the Navier-Stokes equations, the solutions to which are important for aircraft and engine design, as well as understanding ocean currents and predicting the weather.

Classical computers can take months or even years to solve some types of these equations but recent research has shown that quantum computers could find the solutions much more quickly.

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Riverlane taking quantum computing to fresh frontiers | Business Weekly - Business Weekly

The only difference between science fiction and science is patience. Yesterdays mainframes are todays smartphones and todays neural networks will be tomorrows androids. But long before any technology becomes reality, someone has to dream it into existence.

The worlds of science and technology are constantly in flux. Its impossible to tell what the future will bring. However we can make some educated guesses based on recent breakthroughs in the fields of nuclear physics, quantum computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and Facebooks name change.

Lets set our time machines to January 28, 2100 to take an imaginary gander at the four most amazing science and technology breakthroughs the sort-of-far future has to offer.

This could very well be the most important technological breakthrough in human history.

The premise is simple: tiny machines that function at the cellular level capable of performing tissue repairs, destroying intruders, and delivering targeted nano-medications.

And this wouldnt necessarily mean filling your bloodstream with trillions of microscopic hunks of metal and silicon. Theres plenty of reason to believe scientists could take todays biological robots and turn them into artificial intelligence agents capable of executing code functions inside our bodies.

Imagine an AI swarm controlled by a bespoke neural network attached to our brain-computer-interfaces with the sole purpose of optimizing our biological functions.

We might not be able to solve immortality by 2100, but medical nanobots could go a long way towards bridging the gap.

Another technology thats sure to save innumerable human lives is fusion power. Luckily, were on the verge of solving that one already (at least in a rudimentary, proof-of-concept kind of way). With any luck, by the time Gen Zs grandkids are old enough to drive, well have advanced the technology to the point of abundance.

And thats when we can finallystart solving humanitys problems.

The big idea here is that well come close to perfecting fusion power in the future and, because of that, well be able to use quantum computers to optimize civilization.

Fusion could potentially be a limitless form of power and its theoretically feasible that we could eventually scale its energy-producing capabilities to such a degree that energy would be as ubiquitous for private and commercial use as air is.

Under such a paradigm, we can imagine a race to the top for scientific endeavor, the ultimate goal of which would be to produce a utopian society.

With near-infinite energy freely available, there would be little incentive to fight over resources and every incentive to optimize our existence.

And thats where quantum computers come in. If we can make classical algorithms learn to drive cars by building binary supercomputers, imagine what we could do with quantum supercomputing clusters harnessing the unbridled energy of entire stars.

We could assign algorithms to every living creature in the known universe and optimize for their existence. In essence, we could potentially solve the traveling salesman problem at the multiverse scale.

Admittedly, warp drives are a glamour technology. Technically-speaking, with Mars so nearby, we dont really have to travel beyond our own solar system.

But its well-documented that humanity has a need for speed. And if we ever have any intention of seeing stars other than Sol up close, were going to need spaceships that can travel really, really fast.

The big problem here is that the universe doesnt appear to allow anything to travel faster than light. And thats pretty slow. It would take us over four years to travel to the closest star to Earth. In galactic terms, thats like spending a 1/20th of your life walking to the neighbors house.

Warp drives could solve this. Instead of going faster, we could theoretically exploit the wackiness of the universe to go further in a given amount of time without increasing speed.

This involves shifting through warp bubbles in space with exotic temporal properties, but in essence its as simple as Einsteins observations that time works a bit differently at the edge of a black hole.

In the modern era, physicists are excited over some interesting equations and simulations that are starting to make the idea of warp drives seem less like science fiction and more like science.

An added benefit to the advent of the warp drive would be that it would exponentially increase the odds of humans discovering alien life.

If aliens arent right next door, then maybe theyre a few blocks over. If we can start firing probes beyond non-warp ranges by 2100, who knows what our long-range sensors will be able to detect?

Dont laugh. Its understandable if you dont think the metaverse belongs on this list. After all, its just a bunch of cartoon avatars and bad graphics that you need a VR headset for right?

But the metaverse of 2100 will be something different entirely. In 2022, Spotify tries to figure out what song you want to hear based on the music youve listened to in the past. In 2100, your brain-embedded AI assistant will know what song you want to hear because it has a direct connection to the area of your mind that processes sound, memory, and emotion.

The ideal metaverse would be a bespoke environment thats only indistinguishable from reality in its utopianism. In other words, youll only know its fake because you can control the metaverse.

While its obvious that jacking into the Matrix could pose a multitude of risks, the ability to take a vacation from reality could have positive implications ranging from treating depression to giving people with extremely low quality of life a reason to want to continue living.

The ultimate freedom is choosing your own reality. And its a safe bet that whoever owns the server it runs on is whos going to be in charge of the future.

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The 4 biggest science breakthroughs that Gen Z could live to see - The Next Web

Christopher Savoie, Ph.D., JD

CEO & Founder

CSO, Founder & Professor at University of Toronto

CTO & Founder

Professional Service Lead & Founder

Associate Director for Quantum Science IP & Founder

Lead Research Scientist & Founder

We founded Zapata to develop quantum algorithms and software that deliver real-world advances for applications on near term quantum computers.

Christopher Savoie, CEO & Founder

CEO & Founder

CSO, Founder & Professor at University of Toronto

Managing Director, C Sensei Group LLC

Board Director; CEO of RealPage, Inc.

Managing Director, Comcast Ventures

Principal at Prelude Ventures

Founding CEO & Vice Chairman of GRAIL, Former SVP of Google Ads, Apps, Maps and [x]

Board Director; Chair & President Family Foundation; Retired CSO & CMO Honeywell

Partner at Pillar VC (Board Observer)

Strong teams built around innovation in quantum algorithms are going to be the key to make these advances practical and widely available.

Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Co-Founder & CSO

Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland

Associate Professor of Physics at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics

Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science at Harvard

Professor of Quantum Physics at Freie Universitt Berlin

Chair of the Zapata SAB, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Lincoln Laboratory Fellow at MIT, Director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, and Associate Director of the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics

To realize the full promise of quantum computing will take time, science, and engineering across the board. Zapata has brought together a fantastic team of researchers who want to work with academia and industry to develop tomorrows quantum algorithms.

Will Oliver, Associate Professor MIT

Vice President Business Development

Vice President of Engineering

Chief Orquestra Evangelist

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Financial Officer

General Counsel

Vice President of Corporate Operations

Director, Global Channel Partnerships

Director, Quantum Solutions

Deputy General Counsel

Senior Legal Analyst

Zapata is all about bridging the gap and helping those interested parties get into the quantum ecosystem and connect them to the right hardware partner.

Jonny Olson, Co-Founding Scientist

Associate Director of Quantum AI

Lead Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Sr ML-DevOps Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Cloud Engineer

Quantum Research Scientist

Quantum Research Scientist

Quantum Platform Engineering Manager

Quantum Application Scientist

Sr Quantum Platform Architect

Senior Quantum Platform Engineer

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Software Engineer

Machine Learning Engineer

Quantum Platform Engineer

Quantum Platform Engineer

People at Zapata come from many different backgrounds and domains. Everyone is extremely driven, working at quantums edgesbut also genuinely thoughtful and caring.

Micha Stchy, Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Solutions Engineer

Quantum Solution Engineer

Quantum Solution Engineer

UK/EU Business Development

Quantum Solutions Engineer

Strategic Partner Alliance Manager

Controller

Executive Assistant

People Operations Manager

Operations Administrator

Product Marketing Manager

Marketing Specialist

Marketing & Product Intern

Marketing Coordinator

Administrative Assistant

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Quantum computing leaders founded Zapata to accelerate the ...

Complex problems need powerful computing

We make it possible for everyone to think bigger, create faster, and see further. By infusing AI and machine learning, our quantum solutions give you the power to solve the worlds most important and pressing problems.

When the computer is operational, five casings (like the white one shown at the top of the image) envelop the machine. These cans nest inside each other and act as thermal shields, keeping everything super cold and vacuum-sealed inside.

These photon-carrying cables deliver signals to and from the chip to drive qubit operations and return the measured results.

Beneath the heat exchangers sits the mixing chamber. Inside, different forms of liquid heliumhelium-3 and helium-4separate and evaporate, diffusing the heat.

These gold plates separate cooling zones. At the bottom, they plunge to one-hundredth of a Kelvinhundreds of times as cold as outer space.

The QPU (quantum processing unit) features a gold-plated copper disk with a silicon chip inside that contains the machines brain.

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Quantum Computing | Rigetti Computing

The BMW Group, in collaboration with AWS, last July called on the global quantum computing community to develop innovative quantum algorithms for four specific industrial challenges and test them on real quantum computing technologies. About 70 teams participated in the challenge and a winning team was selected for the four areas:

1. Sensor positions for automated driving functions: AccentureAccentures winning team tackled the problem of optimising the positioning of sensors for highly automated driving functions.

2. Simulation of material deformations: Qu&CoThe jury concluded that the quantum computing start-up Qu&Co stood out with its approach to solving partial differential equations in the field of numerical simulation.

3. Configuration optimisation of pre-series vehicles: 1QBit and NTTThe winning team from 1QBit and NTT came out on top with hybrid algorithms for solving satisfiability problems in propositional logic for optimising equipment configuration.

4. Automated quality analyses: QC WareThe QC Ware team stood out with its approach, drawn from the field of machine learning, that can be used in image recognition in the area of quality analysis.

The BMW Group worked closely with theAmazonQuantum Solutions LabProfessional Services team, an expert group of professionals, throughout the challenge, right up to the moment when the winners were determined. AWS also provided credits for the use of Amazon Braket, enabling the development and testing of the submitted quantum algorithms. Amazon Braket provides a development environment to explore and create quantum algorithms, test them on quantum circuit simulators and run them on different quantum hardware technologies.

The jury that oversaw the challenge and ultimately decided on the winning teams also included professors from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) as well as representatives of the BMW Group and AWS. TUM is an important partner for the BMW Group for research in the field of quantum computing. The BMW Group announced the establishment of theQuantum Algorithms and Applications endowed chair at TUMback in June of this year. Algorithms close to specific use cases along the industrial value chain are being researched at the chair. The BMW Group is providing 5.1 million euros over a period of six years to fund the professorship, staff and equipment at TUM.

Quantum computing is one of the most promising future technologies in the automotive sector. It has enormous potential for research into materials, for complex optimisation problems and for the future of automated driving. The Quantum Computing Challenge once again underlines the BMW Groups leading-edge role in building a quantum ecosystem. As recently as June, the company was a founding member, along with nine other large corporations, of theQuantum Technology and Application Consortium (QUTAC). This aims to specifically accelerate the development of the technology in Germany and Europe. In November this year, the BMW Group and RWTH Aachen University jointly announced the establishment of theQuantum Information Systems endowed chair, where software and industrialisation comeptencies will be created to realise a quantum advantage in the medium term.

Dr Peter Lehnert, Vice President BMW Group Research and New Technologies Digital Car:We at the BMW Group are convinced that future technologies such as quantum computing have the potential to make our products more desirable and sustainable. We have succeeded in reaching the global quantum computing community with our crowd-innovation approach and enthusing them about automotive use cases. We look forward to continuing to work with the winners.

The BMW Group received around 70 submissions from all over the world from different areas such as international and national research groups, the start-up scene and established companies. The exceptionally high quality of the submissions enables new perspectives and offers potential for innovative approaches to solutions such as the development and further development of new algorithms. The expert jury took into account criteria such as comprehensibility, feasibility, scalability, innovation and benefit for the BMW Group when evaluating the submitted solutions.

All 15 finalists set themselves apart with their high innovation potential and have therefore been shortlisted for future projects. The journey continues straight away for the four winners: they immediately gain the BMW Group as a customer and will be involved in the further development of the pilot projects. The company looks forward to working with these four winners.

The BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge is structured around the Supplierthon methodology, which is the BMW Groups future-oriented supplier scouting method. It marks the companys first global crowd-innovation initiative on this scale. The crowd innovation approach enables innovative solutions to be found within a very short time and to validate them in cooperation with the specialist departments. The challenge also gave the BMW Group invaluable insights into the status quo of the global quantum ecosystem. This knowledge is crucial in determining the future direction of research on the future technology and the long-term establishment of the market for quantum computing. The successful challenge along with the extremely promising submissions encourage the company to continue to look to the crowd innovation approach in the future.

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BMW and AWS Announce Winners of Quantum Computing ...