Category Archives: Quantum Computing

Q Hub membership and new faculty hire will build on existing quantum expertise and investments

Under the direction of Michael Devetsikiotis, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), The University of New Mexico recently joined the IBM Q Hub at North Carolina State University as its first university member.

The NC State IBM Q Hub is a cloud-based quantum computing hub, one of six worldwide and the first in North America to be part of the global IBM Q Network. This global network links national laboratories, tech startups, Fortune 500 companies, and research universities, providing access to IBMs largest quantum computing systems.

Michael Devetsikiotis, chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mainstream computer processors inside our laptops, desktops, and smartphones manipulate bits, information that can only exist as either a 1 or a 0. In other words, the computers we are used to function through programming, which dictates a series of commands with choices restricted to yes/no or if this, then that.Quantum computers, on the other hand, process quantum bits or qubits, that are not restricted to a binary choice. Quantum computers can choose if this, then that or both through complex physics concepts such as quantum entanglement. This allows quantum computers to process information more quickly, and in unique ways compared to conventional computers.

Access to systems such as IBMs newly announced 53 qubit processor (as well as several 20 qubit machines) is just one of the many benefits to UNMs participation in the IBM Q Hub when it comes to data analysis and algorithm development for quantum hardware. Quantum knowledge will only grow with time, and the IBM Q Hub will provide unique training and research opportunities for UNM faculty and student researchers for years to come.

Quantum computer developed by IBM Research in Zrich, Switzerland.

How did this partnership come to be? Two years ago, a sort of call to arms was sent out among UNM quantum experts, saying now was the time for big ideas because federal support for quantum research was gaining traction. Devetsikiotis vision was to create a quantum ecosystem, one that could unite the foundational quantum research in physics atUNM's Center for Quantum Information and Control(CQuIC) with new quantum computing and engineering initiatives for solving big real-world mathematical problems.

At first, I thought [quantum] was something for physicists, explains Devetsikiotis. But I realized its a great opportunity for the ECE department to develop real engineering solutions to these real-world problems.

CQuIC is the foundation of UNMs long-standing involvement in quantum research, resulting in participation in the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) passed by Congress in 2018 to support multidisciplinary research and training in quantum information science. UNM has been a pioneer in quantum information science since the field emerged 25 years ago, as CQuIC Director Ivan Deutsch knows first-hand.

This is a very vibrant time in our field, moving from physics to broader activities, says Deutsch, and [Devetsikiotis] has seen this as a real growth area, connecting engineering with the existing strengths we have in the CQuIC.

With strategic support from the Office of the Vice President for Research, Devetsikiotis secured National Science Foundation funding to support a Quantum Computing & Information Science (QCIS) faculty fellow. The faculty member will join the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering with the goal to unite well-established quantum research in physics with new quantum education and research initiatives in engineering. This includes membership in CQuIC and implementation of the IBM Q Hub program, as well as a partnership with Los Alamos National Lab for a Quantum Computing Summer School to develop new curricula, educational materials, and mentorship of next-generation quantum computing and information scientists.

IBM Q Hub at North Carolina State University.

As part of the Q Hub at NC State, UNM gains access to IBMs largest quantum computing systems for commercial use cases and fundamental research. It also allows for the restructuring of existing quantum courses to be more hands-on and interdisciplinary than they have in the past, as well as the creation of new courses, a new masters degree program in QCIS, and a new university-wide Ph.D. concentration in QCIS that can be added to several departments including ECE, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy, and Chemistry.

Theres been a lot of challenges, Devetsikiotis says, but there has also been a lot of good timing, and thankfully The University has provided support for us. UNM has solidified our seat at the quantum table and can now bring in the industrial side.

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The University of New Mexico Becomes IBM Q Hub's First University Member - UNM Newsroom

Riverlane builds ground-breaking software to unleash the power of quantum computers. Chemistry is a key application in which quantum computing can be of significant value, as high-level quantum chemistry calculations can be solved far faster than using classical methods.

World leaders in drug discovery and development, Astex Pharmaceuticals apply innovative solutions to treat cancer and diseases of the central nervous system.The two companies will join forces to combine their expertise in quantum computing software and quantum chemistry applications to speed up drug development and move us closer to quantum advantage.

As part of the collaboration, Astex are funding a post-doctoral research scientist at Riverlane. They will apply very high levels of quantum theory to study the properties of covalent drugs, in which protein function is blocked by the formation of a specific chemical bond.So far in this field of research, only empirical methods and relatively low levels of quantum theory have been applied. Riverlane will provide access to specialised quantum software to enable simulations of the target drug-protein complexes.

Dave Plant, Principal Research Scientist at Riverlane, said: This collaboration will produce newly enhanced quantum chemical calculations to drive efficiencies in the drug discovery process. It will hopefully lead to the next generation of quantum inspired pharmaceutical products.

Chris Murray, SVP of Discovery Technology at Astex said: "We are excited about the prospect of exploring quantum computing in drug discovery applications. It offers the opportunity to deliver much more accurate calculations of the energetics associated with the interaction of drugs with biological molecules, leading to potential improvements in drug discovery productivity."

Link:
Riverlane partner with bio-tech company Astex - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

A physicist at the University of Sydney has achieved something that many researchers previously thought was impossible. He has developed a type of error-correcting code for quantum computers that will free up more hardware.

His solution also delivers an approach that will allow companies to build better quantum microchips. Dr. Benjamin Brown from the School of Physics achieved this impressive feat by applying a three-dimensional code to a two-dimensional framework.

"The trick is to use time as the third dimension. I'm using two physical dimensions and adding in time as the third dimension," Brown said in a statement. "This opens up possibilities we didn't have before."

"It's a bit like knitting," he added. "Each row is like a one-dimensional line. You knit row after row of wool and, over time, this produces a two-dimensional panel of material."

Quantum computing is rampant with errors. As such, one of the biggest obstacles scientists face before they can build machines large enough to solve problems is reducing these errors.

"Because quantum information is so fragile, it produces a lot of errors," said Brown.

Getting rid of these errors entirely is impossible. Instead, researchers are seeking to engineer a new error-tolerant system where useful processing operations outweigh error-correcting ones. This is exactly what Brown achieved.

"My approach to suppressing errors is to use a code that operates across the surface of the architecture in two dimensions. The effect of this is to free up a lot of the hardware from error correction and allow it to get on with the useful stuff," Brown explained.

The result is an approach that could change quantum computing forever.

"This result establishes a new option for performing fault-tolerant gates, which has the potential to greatly reduce overhead and bring practical quantum computing closer," saidDr. Naomi Nickerson, Director of Quantum Architecture at PsiQuantum in Palo Alto, California, who is not connected to the research.

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Quantum Physicist Invents Code to Achieve the Impossible - Interesting Engineering

May 27, 2020 The Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM) at the University of Warsaw invites enthusiasts of HPC and all people interested in challenging topics in Computer and Computational Science to the ICM Seminar in Computer and Computational Science that will be held on May 28, 2020 (16:00 CEST). The event is free.

On May 28, 2020, Dr. Aneta Afelt from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling department at the University of Warsaw, Espace-DEV, IRD Institut de Recherche pour le Dveloppement, will present a lecture titled, The Promises of the One Health Concept in the Age of Anthropocen

The lecture will dive into the One Health concept. In May 2019 an article was published: Anthropocene now: influential panel votes to recognize Earths new epoch situating at the stratigraphy of Earths history a new geological epoch the domination of human influence on shaping the Earths environment. When humans are a central figure in an ecological niche it results in massive subordination and transformation of the environment for their needs. Unfortunately, the outcome of such actions is a robbery of natural resources. The consequences are socially unexpected a global epidemiological crisis. The current COVID-19 pandemic is an excellent example. It seems that one of the most important questions of the anthropocene era is how to maintain stable epidemiological conditions for now and in the future. The One Health concept proposes a new paradigm a deep look at the sources of humanitys well-being: humanitys relationship with the environment. Humanitys health status is interdependent with the well-being of the environment. It is clear that the socio-ecological niche disturbance results in the spread of pathogens. Can sustainable development of socio-ecological niches help? The lecture dives into the results!

To register, visithttps://supercomputingfrontiers.eu/2020/tickets/neijis7eekieshee/

ICM Seminars is an extension of the international Supercomputing Frontiers Europe conference, which took place March 23-25th in virtual space.

The digital edition of SCFE gathered of the order of 1000 participants we want to continue this formula ofOpen Sciencemeetings despite the pandemic and use this forum to present the results of the most current research in the areas of HPC, AI, quantum computing, Big Data, IoT, computer and data networks and many others, says Dr. Marek Michalewicz, chair of the Organising Committee, SCFE2020 and ICM Seminars in Computer and Computational Science.

Registrationfor all weekly events is free. The ICM Seminars began with an inaugural lecture on April 1st by Scott Aronson, David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas. Aronson led the presentation titled Quantum Computational Supremacy and Its Applications.

For more information, visithttps://supercomputingfrontiers.eu/2020/seminars/

About the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw (UW)

Established by a resolution of the Senate of the University of Warsaw dated 29 June 1993, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw, is one of the top HPC centres in Poland. ICM is engaged in serving the needs of a large community of computational researchers in Poland through provision of HPC and grid resources, storage, networking and expertise. It has always been an active research centre with high quality research contributions in computer and computational science, numerical weather prediction, visualisation, materials engineering, digital repositories, social network analysis and other areas.

Source: ICM UW

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Virtual ICM Seminar: 'The Promises of the One Health Concept in the Age of Anthropocen' - HPCwire

With help from John Hendel and Mark Scott

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4:33 p.m.: NASAs launch today of Elon Musks SpaceX rocket could catapult the astronauts, the Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, and the country to fame if it works, that is.

Shareholder talks, commence: Tech employees, civil rights activists and antitrust advocates are using Amazons and Facebooks annual shareholder meetings today to pressure the giants on issues ranging from the environmental impact of their businesses to their acquisitions of rival companies.

Schumers (rare) new tech bill: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to introduce bipartisan, bicameral legislation today to give the National Science Foundation an infusion of government cash and provide more money for research into AI, 5G and quantum computing.

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ON WEDNESDAYS, WE LAUNCH ROCKETS The weeks main event is NASA's launch this afternoon of a 230-foot rocket, outfitted by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, from Cape Canaveral a historic event that both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to attend. If successful, Musk's SpaceX will go down in history as the first private company to carry humans into orbit. Tune in at 4:33 p.m.

NASAs fortunes are tied to Musks, who has made headlines recently for antics like vowing to sell all his houses, denouncing coronavirus lockdowns as fascist and reopening Teslas electric-car factory in defiance of California health authorities, POLITICOs Jacqueline Feldscher reports. SpaceXs role is a major departure from the traditional way NASA has sent its astronauts into space during the decades when it funded, owned and operated its own rockets and shuttles. And it comes as other private businesses aim to take humans to the final frontier, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos rocket company, Blue Origin, and Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic.

EYEBALLS WATCHING EMOJI: SILICON VALLEYS SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS Facebooks and Amazons annual shareholder meetings today are already being met with pushback.

For Facebook, as MT scooped Tuesday, that has taken the form of demands the company be broken up and stop profiting off the pandemic. Change the Terms coalition, a group of civil and digital rights activists that presses tech companies to crack down on hateful activity online, is meanwhile asking the company to ban white supremacists.

For Amazon, the pushback has taken the form of grass-roots groups like Amazon Employees for Climate Justice calling on the board to respond to their environmental concerns, including over warehouse and delivery fleet emissions that workers say are disproportionately hurting communities of color.

Amazons logistics network of trucks spew climate-change-causing greenhouse gases and toxic particles as they drive to and from warehouses that are concentrated near Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities, the climate group wrote in a blog post mapping out the racial makeup of neighborhoods occupied by Amazon facilities. They claim the giants infrastructure overwhelmingly pollutes immigrant areas and communities of color particularly around San Bernardino, Calif., home to some two dozen warehouses and demand that Amazon enter a so-called Community Benefits Agreement that would require the company to provide permanent, living wage jobs and health benefits for local residents and zero emissions electric delivery trucks to promote clean air, among other asks.

The demands come as Amazon has seen a wave of fresh scrutiny in Washington during the pandemic and after the coronavirus spread to at least 50 warehouses and took the lives of at least eight Amazon warehouse workers.

OMG: If you were wondering how Amazon planned to respond to the discontent ahead of todays meeting, this might really make your jaw drop.

SAY HELLO TO A RARE SCHUMER TECH BILL A bipartisan, bicameral bill led by Schumer is expected to be introduced today. The Endless Frontiers Act, an uncommon piece of tech legislation from the New York Democrat, proposes a major, renewed federal investment in tech and science research through public-private partnerships and funding by the U.S. government investments intended to help in the race ahead with Covid-19 research in the short term, and to help brace for future threats of this magnitude in the long term.

The numbers: The bill would put $100 billion over five years toward the National Science Foundation (which currently has an annual budget of just $8.1 billion) and toward research and innovation across AI, 5G, quantum computing and other areas. It would also notably give the Commerce Department the ability to allocate billions more in funding to 10 to 15 tech hubs around the country, amplifying similar calls to create regional tech hubs by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is among the co-sponsors of the bill.

Schumer first announced the bill in a recent USA Today op-ed with co-sponsors Khanna, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), highlighting the dangers of our decades-long underinvestment in the infrastructure that would help prevent, respond to and recover from an emergency of this scale namely, scientific and technological discovery. They also stress the need to keep up as China gains ground outpacing the United States by investing in technological innovations essential to Americans future safety and prosperity. The group is looking to package the proposal into the upcoming NDAA, according to a senior Senate aide familiar with the group's efforts.

THE NEXT 5G AIRWAVES FRONTIER? A mix of wireless industry trade groups and think tanks is nudging the FCC to issue an item ASAP to make the 12 GHz band airwaves more available for 5G use. The current technical rules for 12.2-12.7 GHz are obsolete and burdensome, preventing use of this spectrum for 5G wireless services, wrote the Competitive Carriers Association, Incompas, Open Technology Institute, Computer & Communications Industry Association and Public Knowledge.

One likely (and unmentioned) beneficiary: DISH Network, a satellite TV company affiliated with some of the signatories and currently on the hook for building out a 5G wireless network as part of the federal governments T-Mobile-Sprint merger approval. DISH holds much of this spectrum and, despite some industry pushback from players such as OneWeb, is adamant that the commission should act.

THE CASE AGAINST EUROPES DIGITAL SERVICES TAX The business-friendly Tax Foundation crunched the numbers to see whether digital taxes affecting major Silicon Valley companies operating in Europe are legal under international tax, trade and European law (mostly because current DSTs come from EU governments). The answer? Probably not.

In its analysis, the group looks at how current levies from the likes of France or Italy represent potential discrimination under existing trade law (like the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services), as well as under international tax rules if the digital taxes breach existing bilateral agreements between countries (say France and Ireland, where several of Silicon Valleys biggest companies, including Apple and Facebook, have a major presence outside the U.S.).

As for existing EU rules? Country's digital taxes may run afoul of the 27-country bloc's fundamental freedoms, though such a fight would likely wind its way to Europe's highest court and take years to conclude.

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Alison Watkins, a privacy litigator who has counseled clients on compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act and Europes GDPR, has joined Perkins Coie as a partner in the firms litigation and privacy and security practices in the Palo Alto office. ... Jack Westerlund, a director of sales at Microsoft, is now director of sales at Microsoft partner RapidDeploy, an Austin-based software company working to reduce response time for first responders.

(More) gig grumblings: Uber and Lyft drivers in New York, where two rulings have deemed gig workers as employees eligible for the states unemployment insurance, are now suing over allegations that they have not been paid unemployment benefits in a timely manner, NYT reports.

Turning the other cheek: As Facebook did some soul-searching to study how the platform shapes user behavior, executives were warned that our algorithms exploit the human brains attraction to divisiveness, WSJ reports but ultimately, Mr. Zuckerberg and other senior executives largely shelved the basic research ... and weakened or blocked efforts to apply its conclusions to Facebook products.

Land of layoffs: Many leading Silicon Valley firms are feeling the layoff pains most outside the Bay Area, The Information reports.

Its good to be Google: In Sundar Pichais latest update on working from home, the Google CEO said that his employees, who will be largely working from home for the rest of this year, would receive a $1,000 allowance to go toward work equipment and office furniture.

ICYMI: "Twitter took a small stand against a pair of unsubstantiated President Donald Trump tweets about voting fraud on Tuesday by adding fact-check warnings," Cristiano reports, "but the move was unlikely to stem the onslaught of criticism the company is facing about tweets it hasn't acted on, including those peddling conspiracy theories about a deceased congressional staffer."

Podcast OTD: The latest episode of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcels Broadband Conversations podcast features Julie Samuels, executive director of Tech:NYC. Listen through Google Podcasts, GooglePlay, iTunes or the FCC.

Opinion: Samuels spells out in the Daily News how tech jobs and investment will be a key component of New Yorks post-pandemic economic recovery across all five boroughs.

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TTYL and go wash your hands.

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Could this be Elon Musk's biggest day yet? - Politico

Indian-American inventor Rajiv Joshi has bagged the prestigious Inventor of the Year award in recognition of his pioneering work in advancing the electronic industry and improving artificial intelligence capabilities.

Dr Joshi has more than 250 patented inventions in the US and works at the IBM Thomson Watson Research Center in New York.

He was presented with the prestigious annual award by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association early this month during a virtual awards ceremony.

An IIT Mumbai alumnus, Joshi has an MS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a PhD in mechanical/electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York.

His inventions span from novel interconnect structures and processes for more scaling, machine learning techniques for predictive failure analytics, high bandwidth, high performance and low power integrated circuits and memories and their usage in hardware accelerators, meant for artificial intelligence applications.

Many of these structures exist in processors, supercomputers, laptops, smartphones, handheld and variable gadgets and many other electronic items. His innovations have helped advance day-to-day life, global communication, health sciences and medical fields.

Necessity and curiosity inspire me," Dr Joshi told PTI in a recent interview, adding that the identification of a problem and providing out of the box solution as well as observe and think help him immensely to generate ideas.

Joshi claimed that stories about great, renowned inventors like Guglielmo Marconi, Madame Curie, Wright Brothers, James Watt, Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison inspired him.

In his acceptance speech, Dr Joshi said that cloud, artificial intelligence and quantum computing not only remain the buzzwords, but their utility, widespread usage is advancing with leaps and bounds.

All these areas are very exciting and I have been dabbling further in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing," he said.

Quantum computing, which has offered tremendous opportunities, also faces challenges, he noted, adding that he is involved in advancing technology, improving memory structures and solutions and their usage in AI and contributing to quantum computing to advance the science. (With Agency Inputs)

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IIT Mumbai alumnus Rajiv Joshi, an IBM scientist, bags inventor of the year award - Livemint