The Australian-German quantum computing hardware startup, Quantum Brilliance, whose partnerships extend to North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific, has recently named Mark Mattingley-Scott as Managing Director for Europe. The firm’s vision is to bring quantum computers to the point where they will outperform classical computing of similar dimensions, which will, in turn, enable the propulsion of industries with edge computer applications and next-generation supercomputers.
Popularity contests are well, contentious, but just like the Fortune 500 or the FTSE 100, we can at least aim to highlight which Quantum Computer Languages are being used. We’ve selected some of the languages that we can obtain data on and we come up with a formalism for how to rank these languages based on a number of key parameters.
Xanadu and Imec have announced a partnership that will involve the development of next-generation photonic qubits using ultra-low loss silicon nitride circuits. Founded in 2016, the Canadian company Xanadu brings its expertise in silicon photonic hardware for creating fault-tolerant quantum computers. Their collaborators Imec, provide research and innovation in nanoelectronics and digital technology. The Imec […]
AMD researchers have filed a patent application proposing a multi-SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) system as a means to more efficient and reliable quantum computing. The patent reveals that AMD aims to create a system utilising quantum teleportation to reduce the number of qubits per calculation thus, increasing system reliability. Theoretically, there will be fewer […]
The team at Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) proudly begins building the Middle East’s first quantum computer. “This will put the UAE on the map to be a known entity for research on such a topic. And that’s a big achievement for the entire Arab world,” states Boulos Alfakes, a senior researcher at the […]
A radical new technique has been discovered to control millions of spin qubits by Quantum engineers from UNSW Sydney. Dr. Jarryd Pla and his team has made a quantum leap on the road to a full-scale quantum computer, in doing so they have also made the development of near-term silicon quantum processors possible.
The Inter-American Development Bank, IDB Lab, Cambridge Quantum (CQ) and Tecnológico de Monterrey, working together have developed a cryptographic layer to resolve four potential threats to blockchain networks posed by the advent of quantum computer development. Threats Of the four, each threat area relies on cryptography and keys which are vulnerable to attacks by quantum […]
Microsoft is offering up to $10,000 in Quantum computing credits for users wanting to run on the Microsoft Azure quantum stack. The hardware on offer is IonQ and Honeywell. Credit allocation will be determined based on the potential impact and value for the quantum ecosystem either from a research, educational, or commercial point of view […]
BMW Group, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), have released the details of their invitation to quantum computing researchers, start-ups, and pioneering companies to come up with and propose innovative quantum algorithms to address challenging problems in the automotive sector. Successful proposals will be tested on real quantum computing technologies. The announcement follows […]
In a late July press release, California-based quantum computing company PsiQuantum have advised that they have received $450 million in funding from private investors to build the world’s first commercially viable and fault-tolerant quantum computer. Such a project has world-changing potential, especially through tackling climate, healthcare, and energy challenges. Why investors are funding PsiQuantum’s ambitious […]
No doubt the quantum world is very strange. Concepts such as superposition and entanglement abound, which researchers aim to take advantage of in Quantum Computing. The book Evolutionary Argument Against Reality by Donald Hoffman takes aim at the world in which we inhabit, as Hoffman claims that our very understanding of reality is shaped by the evolutionary process and that process takes precedence over the real truth of our existence.
QML or Quantum Machine Learning is a hot topic amongst those at the leading edge of technology. Many companies such as Xanadu, IBM, Honeywell and Cambridge Quantum are busy exploring and exploiting the field. Frank Zickert PhD is an IT professional who has taught himself Quantum Machine Learning over the last few years. In his book: Hands-On Quantum Machine Learning With Python, Frank distils his learning into the field, both Quantum and QML with the aim of taking away the difficulties of learning about these two nascent fields. We wanted to know more about the motivation behind the book and about Frank. We also have a brief review of the book.
There is no question that machine learning and AI have taken the world by storm, with myriad products and services exploiting the ability of computers to learn from data without providing explicit rules. Whether self-driving cars from the likes of Tesla or extracting labels from images or even playing Atari video games, the field has created a great deal of excitement for its impact on almost every aspect of our lives. It should come as no surprise then, that researchers and developers are keen to find new and novel ways to exploit quantum computing to achieve learning. Here we take a first look at the new book by Frank Zickert which aims to be a hands-on guide to learning all about QML or Quantum Machine Learning.
Cambridge Quantum (CQ) and Honeywell have announced that they have reached three technical milestones. These milestones are proof that quantum technology at large is a viable option and the optimization of these quantum solutions can come sooner than anyone previously expected.
The scientists at Cambridge Quantum(CQ) have successfully developed a new algorithm that will solve combinational optimization problems. This new algorithm will aid many industries and businesses such as dispatching units, job shop scheduling. All this by using near-term quantum computers. The world is full of mathematical problems that require solving, and some of these real-world […]
The Dutch startup QuantWare has launched the world’s first superconducting processor for quantum computers as an “off the shelf” part. This is a benchmark because QPUs were not commercially available up until now. And this release will potentially aid the development of quantum computing in general.
The recent advancements that Google made showed that its Sycamore quantum computer can detect and fix computational errors. This development is important in order to bring large-scale quantum computing onto the market. Because the current systems are generating more errors than they actually solve. Google’s new advancements will show new error solving techniques that will vastly improve the computational power of the quantum computers.
We always like to keep innovating, so we are launching some new features soon. So as they used to say…”stay tuned at QZ”.
Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) has unveiled its new Quantum Computing as a Service or QCaaS platform. This new platform will give the OQC customers a big step ahead of the competition by implementing quantum technology on the cloud. OCQ has created a beta list of companies that are interested in their new service and want to take advantage of the benefits that quantum computers offer in comparison to classical computing.
UK’s quantum startup Phasecraft which is a collaboration between the UCL and the University of Bristol has released research that is showing a large improvement in the techniques for simulating fermions on quantum computers. Simulating fermions is needed in order for some new materials, batteries, and solar cells to be developed, and only quantum computers […]
Amol Rajan Interviews Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google) about the technology giant and Quantum Computing
In a one hour interview, the BBC journalist (who studied physics) has interviewed the CEO of Google about the practices of the technology giant and the technology that the company is creating. Interestingly one of the opening scenes was the Quantum Computing effort from Google, showing their researchers working on their Quantum device in their lab. This interview will have (hopefully) captured the minds of many, but likely, for quite a few viewers will have been their first introduction to quantum computing (and this strange cryogenic device with myriad cables).
In what would have been a truly momentous day if England had won a major football event in over 50 years coupled with Virgin Galatic sending its founder into space, the day could have gone down in history as a major achievement: one for sporting achievement and one for science. Sadly the football didn’t happen, […]
A new course from the University of Gdańsk aims to equip students for the future of Quantum Computing. The University of Gdańsk is one of the leading Polish universities in physics, mathematics and computer science and the founder of a group of extremely crucial quantum research centres in the world.
More than a hundred tech companies have just become World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers. This year’s group includes many of the leaders in robotics and cybersecurity, as well as other companies that use artificial intelligence, in order to make healthcare more accessible and also will offer financial access. Zimbabwe, El Salvador, and Ethiopia were represented […]
BMW Group has made it clear that in the future is going to support the development of quantum technologies at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The president of TUM the Prof. Thomas F.Hoffman, Frank Weber, one of the members of the board of management at BMW AG, and Alexander Buresch, CIO of BMW AG, have signed a mutual agreement for the establishment of an endowed chair in Quantum Algorithms and applications.
The quantum stream at CDL Toronto brought up together entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors in quantum technologies. And also, many companies like D-Wave, Rigetti, IBM Q, Xanadu, and Zapata computing have joined the CDL Quantum Stream as well. This program will aid the building of successful ventures in the emerging domain of quantum computing, ML, optimization, […]
Quantum computing is a promising technology that offers many scientific leaps, namely simulating molecules, boosting drug discovery efforts. Many teams are now researching quantum computer technology and trying to make it perform precise and consistent calculations. And many of these teams are creating quantum circuit simulations to accelerate these innovations. Namely, Nvidia has announced their cuQuantum software development kit at the GTC 2021. This kit will run all of the simulations on the Nvidia GPUs, the GPU with its speed offers many advantages in running complex algorithms comparing the classical processors.
Encoding information for storage or transmission is one of the fundamental tasks of information theory. For decades, the bit has been the fundamental unit for information science. However, advances in quantum computing have led to the development of quantum computers that use qubits(quantum bits) instead of bits. Qubits can be 0, 1, or in both of these two states at once(superposition). Empowered by superposition, quantum entanglement and interference quantum computers have capabilities to solve certain problems faster than conventional computers through various quantum algorithms.
Multiverse Computing (MC) Is one of the leading companies in quantum-inspired algorithms for finance. Multiverse Computing has announced that during the first six months of 2021 managed to close agreements worth more than $1M in Europe and North America. This is an enormous turnover, especially for a quantum company. This success has been achieved by […]
Just about every person is associated with the financial industry in their lifetime. Finance originated during the start of our civilization and since then it has been a substantial part of our lives. Finance deals with uncertainty and risks as the actual behaviour of the asset or security may differ from the expected return. To lower the risk we must analyze all the factors associated with it. This involves a calculation of infinite possibilities of different combinations of factors which gives minimum risk and maximum profit. These problems in finance can be expressed as optimization problems. These are the tasks that are particularly hard for classical computers as they may take millions of years.
The research organisation Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft took delivery of an IBM Quantum System One, reportedly the only machine outside of the US. The institute hopes to develop future industrial applications. In the digital presence of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek and Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann unveiled the IBM machine on the 15th of June. The system comprises 27 qubits and it the most capable quantum system in Europe.
Recently Honeywell announced that it was buying the majority share of CQC – Cambridge Quantum Computing in a deal worth hundreds of millions. But what are the wider implications for the industry? Could we see more mergers and consolidations? Will QC companies look to specialise or vertically integrate into a quest for market dominance? Here we outline what the future might be for the nascent industry with some thoughts from our Quantum Market Analyst.
Want to learn more about Azure Quantum Development on the Microsoft platform? A free workshop from Microsoft will update you on the latest developments on the Microsoft eco-system.
It is no secret that we like the Julia language. We think it has some of the great benefits of languages such as python but with features like linear algebra built-in. Julia is also a fast language to run code and easy to learn. We have in the past written articles on Julia such as Could Julia replace Python and be transformational in Quantum Computing? and Learning the Julia programming language for free. The latest JuliaCon 2021 has been announced for those wanting to take part virtually.
We love initiatives to help people learn quantum computing and quantum computing coding. The latest initiative from Brian Siegelwax is a very different beast from the standard Quantum Computing textbook. The book originated from a conversation Brian had with a colleague about how to create a new Quantum Computing book that wasn’t a total yawn.
The French start-up has announced that its latest round of funding raised 25 million euros in a Series A round led by Quantonation and the Defense Innovation Fund. The aim is to fund further development towards commercialisation of their technology and quest for ever more qubits under control, in addition to building out Quantum Computing as a service. The technology behind the qubits differs from those of IBM, Google, and Xanadu, and the hope is that this can mean a faster route to scaling thousands of high fidelity qubits.
Honeywell, the developers of Ion Trap quantum technology have announced that they will take a majority stake in the Cambridge firm. Honeywell is a publicly listed technology company that has many products ranging from control systems to quantum computers. The move will help cement Honeywell’s push into quantum utilising the expertise that has been built up by CQC in Quantum Machine Learning, quantum languages (such a t|ket>) and NLP.
The Quantum internet is developing with great speed in the last couple of years. Many universities and enterprises have started their research on how to create these quantum networks and take advantage of this new technology, and some of these advancements namely the enabling Quantum technologies behind the Quantum Internet are outlined in a recent Science magazine article.
In a recent release, Eleven Japanese companies which include the giant Toshiba, Toyota and Nippon Telegraph plan to jointly launch a council this summer 2021 to create a new industry using quantum technology.
India’s IT solution provider Mphasis has announced the plan for setting up new headquarters in Calgary, Canada, and with this move will create 1,000 new tech jobs in the next two years. For this plan to be accomplished Mphasis has reached a public-private partnership with the Government of Alberta and The University of Calgary.
Honeywell recently has demonstrated that their new holographic quantum dynamics (holoQUADS) algorithm has accurately simulated a quantum dynamics model, this simulation was completed with fewer qubits than the traditional methods. This new algorithm had used nine qubits in order to simulate 32 spins – or localized electrons. For comparison, the traditional methods required one qubit per spin.
IonQ, one of the leaders in quantum computing and Trapped Ion technology has announced the strategic partnership with SoftBank Investment Advisers, manager of SoftBank Vision Funds 1 and 2, for the deployment of quantum-first solutions in the regions, industries and portfolios where SoftBank has presence. This partnership should expand the access of IonQ’s quantum computers across the world, and also SoftBank Vision 2 will also join IonQ in its investor portfolio as IonQ is quickly approaching its public debut.
IBM in partnership with the UK government has launched a new 210-million-pound AI and quantum computing centre in North West England with the hopes that this investment will cement the UK’s global status as a science superpower.
A few days ago, Qu&Co was pleased to announce the multi-year collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals for the purpose of researching, developing, and testing quantum computational methods for applications in pharma research and development.
Zapata Computing, one of the leading software companies that focus on quantum-classical applications, has recently announced that is expanding its operations by registering a new legal entity in the UK. This expansion is going to enable Zapata Computing to work more closely on projects that are restricted on export by the UK’s government, namely the […]
Cambridge Quantum has announced the discovery of a new algorithm that will accelerate quantum Monte Carlo integration. This new algorithm will shorten the time and will offer an advantage to the finance industry in its quantum computing integration efforts.
Amazon’s quantum computing service Braket has introduced a quantum circuit noise simulator named DM1
Last year we announced Amazon’s public unveiling of a new Quantum computing service named Amazon Braket and now almost nine months later, starting from May 25th, 2021, Amazon Braket has started offering their fully managed, density matrix simulator named DM1, created for the purpose of simulating quantum circuits with noise. The DM1’s goal is to help you investigate the effect of realistic noise on your quantum algorithms, also to inform you about error migration strategies and get you more accurate results of today’s quantum computing hardware. With the new DM1 simulator, you will be able to simulate up to 17 qubits and you will be able to run up to 35 simulations simultaneously, in order to accelerate your experiments. Also, for fast debugging and prototyping you can now use the local noise simulator available on the Amazon Braket SDK.
Since its public inception, the internet has sprung a worldwide technology and has evolved into what we are witnessing today, an internet revolution and digitalization that affected almost every aspect of our lives. Every little device connected to an enormous network of computers spread around the globe that are waiting and ready to share data among them at the speed of light. And now after nearly three decades, we are standing in front of another miraculous technology that can change our lives beyond this, the quantum internet.
One of the pioneers of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) and quantum computing is Canadian based Xanadu. The makers of the popular toolset PennyLane, has recently announced that it has closed a 100 million dollar series B investment round. The funding comes after speculation earlier in the month and will excite those in the industry as […]
On May 12th, comprehensive research titled “CMOS-based cryogenic control of silicon quantum circuits“ was published in Nature science journal. The research was undertaken by Tu Delft University in the Netherlands and Intel. In this research, the researchers have conducted several experiments and had reported a cryogenic CMOS control chip that operates at 3 kelvin and then outputs […]
On May 17th ID Quantique (IDQ) was pleased to announce the release of the Cerberis XG at the (IQT) Inside Quantum Technology conference. This product is the first of a new lineup of products that are built to provide the highest level of data protection security to governments and enterprises in a small and optimized form factor.
If you’ve watched mainstream news, you might have noticed the flurry of activity around a spate of UFO or UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) sightings. Over the last few years, there has been a series of videos depicting what appear to be flying devices that are propelled by a mechanism we simply do not understand on earth. The U.S. Navy formalized a reporting process in 2019 for pilots to report incidents of UFO sightings and the Pentagon declassified three videos taken by U.S. Navy pilots last April which show unidentified objects flying at high speeds in the Earth’s atmosphere along with audio of Navy pilots expressing their shock at the craft. We take a diversion into looking at some lesser-known views of technological innovation.
Two days ago on May 18th Erik Lucero, the leading engineer at Google Quantum AI, proudly announced the opening of Google’s new AI Campus. Built with the sole purpose of leading the research for the first practical Quantum computer by the year 2029. With this investment, Google will join with the likes of well-established players […]
Agnostiq Inc. the one-of-a-kind quantum computing Saas startup has been very busy lately. They have secured 2$ million in seed funding to support the development of their Saas software platform. Their financial growth is led by Differential Ventures and other companies like Scout Ventures, and Boost VC. Agnostiq previously has also raised $830 thousand in pre-Seed funding, with the majority of the funds came from its current investors Boost VC and Differential Ventures.
In February, we happily announced the news about the formation of the first SPAC company in the Quantum sector, with the merger of IonQ and DMY Technology Group Inc. This merger marked a new era in the Quantum Computing sector and has placed IonQ as the first public Quantum computing company. Now IonQ has started offering a […]
The multi-million investment will include 900 square meters of research facilities, dedicated to the development of quantum technologies at Tyndall’s freshly opened facility on Cork’s North Mall. This facility is planned to play a key role of Tyndall’s institute to double in size by the middle of this decade. Tyndall institute will also recruit five […]
Cleveland Clinic and IBM have announced their collaboration. IBM’s new quantum computer, the IBM Quantum System One is expected to be installed at the Cleveland Clinic by 2022. A collaboration that brings back old memories The new collaboration between IBM and the Cleveland Clinic has brought back some old memories when this town could have […]
A few days ago, IBM was pleased to announce to the public that their team has achieved speedup up to 120x in simulating molecules, all of this was thanks to several improvements, one of them was the ability to run quantum programs with Qiskit Runtime, entirely on the cloud.
Arqit Limited, a leader in quantum encryption technology has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Centricus Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. This transaction is expected to provide up to US$400 million of gross proceeds to Arqit. This merger is valued at approximately US$1.4 billion in equity and the pro […]
Intel together with QuTech (a venture that is a collaboration between the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research and the Delft University of Technology) – recently have published some important advancements into solving the interconnect bottleneck issue. This is an important advancement because this issue exists between quantum chips that sit in cryogenic dilution refrigerators and the complex room-temperature electronics that control the qubits. These advancements technology were covered in many industry-leading science journals like Nature, and mark a big milestone in solving one of the biggest challenges to quantum scalability, all achieved with Intel’s new cryogenic controller chip named Horse Ridge.
As nations get excited by the prospect of a new industrial revolution sparked by developments in Quantum Computing, Germany has decided to back the sector with €2 billion in funding (around $2.4 billion) over the next four years. The funds will support the whole quantum sector which includes the fundamental technologies which enable Quantum Computing […]
We’ve widened our information set to include Quantum related companies too (not just quantum computing) – some of those companies are funding the very Quantum Start-ups that we write about (For example IP Group funds Quantum Motion). Other such as Oxford Instruments, as their name suggests provide some of the supportive (refrigeration) technologies that allow super cooled qubits to operate.
As the international pace for innovation continues towards large scale Quantum Computers, a recent announcement from China has demonstrated at 62 qubit programmable quantum computer. It is claimed that the computer uses the largest number of qubits built using superconducting technology currently in existance. The quantum computer is named Zu Chongzhi after the famous 5th century Chinese mathematician and astronomer.
One of the worlds best funded Quantum Start-ups has announced that with Global Foundries (GF), a semiconductor manufacturer will work together on the development of a massive scale quantum computer. PsiQuantum have been vocal in their ambition to build a million qubit systems. The partnership cements the ambitions to put the Q1 system into a commercial reality utilising silicon photonic and electronic technologies, which will be a milestone on the roadmap to a million qubit system.
Perhaps one of the UK’s best funded start-up’s sees their quantum language and framework integrated into the offering from Strangeworks, a Texas based Quantum provider. The US, Austin-based company is focused on making quantum computing more accessible and more human and will integrate CQC’s quantum software platform into the Strangeworks Quantum Computing ecosystem. The language offers many performance benefits to users wanting to extract the most from NISQ hardware.
Two of the worlds leading research institutes have joined forced to create a Quantum Hub. ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have established a joint centre for the development of quantum computers. The remit of the new organisation is to develop and advance Quantum computing based around two technologies: Ion Trap and Superconducting qubits.
Who says you cannot have fun learning Quantum Computing with comics? Readers of QZ will know about how seriously we take quantum education and how important training the next generation of researchers, developers and hackers is. But learning quantum doesn’t have to mean complex slides, dull graphics and impossible problems. One of the developers behind Microsoft’s new Quantum Learning platform is hosting a free live event on the 5th of May 2021 to introduce learners to Quantum Computing and programming with Q#
Sadly the event is going to take place as a hybrid event – but all is not lost due to covid 19. Amongst the usually great line-ups and talks we have seen that there will be a few Quantum related talks, which we at QZ are looking forward to.
To process classical data we often rely on RAM (Random Access Memory), simply providing an address yields at contents of that address, making for rapid access of data. In this study the team from Yale and Chicago show that bucket-brigade QRAM architecture possesses a remarkable resilience to noise.
Microsoft has been busy building up its learning resources to help developers navigate their way into Quantum Computing. In their new initiative, built in their Microsoft Garage, by over a dozen Microsoft staff, the resource aims to make developing with the Microsoft stack and Q# easier. Divided into three phases, students will be taken right the way from qubit basics to state-of-the-art in quantum systems.
A recent report from Goldman Sachs, the investment bank suggests that Quantum Computing is just five years from being used in market trading. The report by the FT (Financial Times) says that Quantum computing could be brought to bear on some of the most complex calculations in financial markets within five years. The research, conducted with quantum start-up QC Ware, suggests that developers looking to exploit Quantum Computing could achieve practical results soon.
India is sadly coping with the challenges of the Corona Virus, but aside from those challenges it is showing its serious commitment to Quantum technologies with a new quantum technology hub.
Quantum and Harvard together, are nothing new, but the announcement of a new PhD program seeks to provide a more suitable route for doctoral candidates into the Quantum area. Harvard University has created one of the world’s first PhD programs in Quantum Science and Engineering, a new intellectual discipline at the interface of physics, chemistry, computer science and electrical engineering. Quantum technologies are proving to be multi-discipline and PhD programmes are often very specific to a particular field.
Spurred on by the hiring of one of Google DeepMind’s key players, could the Quantum Company from Cambridge be the next contender as a DeepMind of Quantum? DeepMind is a start-up that emerged in the UK to pioneer Deep Leaning and AI, and as the world shifts into exploring how quantum computing can be explored in machine learning, there could be another company named CQC that could be the contender for perhaps the UK’s hottest Quantum / Deep Tech start-up.
Perhaps one of the lingest running conferences that plays host to some of the most famous names in the quantum world will take play in 2021 on May 6th to hear from the likes of Peter Shor and Charles Bennett. Since 1981 the conference has taken place and this year marks the 40th anniversary – […]
We all know QML stands for Quantum Machine Learning and is the new cool kid town. QML presents one of the best use-cases of early quantum computing. This announcement of Qiskit’s summer school focusing on QML will go hand in hand with the latest version of Qiskit which has a new emphasis on QML in version 0.25. The previous Qiskit summer school was a resounding success and little wonder as summer 2021 rolls around Qiskit Sumer School will be again prove immensely popular. The Qiskit Global Summer School is back from July 12-23 2021!
We recently listened to business leaders at the recent Quantum tech conference. We heard from leaders at Boeing, for example, about quantum skills and getting into the Quantum Computing space at the recent push towards skilling people up for Quantum. He called it Pi shaped engineers. Increasingly, workers must possess both broad management abilities and deep specialised skills, as Forbes it. We write down a few points here to consider when considering talent decisions in the Quantum space.
Fintech is one of the hottest start-up sectors. Making sense of the vast array of financial possibilities, Ally the financial company providing banking to millions is exploring Quantum Computing with Microsoft’s Azure Quantum program. The aim is to explore quantum-inspired algorithms to solve optimisation problems. Microsoft’s Azure platform has been a successful service attracting many into the services, but the Quantum version aims to attract first and early adopters to the nascent but growing quantum computing field.
With just about any groundbreaking technology it is expected that security and military applications become of vital national importance. So it should come as no surprise that the US Army division responsible for research is keen to ensure continued development of capabilities and that means investment into Quantum. The US Army Research Office (ARO) in collaboration with the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS), who have been collaborating for over 20 years, have launched a new funding initiative for Quantum named: Next New and Emerging Qubit Science & Technology or (nextNEQST) for short.
In a push to support the wider Quantum technology industry, the US DOE (Department of Energy) has announced it is going to provide $25m towards a quantum internet which will go into research. The funds will push the development of a Quantum Internet and be used for basic research and to help design, develop and produce a quantum internet testbed at a regional scale or intra-city or inter-city level.
We covered the recent release of Qiskit 0.25 which is one of the most popular Quantum toolsets and languages. Supported by IBM, the framework has an established following, and therefore when there are major changes to the framework, you could say the zeitgeist changes. That major change amongst a few others is the inclusion of a dedicated Quantum Machine Learning Module.
Quantum Computers are noisy. Researchers have been exploring way to reduce the errors that existing Quantum computers inherently have. So called NISQ era devices are Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum require error correction in order to function, which is an intense field of research. So when a Sydney based student published a new scheme for error correction that can offer a large advantage over existing schemes, it attracted the interest of industry and academia.
Some of the worlds leading chip makers and designers such as ARM, AMD and NVIDIA are not actively building quantum chips. Intel has been working on its semiconducting chips for a while now. NVIDIA is known for producing graphics cards or GPU’s which are typically used in applications now beyond simply graphics and are used for speeding up computation workflows and accelerating certain applications. It should come as no surprise that NVIDIA see the future of Quantum and have now released a framework or SDK for simulating Quantum Circuits.
We have Pi day which celebrates the amazingness of numbers such as 3.14159…so why not World Quantum Day? Well that day is upon us as a new initiative begins on the 14th of April named World Quantum Day. The World Quantum Day aims at promoting the public understanding of Quantum Science and Technology around the World.
The European Forbes 30 under 30 covers the movers and shakers of the business world. In the latest 30 selected individuals ORCA Computing has been mentioned, specifically the Kris Kaczmarek is named who is Head of Product at ORCA Computing. ORCA is a British Quantum Computing company that aims to bring the world Quantum Computing […]
Finland has announced that it has launched a new institute named InstituteQ with the aim of collaborating on all things quantum. The The Finnish Quantum Institute will bring together expertise in research and development, education, and innovation to further Finlands quantum technology research. The University of Helsinki, Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland are involved.
The internet has shown us the power of networking. Many have heard of Metcalfe’s law relating to the value of the network which grows exponentially as the number of nodes increases. It should be no surprise that some of the world’s Quantum institutes and their funders are interested in Quantum networking.
As nations around the globe look to compete in the Quantum Space, The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy announced the allocation of €615 million in funding towards the advancement of Quantum technologies. The funds were awarded by the National Growth Fund which is an investment fund created by the government of the […]
We at Quantum Zeitgeist love reading science, not just about the latest developments in Quantum Computing and Quantum Technology but also the more esoteric aspects of science. Perhaps one of the oldest questions is whether we are alone in the universe or are we a) part of a larger group or life and b) are we being visited. Quantum Computing already brings up profound questions as to the reality of existence such as the “Many Worlds” theory or Quantum Physics exposed by David Deutsch and Hugh Everett. Prof Avi Loeb believes we have good evidence that there is intelligent life elsewhere as evidenced by an object that came “close” to earth. In his latest book named “Extra Terrestrial” he examines the evidence for believing an object named Oumuamua which came close to the earth is more than a piece of rock and could represent advanced technology.
Qu&Co releases QUBEC, the first quantum computational platform specifically designed for chemistry and materials science. Drug development, Chemistry and Materials development has proved to be a use-case for Quantum Computing.
As if Quantum Computing couldn’t get any spookier, funding aimed at promoting UK security and defence is actively investing in the technology. The NSSIF (The National Security Strategic Investment Fund), which invests on behalf of spy agencies (MI5, MI6 etc) as well as the armed forces, has according to the Daily Telegraph, increased the number of funds it backs from a solitary fund last year to a total of seven investment firms.
One of the most popular Quantum languages and toolsets, Qiskit, now gets a new upgrade to version 025 which includes some new modules such as Nature. The already popular package Aqua gets a replacement which is aimed, not just at Chemistry but Physics too. There are also enhancements to Quantum Machine Learning (QML) which see Qiskit releasing a Machine Learning Module. QML has been perhaps one of the biggest areas of interest from Quantum Computing in application to a number of fields, so no surprise that the Qiskit toolset now sports QML capability. In total there are now four additional modules: Qiskit Nature (which will replace Aqua), Finance, Optimization and Machine Learning.
Despite some of the Brexit battles and of covid-19 issues, some of Britains Quantum start-ups are continuing to fire on all cylinders. The recent news from the UK based Quantum Motion, spun out from from UCL and Oxford University claims to have made a breakthrough that increases the viability and production of Quantum Computers using […]
A recent report by the Telegraph is suggesting that Brussels is attempting to put the brake on British companies and researchers involved in major quantum and space research projects. Hot on the heels of Brexit, with the UK no longer being part of the European Union, there are inevitably going to be some changes. Despite […]
Aliro Quantum and HQAN (the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Hybrid Quantum Architectures and Networks) have chosen to combine forces in constructing the ground-laying technology for distributed quantum networks. This is a quick and cost-effective way to HPC (High-Performance Computing) capable of creating a lasting effect in artificial intelligence, medicine, navigation systems, security communications, […]
On March 11, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced that the Canadian government will invest $40 million in D-Wave Systems. This will support a $120-million quantum computer hardware and software development project. The investment will help Canada ensure it stays at the forefront of international quantum technology development.
One of the exciting areas lighting up the world of quantum computing is that of Quantum Machine Learning. With the massive interest in classical machine learning which has affected all areas of our lives and threatens even more disruption such as self driving cars and automation beyond imagination, is it no wonder that researchers look to utilise the inherent power of Quantum Computing to drive innovation in Reasoning. The announcement from CQC (Cambridge Quantum Computing) highlights how quantum machine can learn to infer hidden information from very general probabilistic reasoning models.
Qiskit is one of the most popular Quantum Computing Languages. Qiskit is an open source framework that has won the backing of developers and researchers the world over. Supported by IBM, the technological giant has announced that IBM will offer the quantum industry’s first developer certification. This is exciting news. Currently there are a few online quantum computing courses, but we’ve not quite reached developer certification and the new credential will take the evolution of learning quantum computing and Qiskit one step further.
In a recent announcement from scientists down-under, a recent innovation is set to enable RT or (Room Temperature) Quantum Computers. The first room-temperature Quantum Computer is in the last stages of development and is set to be installed at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and come online later this year (2021).
We are Quantum Zeitgeist love the Julia language and we think you will too. We liken it to the natural successor to Python. It does a great deal of what python does today but natively. Julia is also a great language for quantum computing simulations because its inbuilt libraries can handle Linear Algebra with total ease. We have written about Julia before and some of the advantages the language can offer.
Microsoft is one of the top three language players in the Quantum space where it supports the open source language Q#. Other open-source languages such as Qiskit and Cirq from IBM and Google are challengers to be the most adopted Quantum languages employed by developers and researchers. In the quest to own the Quantum Computing ecosystem, each language is supporting existing developers and hoping to bring new developer’s into the fold. Now Microsoft is making it easier for learners to find their level of quantum computing and aims to build a curriculum around their needs.
Qiskit, one of the most popular open source Quantum programming languages has released is sporting a new initiative: Qiskit Metal which is bringing the open-ness to the hardware side of Quantum development. Quantum Metal is aimed squarely at the quantum community so that quantum chip development can happen collaboratively. The vision is to create a […]
Dr. Michael Cuthbert was appointed Director of the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) back in February 2020. This is part of the National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP). Dr. Cuthbert has led the centre from startup to its current form. ‘I am passionate about quantum computing and its potential to create positive impact on some of […]
The enormously popular machine learning frame work: TensorFlow that was adapted for the Quantum domain reaches its first birthday mile stone. The framework from Google/Alphabet has made machine learning and deep learning possible at scale and the software that is created from TF (TensorFlow) gets wrapped up into numerous projects and tools. Roughly one year ago back in March 2020 (how the world was so different), TensorFlow got a Quantum flavour.
Google has built a processing device named the TPU or Tensor Processing Unit. You have certainly used a CPU and most likely a GPU (Graphical Processing Unit), but the TPU presents a new way of processing data. Since 2015 Google has used TPU’s in their own development. The Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) is specific hardware developed by Google for neural network machine learning, especially tailored to Google’s Machine Learning software named Tensorflow. But now the team aims to repurpose the technology to allow Quantum workloads to be run using a new API named Floq.
As many technologies in the Quantum space require cold temperatures, being able to create these conditions is central to the development of super conducting quantum technologies such as those from the likes of IBM. You’ve likely seen the “Quantum Chandelier” which contains the very low temperature qubits and their control circuits which are then held at super low temperatures. Oxford Instruments NanoScience is announcing significant innovation in its Cryofree® dilution refrigerator technology which furthers the quest towards useable Quantum Computers.
On March 9, NVIDIA announced that its CEO and founder Jensen Huang will host AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun among others at GTC21, the company’s upcoming technology conference. It will start on April 12 with a live-streamed keynote by Huang and last until the 16th.
A quantum physicist team affiliated with the Max Planck–New York City Center for Nonequilibrium Quantum Phenomena recently developed a novel platform capable of controlling light at a nanoscale wavelength. They manipulated the light by programming a layered crystal’s electromagnetic response. Other than controlling nanolight itself, this discovery can potentially lead to new quantum information processing and imaging capabilities.
Honeywell, one of the larger technology companies involved in the Quantum race towards large-scale quantum computing has announced that is has now achieved a new milestone, roughly a quadrupling of their previous marker. The news comes at an interesting time as we see IonQ head toward the public markets via SPAC making headlines as the first pure-play quantum computing publicly listed company. Honeywell is listed (NYSE: HON), but it is not a pure-play company in that it develops a variety of technologies – especially control systems.
In news that will excite everyone from technology enthusiasts to the investment community, the news that IonQ a creator of Quantum Computing technology using trapped Ions is headed for the public market will galvanise the quantum computing industry and possibly lead the way for the industry. As we have written previously, IonQ will hit the market via a SPAC or special purpose acquisition company. The startup IonQ has entered into a merger agreement with dMY Technology Group, Inc. III (the SPAC). The end result is that IonQ will be the first publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company.
IBM’s Dr. Dario Gil, senior vice president and director of IBM Research, recently remarked that this is the decade of quantum computing. Chief information officers (CIOs) will have to adapt and learn more about the technology. These companies will have to evaluate the risks as well.
While Israel joining the quantum race is old knowledge, recently the country has decided to plan on spend $60 million, or 198 million shekels, to build a 30-40 qubits quantum computer. The funding will raised by the Ministry of Defence and Innovation Authority, with bids from multinational companies, Israeli businesses, and universities. The winner of this round will begin working before the end of 2021.
Recently, there are signs that pharmaceutical companies are increasingly leaning towards adopting quantum technology. Earlier in January 2021, Boehringer Ingelheim, the world’s largest private drug company, announced a partnership with Google. Roche, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, also announced it was working with Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) slightly later. They will develop quantum algorithms for drug discovery and development.
Colorado’s Economic Development Commission recently approved a $2.9 million fund in state job growth incentive tax credits. The money will go towards a manufacturing plant to produce quantum computing hardware. This would provide around 700 jobs for the state’s quantum industry. ‘Given the broad applications and catalytic benefits that this company’s technology could bring, retaining […]
There is a reason we are choosing IonQ right now. That is that financial interest in the SPAC area and IonQ plans to enter the stock market via this route, according to reports. The technology that IonQ builds is in the name: Ion Trap. That is at its core it uses Ion Traps for qubits.
Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) recently announced a new paper on March 2, 2021, titled ‘QNLP in Practice: Running Compositional Models of Meaning on a Quantum Computer’. Its subject is the largest implementation of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks on a quantum computer to date. The paper is currently available on a repository in pre-print form.
On February 2021, Xanadu hosted QHack 2021. The event ran from February 17 to 26th, and it was free to enter. Teams could register and then listen to a variety of lectures, talks, and tutorials for the first three days while the open hackathon was opened on the 22nd. Teams competed for valuable prizes.
As we now head into spring, we have restarted our reviews of companies of the day. Today we look at ApexQubit, which is aiming at changing the pharmaceutical and drug discovery process using classical and quantum computing. Drug discovery pipelines take up to around ten years and can cost billions of dollars. Computational approaches are combinatorially expensive and therefore techniques that can reduce the affective sampling space could be advantageous.
As the world looks for new and more sustainable energy sources, renewable energy is again on the ascendancy. The move towards to renewable energy to combat climate change are one of the greatest technical challenges of our age. Quantum Computing also offers much promise with a variety of companies involved in the sector ranging from large technology companies such as IBM and Microsoft alongside numerous start-up’s. Could Quantum Computing help the quest towards renewable energies?
Ten Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) were added to the list of IBM-HCBU Quantum Centre members. The centre was launched in September 2020 with thirteen members, and now the total rises to twenty-three. The goal of the centre is to provide quantum education for underrepresented communities and advance quantum information science (QIS). The centre’s initiative will go on for multiple years, focusing on STEM fields and itself follows IBM’s announcement of investing $100 million in these HBCUs through the IBM Skills Academy Academic Initiative.
At Q-CTRL, scientists were able to develop a new toolset based on AI. This toolset allows quantum computers to optimise their own performance without the help of humans. With the help of this toolset, error-free quantum computing might be closer than we think.
A number of Maryland leaders, ranging from those of the University of Maryland, the state, and others recently convened to launch an alliance. The said alliance was formulated to push the region’s quantum science and engineering field further. The members also want to make quantum mainstream in Maryland. UMD is leading this alliance.
BP (the energy giant) has joined the IBM Quantum Network to advance the use of quantum computing technology in the energy industry. As an Industry Partner, BP will have access to IBM’s quantum assets and expertise through the cloud. Currently, BP will be able to use a 65-qubit quantum computer as well as be involved in an important milestone on the IBM roadmap, a 1,000+ qubit system scheduled for the end of 2023.
The new word in investment circles is SPAC which stands for Special Purpose Acquisition Company. This financial entity is helping companies that would not easily be able to get onto the public markets an easy runway. We at Quantum Zeitgeist have often written about when the first “proper” Quantum company IPO will take place – what we mean by this is a truly dedicated Quantum technology company firm. Might the process of SPAC actually mean we could see Quantum Companies sooner? Well in a recent announcement from IonQ – it certainly looks like we could see a Quantum Company list via SPAC soon. We call this phenomena SPAQ (in the old tradition of putting Q into everything Quantum).
One of the early use cases of Quantum Computing is Quantum Machine Learning, which is not surprising given the massive interest in classical Machine Learning. Now a new collaboration between Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC), JSR Life Sciences and CrownBio are aiming to use the latest techniques in QML (Quantum Machine Learning) to help find biomarkers which could be used in novel cancer treatments.
We feature quite a few different Quantum courses. In the past we have covered courses from IBM, EdX, Coursera, Brilliant and Microsoft. We now can report there is another instalment in the popular Quantum Computing series from Microsoft. The course is named quantum computing foundations and aims to help users begin exploring quantum computing and optimization (one of the early but indeed very useful applications of Quantum Computing).
Strangeworks is perhaps one of the lesser known QC companies. Whilst we haven’t heard from the company in a while we are pleased to note the company has been busy beefing up its software offering. The claim is that Strangeworks can allow users to run quantum code from all major frameworks and in jupyter notebooks. That means you can use Strangework’s software to interact with a variety of platforms and languages such as Cirq, Qiskit, Q# and more.
Scientists from Aalto published a paper detailing the results when they used an IBM quantum computer to explore a rarely-studied area of physics by challenging ideas about information around 100 years old at the quantum level. The paper is titled ‘Quantum simulation of parity–time symmetry breaking with a superconducting quantum processor’.
ON February 10, NEC Corporation and ParityQC announced their collaboration in quantum annealing. The former will be the first around the world to implement ParityQC’s quantum annealing software. ParityQC’s Architecture is its new solution to solving optimisation problems on a quantum computer. It also has its own superconducting parametron quantum devices. Using this hardware, quantum […]
Strangeworks launches new quantum ecosystem to globalize and humanize access to Quantum Technologies
Strangeworks the Texas based company that is pioneering the interaction of man and (quantum) computer has launched a new initiative to make getting quantum savvy even easier. The new initiative sees a three pronged approach including Strangeworks QS (Quantum Syndicate) which aims to to unify all technology hardware accessible with one platform (computers based on super conducting, trapped ions, trapped atoms, annealers, and photonic technologies, among others).
As President Emmanuel Macron proposes his €1.8 billion strategy to make French quantum a force to be reckoned with, Germany has a €2 billion quantum research programme to help the country recover economically.
Another session at MIT Technology Review’s Future Compute conference sees two notable Quantum industry titans talk about the current and future developments in Quantum Computing. We hear from Patty Lee who is chief scientist at Honeywell Systems and Alan Baratz from D-wave.
This last week saw MIT’s Future Compute conference with industry luminaries giving their take on what is happening in the world of Computing – not just Quantum Computing. Topics such as edge computing, high performance, quantum computing and of course cloud computing were the main stays of the talks from some of the world’s leading thinkers and technology businesses.
In March 2018, Leo Kouwenhoven, a Dutch physicist and Microsoft employee, believed that he found a Majorana fermion, an elusive particle. Microsoft wanted to exploit this particle for quantum computing to rival its competitors, and the company’s quantum computing business development head, Julie Love, promised that a commercial quantum computer will be ready in five years. However, three years later, Kouwenhoven and his team discovered that they did not really find the particle and will retract their original paper published in Nature.
On February 8, Origin Quantum launched Origin Pilot, China’s first quantum operating system. Pilot is designed to combat a lack of computing power and resources. It can calibrate quantum chips automatically as well.
The Swiss technology company says it has made a breakthrough in quantum computing which has allowed it to uncover vulnerabilities in the everyday encryption that we use today. Terra Quantum says the security weakness could jeopardise the security of most of the world’s data.
As promised Microsoft has now released its Quantum service on Azure for the general public. Billing itself as the world’s first full-stack, public cloud ecosystem for quantum solutions, Azure Quantum is now open to end users.
In a bid to increase the diversity of quantum languages and toolsets, CQC have announced that they will make their t|ket language available to programmers and developers on an unrestricted basis in a boost to increase the language diversity in the quantum sector.
Quantum computing doesn’t have to be hard. There are now so many resources available on the web that can help learners understand quantum computing fundamentals. So whether you are interested in Quantum Computing, Cryptography or the Quantum Internet, there are now plenty of courses available online, often for free. Here we take a look at a course on EdX which is aimed at everyone.
We have seen many projects start and then be dropped within the big tech space. Look at Apple’s Car project which was hiring developers and engineers away from the likes of Tesla – only for the project to be disbanded. Now it looks like the project at Apple is actually continuing. What so of Amazon which has announced that Jeff Bezos is leaving the company he founded. Will the Quantum Computing effort continue in his absence? Could the company be broken up into retail elements and AWS (Amazon Web Services) for example?
Only recently IBM published it’s Quantum Computing Roadmap. Never sleeping, big blue has made new waves with its recent announcement where [IBM] unveiled a plan to radically speed-up adoption of quantum computing by streamlining and simplifying the quantum programming tools.
Peter Wittek was sadly lost whilst trekking. The researcher, famous for his work on disseminating Quantum Machine Learning as well as teaching a very poplar online course on QML, now has an annual prize named after him. Now the 2020 prize has been awarded to PhD student Roger Luo.
In the ever growing field of quantum computing keeping up with the latest developments can be a tough ask. That is why the quantum journal PRX is introducing a new class of article: Tutorials, with the aim of bridging the gap between review articles and perhaps articles with full code.
Dr. David Reilly, with the help of team members from Microsoft and the University of Sydney, just developed a cryogenic quantum control platform that can control thousands of qubits at cryogenic temperatures. The platform employs CMOS circuits and is named Gooseberry. Instead of using thousands of wires in a fridge, Gooseberry operates at 100 milliKelvin […]
The German automative giant is exploring quantum computing to improve its operations. Most famous for its premium vehicles the Bavarian based motor manufacturer makes some of the most desirable machines. Now it is collaborating with the US giant and maker of Quantum Computers: Honeywell.
Based in Tel-Aviv, Classiq is a startup with the goal of simplifying the process of creating quantum algorithms and applications for developers. On January 27, the company announced that it has raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding round. Team8 Capital and Wing Capital were among the leaders. Entrée Capital, crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and Sumitomo Corporation (through IN Venture) are also participants. This is after Classiq raised $4 million in a seed round led by Entrée Capital.
Riverlane can now begin building DeltaFlow, an operating system for quantum computers that will eventually spread worldwide. After a recent Series A funding of $20 million, the British company can now commence its operations. It has managed to get 20% of quantum hardware manufacturers to use Deltaflow since 2020. The funding will help Riverlane expand internationally.
On January 21, French President Emmanuel Macron presented a national strategy for quantum technological development. The plan is designed to transform France’s IT and technology industries. It will last for five years and is worth €1.8 billion. France can potentially become a world leader in the quantum industry with the help of this new strategy.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to establish a Quantum Computing Applications Lab in India. This will give India’s science and technology fields a huge boost. The new lab will give quantum computing-led projects and development a boost, and there will potentially be new scientific discoveries because of this.
Origin Quantum, the Hefei-based quantum computing company, just announced that a recent Series-A fundraising round has raised more than 100 million Yuan, or $15.45 million.
Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) has recently announced its results after collaborating with Aker BP, one of the largest European independent companies.
The gap between early and current quantum computing architectures and practical quantum computers is wide due to being unable to achieve fault tolerance using quantum error correction reliably. A new paper aims to bridge this gap However, error correction in quantum computers is costly, especially when performing fault-tolerant logical operations on logical qubits. Logical qubits […]
In 2020, IBM was at the top of its game, successfully keeping ahead in the quantum race. The company was able to register the most patents in machine learning and quantum computing sectors. You might wonder how many patents were issued, so we will take a look at the numbers.
The name of this machine learning model comes from a combination of artist Salvador Dalí and Pixar’s beloved robot WALL·E. A truly creative name, if we dare say. DALL.E is a 12-billion parameter version of OpenAI’s GPT-3 specialising in image generation from text.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is sponsoring 7 projects with £31 million to solve some of the unexplored mysteries in fundamental physics. Here are the projects:
Quantum physics has been revolutionary for technological development since its discovery, and a ‘second quantum revolution’ will potentially change technology in ways we cannot imagine. China and other nations are all scrambling to stay ahead in the quantum race, but there is one problem. Quantum physics, like all physics, is dominated by men, and this […]
For machine learning algorithms, parameters are the building blocks. They are an important part of the historical training data. In the language domain, sophistication generally correlates with a higher number of parameters, and this has been proven to be a reliable standard. OpenAI’s GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters, making it one of the largest language models ever trained. It can make primitive analogies, generate recipes, and even code at a basic level.
Minister-President Söder and the respective presidents of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Ludwig Maximilian University, the MPG, and TUM jointly sign a declaration of intent.
Boehringer Ingelheim is one the first pharmaceutical company around the world to join forces with Google in quantum computing, and it announced on January 11 that it will work with Google Quantum AI to conduct research on ways to implement quantum computing in pharmaceutical research and development. There will be a focus on molecular dynamics […]
Scientists have worked to develop fault-tolerant quantum computer architectures for years. Recent times have shown that continuous variable measurement-based quantum computation on cluster states has potential. It can be used to make scalable, universal, and fault-tolerant systems if it is bolstered with Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) code and error correction.
Could a domain of science that begun in earnest 100 years ago become the foundation for the future of technology? The Quantum phenomena that were observed and studied by the likes of Einstein, Planck and Heisenberg could provide the foundation for the next technological revolution.
Alibaba’s DAMO Academy, the company’s global research arm, recently revealed what it believes to be the 10 predictions for trends that will shape the technology sector in 2021 and further years.
The German federal government has proposed a relief package to combat the economical crisis in Germany due to COVID-19. The package will cover future technologies. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is currently preparing to invest in Quantum communication and Quantum Computing.
A team led by Pan Jian Wei, Chen Yu Ao, and Peng Cheng Zhi from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei has established the first integrated quantum communication network in the world. It is comprised of more than 700 optical fibres and two ground-to-satellite links, achieving quantum key distribution over 4,600 kilometres across the large country. This was reported in the Nature magazine.
Indian multinational corporation Wipro recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel. This act would bolster India-Israel relations and scientific collaboration. The MoU will focus on quantum science and technology.
Happy New Year, everyone! As we pass through the first few days of 2021, we do so with the hope of leaving COVID-19 behind. However, we should not forget that 2020 was a year full of developments and milestones in quantum computing.
The United States has Silicon Valley, the UK has Silicon Roundabout and Silicon Fen, but what about Scotland – technically part of the United Kingdom? Famous for some of the best universities around, so it should be no surprise that Quantum technologies feature heavily in the portfolio. Welcome to Quantum Glen. It’s not all Whiskey […]
Coecke was previously a Senior Scientific Advisor to CQC (Cambridge Quantum Computing) with a focus on developing and building a leading Quantum Natural Language Processing (QNLP). Prof Bob Coecke has been specialising in QNLP for a number of years and is currently at Oxford University where he as tenure in the Computer science department.
In the right conditions, scientists can fast-forward or rewind a quantum computer’s evolution just like a VHS tape or cassette. An article published by a team of theoretical physicists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences describes the process.
Quantum Computing Inc., a software platform to bridge the gap between classical and quantum computing in the industry, recently applied to the NASADQ Capital Market to list its common stock.
In December 2020, Bálint Koczor, Robert Zeier, and Steffen J. Glaser published their academic paper called Fast computation of spherical phase-space functions of quantum many-body states. The paper introduces new and faster ways to calculate these functions.
Phew, 2020 was a roller coaster year. With Covid-19 dominating the headlines and dictating lives. But there has been an undercurrent of renewed interest in technology, in part due to accelerated changes brought on by covid, such as working from home. The technology sector has continued to accelerate its climb on the worlds markets despite early jitter as Covid-19 first emerged. Are there some trends which will drive more investors into deeper technologies such as Quantum Computing?
A while back the internet was ablaze with news of the Apple car. The secret project was being tracked because of the staff they were hiring. The project was disbanded and the car project parked. But now it appears that Apple is going to continue with their car project – perhaps a real threat to Tesla.
A team of researchers at CEA-Leti in France and the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute have made 2D arrays on a 300mm CMOS wafer to boost quantum computers.
As we close out another year and another decade, many pundits will be thinking about the next decade and what technological and science breakthroughs we can look forward to. A lot can happen in 10 years and the excitement in the speed of innovation with developments like the web, mobile and communications have many excited. Imagine 10 years in the development of the web – we went from cutesy home pages to full blown commerce. We might disagree about exactly what the future looks like, but how do you ensure you can still find work and employment in the new landscape?
It is good to hear alternatives and from all sides of the Quantum debate and for that reason we introduce you to Prof. Gil Kalai. Gil has been one of the most vocal in sounding his objections against large scale Quantum Computers or HQCA (“Huge Quantum Computational Advantage”) , akin to quantum supremacy or quantum advantage. Gil has attracted comments from luminaries of the field such as Scott Aaronson. His latest post on this this (argument against quantum computing) has been published on his blog.
In a recent Series E funding, Graphcore, maker of the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) specifically for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, has announced a $222 million win. Winning this round means that the company is currently worth $2.77 billion post-money. These funds will be used to accelerate IPU silicon, systems, and software development as well as […]
As 2020 heads into its final days and we recap on the horror of the corona virus, many will have noticed the resilience of many technology companies. Despite cries from many of over-valuation and “market top” the rising trend of higher prices is leading many to look for alternative investments that could unlock massive value – and for some Quantum has that potential. We list 7 stocks that you can buy right now to add to your stock portfolio.
As Yogi Berra once said: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”. But after a monumental tumultuous 2020, perhaps there are some trends that we can turn to as we look to the future of Quantum Computing. So here we go, here are 4 predictions or trends of 2021.
No doubt that this year has been a difficult time for many – if not just about everyone. But as the year comes to a close we have seen a massive uptick in interest in Quantum Computing, which can only be a very good thing. We’ve seen broadly a great deal more commercialism of Quantum Computing with release after release – especially into the cloud with announcements from Amazon for example of Bra Ket. So whilst 2020 has been dominated by Covid-19, Quantum Computing and its allied technologies have been a bit of a sleeper – quietly but surely improving, developing and seemingly becoming more useful.
Trimble, a company involved in transportation among many other fields, has recently collaborated with Microsoft to use Azure Quantum to solve the most complicated freight optimisation problems.
With the potential to surpass the most powerful classical supercomputers, quantum computing is a very efficient and effective way to solve problems. By harnessing the complex and nigh-magical phenomena that is quantum mechanics, these new systems are showing a lot of promise to power innovations all around the world and in many different fields. Regular computers are powered by bits, but quantum computers use their own version called a qubit, much faster than a classical bit.
One might not expect quantum computing and music industry to be spoken in the same sentence, and yet by the New Year in 2021, this will start becoming a reality.
THE British based company, Quantopticon, was founded by a number of physicists who have been developing their software suite over the past two decades. Quantillion was developed with the purpose to help researchers and designers build smarter photonics devices. As the competition for building quantum computers and Qubits heats up, scientists are looking at ways to build more effective photonic devices, faster and more cost effectively. This is where the rapid prototyping software can replace physical prototyping in the design cycle.
For the past two years, beginning in 2018, Mercedes-Benz and Google have worked together to harness quantum computing to increase the development speed of advanced battery materials and future battery systems for electric vehicles.
Quantum Physics can be hard for anyone to understand and any tools that can elucidate the difficulties of the complex quantum are welcome. We report on an amazing series of seriously cool Quantum Animations exploring a variety of physics phenomena such as the Double Split experiments, particle spin, and even entanglement.
From November 9 to 30, there were around 3,300 people from 85 countries that tried to answer a single question as they applied for one of 2,000 seats of the IBM Quantum Challenge.
Based in the United Kingdom (UK), Google’s AI unit DeepMind’s losses in 2019 have grown 1.5%, according to the latest report. The total loss from 2019 was £477 million, which is slightly worse than the £470 million loss from 2018. This was due to spending on staff and ‘related costs’. Total losses are now in the $1.6 billion territory.
A team of Caltech researchers and collaborators from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) worked with Fermilab’s researchers to establish two testbeds. Using commonly available material and cutting edge quantum devices, they were able to teleport quantum information for a sustained period, sending the information to a point 44 kilometres away. The work, which is published […]
Starting on December 9, Q2B and Quantum Realm Games hosted a quantum chess tournament, and many leading quantum computing companies sent representatives to play. The games were all live-streamed on Twitch as well. After a long and hard battle, Amazon’s Aleksander Kubica was victorious.
On December 11, photonic quantum technology company QuiX introduced the world’s largest universal quantum photonic processor to the public. The device is compatible with all photon sources available, is commercially available as well, and most importantly, is plug-and-play. A product presentation on December 11 unveiled the product for all to see.
Recently, a nanochip developed by researchers at the University of Copenhagen has been lauded as being able to possibly achieve quantum supremacy.
Originally hosted in 2019, Airbus’s Quantum Computing Challenge has finally announced the end of the competition. After the experts in engineering and flight physics of Airbus teamed up with many leading quantum computing academics and industry experts to make a decision, it was finally decided who won. The winner is Team Machine Learning Reply.
On December 10, Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) announced that it has developed ‘meaning-aware’ Quantum Natural Language Processing (QNLP) on a quantum computer. This proves that QNLP is fully quantum-native and will be expected to provide near-term advantages over even the fastest classical supercomputers.
After negotiations, Hyundai Motor Group acquired Boston Dynamics from SoftBank Group. The deal was worth $921 million, or slightly less than 1 trillion won. Said deal was finalised on December 10.
For many in the classical Machine Learning community the question is when Quantum Computing gets pulled into the mix to create Hybrid Learning networks that consist of both classical and quantum components. As more and more researchers are looking at this lucrative area it should come as no surprise that it is possible to combine the classical and the quantum world to potentially exploit the best of both worlds.
Phasecraft has made a breakthrough in quantum computing that will allow quantum theory to become a reality from mere research faster than ever. Dr. Ashley Montanaro led a team to develop and test new algorithms that can optimise and predict the needed quantum hardware capacity when running meaningful programs. This will let complex problem solving faster than classical supercomputers a reality.
Archer Materials Limited has just entered into a collaborative partnership with Max Kelsen, a leading company in the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning fields. Both companies are members of IBM’s Q Network, a global network for quantum companies.
Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) has just successfully raised $45 million, generously given by investors such as Honeywell Ventures, IBM Ventures, JSR Corporation, Serendipity Capital, Alvarium Investments, and Talipot Holdings. This large sum will be used to make commercialising quantum computing a closer reality as well as strengthening the company’s position as a leader in quantum computing software and applications.
OpenQASM is one of the open source languages that quantum circuit designers employ. The language first emerged in 2017 and has been part of IBM’s Qiskit Quantum experience. Currently on version 2, a new version is in the works. As languages evolve new features often emerge. We’ll take a quick look at the latest incarnation.
Google is no slouch when it comes to Quantum. Being the first company around a year ago to announce that it had achieved Quantum supremacy it has steadily been improving its offering with a range of tools that are firing on every cylinder. Some of those tools include the popular language cirq and the ever […]
Q-score is Atos’ new announcement, the world’s first universal quantum metric. It is applicable to all programmable quantum processors regardless of make and origin. The new metric measures effectiveness in tackling real-life problems that classical computers cannot solve. This is in contrast to only measuring theoretical performance. Atos is committed to delivering early and concrete benefits of quantum computing through Q-score after working with others in industrial and academic partnerships for five years to develop use-cases that employ quantum computing to solve.
Recently, a newly published study has outlined several methods that colleges and universities can use when updating their curricula to help train new quantum workers that will enter the industry’s workforce. Rochester Institute of Technology Associate Professor Ben Zwickl, one of three researchers, suggested these methods after interviewing more than 20 managers working in quantum technology companies across the US.
At a recent Intel Labs virtual event, the company revealed Horse Ridge II, a second-generation cryogenic quantum control chip. This is a milestone among others in Intel’s progress to overcome one of the toughest obstacles in quantum computing, scalability. Improving upon the first-generation chip from 2019, Horse Ridge II has enhanced capabilities and allows for increased integration to control quantum systems more precisely. Some of the new features are the ability to manipulate and read qubit states, as well as controlling the potential of several gates needed to entangle more than one qubit.
According to a paper published in the journal Science, China is now in possession of a quantum computer capable of blindingly fast calculations, trillions of times faster than what the fastest supercomputers today can do. The team of scientists that developed the quantum computer worked at the University of Science and Technology of China, located in central Hefei. The computer, Jiuzhang, was able to perform 1 trillion times faster than existing supercomputers.
Recently, Q2B and Quantum Realm started a quantum chess tournament. The participants include Google, Honeywell, Zapata, and many other companies sending representatives to play the new game of quantum chess. It will last until December 8, 2 PM PST.
The Internet has been a true revolution our own life-time (certainly mine since I first started getting online in the mid 90’s). Now as new technologies such as Quantum are starting to gain traction, could we see a Quantum Internet, i.e. an Internet that uses Quantum Physics at the core as a protocol. We explore what the Quantum Internet actually means and how it could impact on the future of almost everyone.
The NEASQC project will be delving into many NISQ-compatible industrial and financial use-cases and develop now open-source NISQ programming libraries for said use cases to allow new users to experiment with quantum computing.
Here at Quantum Zeitgeist we like to cover interesting applications of Quantum Computing, including Quantum Machine Learning. Now we cover an interesting look at Quantum Natural Language Processing. Classical NLP has taken the world by storm is actively used in many products. Could Quantum Computing provide a new direction in the pursuit of richer and smarter applications and products? We find out from Prof. Coecke.
Since we covered the AWS (Amazon Web Services) service that enables quantum hardware on Amazons cloud platform (bra-ket) which employs third party hardware, it seems Amazon is keen to actually build its own quantum computing hardware. Many might argue it was only a matter of time, as Amazon has past experience of looking at trends and acting on them. It uses data heavily and mines for trends and opportunities. So if Amazon is interested in building a Quantum Computer this is good news, it has obviously seen some clear advantages of building its own devices.
We reported a while back (just a few weeks) on Xanadu’s open source blueprint for a photonic quantum computer. Recently Ish Dhand gave a talk at the Byron Bay Quantum Computing Workshop and we thought we would also share it here.
Coursera have released a new Quantum Computing course that can help learners understand Quantum Computing without the huge requirement to understand the background maths. Quantum Computing, Less Formulas – More Understanding is now available on Coursera and is narrated by Sergey Sysoev. The course is aimed at those without a background in traditional quantum mechanics.
Riverlane the Cambridge based Quantum company has been steadily working on a Quantum Operating system. In May they achieved funding of a £7.6m grant to build a Quantum Operating system and September showed the first “Hello World” moment. Now there is the public release of Deltaflow.OS.
Harvard Business School in London hosted a recent event aimed at exploring Quantum Investment. The panel included a VC who has made investments into the Quantum Space as well as people actively engaged in the field building companies and innovation in the Quantum space.
IBM have recently announced a new Open Science Prize dedicated to Quantum efforts. The award totalling $100,000 for anyone who can devise an open source system employing IBM Quantum systems that can show improvement in Quantum SWAP gates and graph states.
In a recent article published by Ivan Deutsch titled: Harnessing the Power of the Second Quantum Revolution, Ivan outlines the quantum landscape. Published in the 2nd edition of PRX QUANTUM, dedicated to Quantum Computing and technology, the work outlines and reviews the state of the current Quantum industry.
The Nokia Foundation has granted the 2020 Recognition Award to Mikko Möttönen, D.Sc. (Tech). He is a Professor of Quantum Technology at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The reason he won this award is due to his contributions to Finnish quantum computing research.
ETH Zurich is planning to build a highly specialised physics laboratory on the Hönggerberg campus, and a generous donation from alumnus and ETH Honorary Councillor Martin Haefner is key to taking this project even further.
DeepMind isn’t just about teaching machine intelligence how to play games. Many of the projects the company is working on have very serious and very direct applications:especially when it comes down to biology. It should come as no surprise then to many that DeepMind is often cooking up something in their AI kitchen that could directly impact the ability to solve protein structure – the so called “Protein Folding” problem which has confounded researchers and scientists for decades.
Danish quantum computing has a strong workforce focusing on quantum communication. To capitalise on this new and highly rewarding field, the Innovation Fund Denmark invested DKK 22.5 million into CryptQ. This investment will be poured into a cost-effective and telecom-compatible quantum secure communication system, and the time of completion is expected to be 3 years.
The Russian state nuclear corporation, recently launched the National Quantum Laboratory (NQL) with the goal of developing quantum computing in four years.
Nature the huge publishing group is requesting applications from spin-off companies for its new award for commercialising research. The award is open to early stage university spinoff companies from around the world.
On November 24, Xanadu, one of the world leaders in photonic quantum computing, unveiled the genesis of the Canada Quantum Network (CQN). This network was built in partnership with MaRS and Creative Destruction Lab (CDL).
As of late November 2020, The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has announced its new breakthrough. Through collaboration with Heidelberg University in Germany and The University of Trento in Italy, they have successfully created a new 71 site Bose–Hubbard quantum simulator. This is groundbreaking for electrodynamics, especially gauge theory.
The University of Sussex has announced that it will join the quantum race. It will make Universal Quantum it’s latest spin-out company, giving them a solid foothold in the industry. The tech company is led by quantum computing experts and native scientists Prof. Winfried Hensinger and Dr. Sebastian Weidt. Building the world’s first large-scale quantum computer is the goal in Universal Quantum’s sights.
On November 18, AlgoDynamix, leader of behavioural-based forecasting for financial markets, announced that it has new Quantum Computing capabilities. D-Wave Systems are the provider of said quantum capabilities, and this is a world-first in behavioural forecasting for financial analytics.
M Squared recently announced that it has received £32.5 million from backers to support its growth and to develop new technologies.
Quantum education is important and it is clear that becoming quantum literate is going to be somewhat akin to digital literacy. No surprise that companies and universities are investing in the nascent field with courses and programmes. The latest comes from Spain, where there is graduate Masters program in Quantum Computing Technologies.
Are we reliving the dot-com boom of the late 90’s which ended up seeing the downfall of a number of fledgling companies such as Pets.com? Out of that wreckage we saw plenty of wealth creation with companies such as Amazon and Google that have continued to innovate and provide many of the services we use today. Are we now facing the same issue of heady tech company valuations that are bleeding over into the Quantum Technology sector?
Zapata Computing Inc. today announced that it has raised $38 million in Series B funding, up to a total of $64 million. This round was led by Comcast Ventures, Pintango, and Prelude Ventures. Other Series A investors were also involved. These include BASP Venture Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, and The Engine Accelerator Fund. New investors that joined for the first time are Ahren Innovation Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, Honeywell Venture Capital, ITOCHU Corporation, and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. The investors all have faith in Zapata’s promise to bolster efforts to commercialize quantum computing. Zapata also shows how much it has progressed since last year’s Series A funding.
The German centre famous for super computing is offering its services in the quest for quantum computing. It can provide both simulation on and of qubit systems of up to 48 qubits. On service is high performance computing for simulating the real-time dynamics of quantum computers up to 48 qubits.
In big-data analysis and classification, machine learning can be of much assistance in solving complex problems. Even playing complex games like Go is a task up to machine learning standards. However, the question is, could machine learning be used to find novel protocols and new algorithms for large-scale quantum communication and other related applications?
Any real-world quantum computer faces the challenge of needing to deal with errors with large numbers of physical qubits. These errors that accumulate are resource-intensive as well as time-consuming in terms of computation. Researchers have not found an effective software method that allows for quantum circuits to be compressed significantly, reducing the demands on hardware.
Recently at a government-backed event called ‘Quantum Technology Frontier Experts and Innovations Workshop’ (approximate translation) in Beijing, we received an update from Xue Qi Kun, Head of Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (BAQIS) and many more quantum experts. These experts shared the latest findings on Chinese quantum research and discussed the future of quantum computing. The subjects discussed were quantum state control, quantum computing and simulation, quantum networks, quantum information science, and many more.
IQM has managed to raise a total of €71 million after it recently raised €39 million in Series A funding. This will allow the superconducting quantum computer manufacturer to become a leader in European quantum computing. Within a year, this round of fundraising is the highest among all European deep-tech startups.
CERN perhaps most famous for its circular atom smasher is now aiming to help the world better understand Quantum Computing and associated technologies. CERN is famous not just for the big large underground partice accelerator but it was the home of where Sir Tim Berners Lee invented the worldwide web and created the www that came to epitomize our interaction with the internet. Now they want to help people get a jump start on the Quantum Computing field.
DISCOVERY, the largest industry-led quantum computing project in the UK, was announced by nine major organisations. It is a £10 million programme to address commercial quantum computing and what makes it unfeasible now. UK Quantum Technologies Challenge, led by UK Research and Innovation, is partially funding the programme.
ColdQuanta recently announced that $32 million was raised in Series A funding, and there will be more to come. Co-led by Global Frontier Investments and LCP Quantum Partners, they were joined by current investor Maverick Ventures and a new investor, Foundry Group. These funds will be used to develop quantum computers, quantum positioning systems, and real-time quantum signal processing.
The heated presidential election of 2020 has had citizens on edge for weeks as pundits try to predict the outcome. Now the outcome is clear or not so clear that Joe Biden has won, was ask what will happen to the Quantum Industry.
Microsoft is one of the most well known software companies on the planet that has reaches into operating systems, games (with Xbox) and even hardware. Microsoft also has numerous research centres which are focused on cutting edge computer science. As you might expect, Microsoft is working on Quantum Computing. We take a look at how Microsoft is helping people learn about the Quantum space, it’s Quantum programming language and software stack.
Xanadu, one of the hottest Canadian start-ups has published it’s Blueprint for a Scalable Photonic Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer. The extensive publication outlines how to build a modular photonic based Quantum Computer. There are a few candidates for Qubits – ranging from Ion traps to super conducting and photonic is one such candidate that has produced enormous potential for scale-up.
This year due to covid we will be attending from the comfort of the QZ office. We went last year and were very impressed with the not only the turnout, great talks but also the attendees. We very much enjoyed. Sadly this year, no food, but will be there virtually on the 6th of November and we hope you will be too.
AI and Quantum are somewhat very good bed-fellows with much overlap with even a new area of Quantum Machine Learning. Now we learn that Nathan Benaich, co-founder and general partner of boutique VC firm Air Street Capital has been funded to the tune of $17 million from savvy investors including Twitter and Google’s head of AI.
The provincial government of Alberta recently invested $11.8 million in the University of Calgary to help it create new technology-related jobs. Alberta province stated that the funding will help establish Alberta as a Canadian national and international hub for quantum computing and other industries.
A recent journal article aims to show significant advantages of using a quantum neural networks over their classical counter parts. Neural networks and Deep Learning have been one of the most most talked about areas of Machine Learning with the potential to power applications such as personal assistants, self driving cars, translation and a whole host of potential use-cases. In this latest paper, the authors outline how quantum based networks may offer training advantages and better dimensional properties with the ability to learn faster and more effectively.
Microsoft has been historically very strong in providing programming tools and also creating frameworks for developers, so it could as no surprise that Microsoft has heavily invested in building quantum tools to aid developers in their quest of building quantum circuits especially with the language Q#.
The National Security Agency’s (NSA) Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) is launching the LPS Qubit Collaboratory (LQC) in partnership with the Army Research Office (ARO).
You might have heard a lot about cloud technologies and be familiar with the offerings from a variety of vendors such as Amazon (AWS), Google (GCP) and of course Microsoft with it’s Azure service. But now there is Azure Quantum – which Microsoft is opening to early adopters.
Israel is trying to keep its status as a superior military by investing in quantum technology. Its Defence Ministry recently announced that NIS 100 million was invested in quantum computing research.
On October 29, IonQ announced that Dave Bacon and Denise Ruffner are joining its leadership team as Vice President of Software and Vice President of Business Development, respectively. Dave Bacon was from Google’s quantum engineering team while Denise Ruffner was Cambridge Quantum Computing’s previous Chief Business Officer.
On October 27, VentureIsrael launched a new capital venture fund which is directed at Israel-based technology startups. The investment strategy is aimed at technology companies with experience, flexible business strategy, and most importantly an advantage in their field.
NPL’s programme Measurement for Quantum was recently announced. It will be providing advice and measurement projects to UK quantum companies for free. Through this programme, companies can go from making prototypes in laboratories to becoming industry-ready and producing new products and services commercially.
Honeywell has generated a lot of Quantum news of late with its continued announcements of ever increasingly more powerful Quantum computers. Honeywell continues to make headlines with its progress towards bringing Quantum Computing to the masses.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is almost ready to announce the first post-quantum cryptography standard. This is after a long time of development and researching.
The US is waking up to have strategically important Quantum Computing is to the whole economy. We increasingly see governmental interest in the sector which can only be great news for the entire industry.
President Xi Jin Ping aims to strengthen China’s quantum computing industry through an aggressive strategy. If you have been reading our past articles on China, then this would be a treat for you. Around two weeks ago, President Xi Jin Ping called for increased spending in quantum technology. He addressed this one on October 16 […]
On October 27, it was revealed that the National Super-computing Centre in Shenzhen, China is planning to work on upgrading its supercomputer complex. The original report says the supercomputer will be at least 1000 times faster by 2022. It will be used in scientific, cloud computing, big data, and AI research among other subjects and fields.
The French Quantum innovator Pasqal has published the plan it has for a 200 qubit quantum computer. The 15 strong team and expanding is opening a new facility in the south of France at the Institut d’Optique. The plan is for Pasqal to achieve multi-100 qubits Quantum Simulator by the end of this year with […]
Quantum Industry Canada (QIC) is a new alliance to help forge Canada as one of the leaders in Quantum Computing. The consortium is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The founding members of QIC include: D-Wave, 1Qbit, Xanadu, Zapata, ISARA but there are over 20 (24 to be precise) companies listed and already involved in the project.
Recently, Baidu Quantum Computing Institute Director Duan Run Yao talked about Baidu’s strategy and goals for the quantum computing market (10jqka and xinhuayuqing). From 2018, Baidu plunged itself into the quantum computing field, beginning research on quantum algorithms and quantum communications technology. So far the company is focusing on AI, cloud computing, and quantum architecture.
Sussex University is well known for its Quantum technologies. Sussex located close to Brighton is also now the home of a new Quantum Spin-out out that we have introduced before named Universal Quantum which is harnessing Trapped Ion technologies to build a Quantum Computer. We spoke to Mark Webber who works with the founders of Universal Quantum on Quantum Algorithms and how they can be applied in the real world.
As of recent times, quantum research in China is booming as a result of technological advances. In particular, quantum technologies in China are separated into two categories, one being quantum communications and the other quantum computing. These are the two main areas Chinese companies are focusing on right now.
The last earnings review for Intel was not kind. The sale of its memory business contributed to a massive decline of around 11% in its share price. Seemingly out-smarted by the the likes of AMD and NVIDIA, the chip maker seems to have fallen foul of Wall Street. But could the company which is the only chip maker that conducts research in Quantum Computing be one of the most under-valued ‘Quantum’ companies?
You may have heard of the term “Annealing”, but what does it mean? Equally for Gate based Quantum Computing. What do these terms means Here we illustrate and introduce the main differences and what they are used for and their typical applications.
Xanadu one of Canada’s most well known Quantum Computing company that specialized in Quantum Machine learning is opening it’s door to a Quantum Resident.
In their monthly signals report MasterCard highlight how important Quantum Computing is for the development of the business. In a recent series MasterCard show how they understand the potential of Quantum Computing.
Qiskit Metal is a toolkit designed to allow automated development and designing of quantum devices. It has a flexible interface to let users design their own devices before exporting them with a click. With Metal, complicated processes are made simpler and faster than ever.
The popular machine learning toolkit from Xanadu is now at release v0.12 which offers the following features:
New mixed-state simulator, Minimize the number of measurement settings for HW, Access the state vector from circuits, Quantum noisy channels, Preview the next-generation QNode
We talk to Libby Heaney a PhD educated Quantum scientist who has successfully transitioned into the Artworld. We talk about her work, the quantum related projects she works on as an artist and even which interpretation of Quantum Mechanics she prefers.
IBM is now offering a free quantum computing course called ‘Qubit by Qubit’s Introduction to Quantum Computing’ in association with the Coding School. Open to high school students and even working professionals, there will be space for 5000 learners for free. Priority will be given to high school students applying, however.
On the 7th October 2020, the White House in the United States released a report, named Quantum Frontiers: Report on Community Input to the Nation’s Strategy for Quantum Information Science. In it, there are eight identified frontiers that have problems impeding progress. As a result, the American government sought advice and help from the quantum community, and this report describes some solutions to these problems.
Zapata Computing has recently been making headlines with new access to its Orquestra service and availability across a number of platforms. Recently Zapata also re-shuffled its scientific advisory board to include notable figures in the Quantum Community. We ask Zapata about the changes happening and also about the future of Quantum Computing.
Both Biden and Trump are running for the presidency in 2020, and this battle for the throne, in Trump’s case for the second term, is rather intense. Both candidates promised to increase funding in scientific ventures including quantum computing. The question is, between Biden and Trump, who is the better choice for Quantum Computing research in the United States?
A new Quantum prize has been announced for contributions to open source in the Quantum space to celebrate the life and work of Peter Wittek who went missing last year whilst trekking in the Himalayas. Peter Wittek was heavily involved with the Canadian Quantum scene and in Quantum Machine Learning.
Nu Quantum, a quantum photonics company, managed to raise £2.1 million in seed funding when Amadeus Capital Partners led an investment round. Four other companies, Ahren Innovation Capital, IQ Capital, Cambridge Enterprise, and Martlet Capital, also invested in Nu Quantum following the latter’s pre-seed investment round last September. Seraphim Capital is a newcomer to investing […]
The NExt ApplicationS of Quantum Computing (NEASQC) project in France will bring together a large group of experts from different industries and fields. These include experts in quantum computing, high-performance computing, AI, chemistry, and energy management. NEASQC intends to show that while completely fault-tolerant quantum computing with millions of qubits is still not available today, there remain practical uses for the NISQ (Noisy Intermediate- Scale Quantum) systems that will be available soon. NISQ computing has some advantages when running select applications, which can bring significant benefits to users such as those in industries.
We featured Kitty Young a while back who is working at Microsoft (Quantum) and is an artist and also known for her highly creative work in helping learners understand Quantum Computing and Quantum Physics. The courses that she gave on Quantum Computing in her Comic Book series have now been made into a physical Book. We got one of the first copies and we review her highly original book.
As the race for Quantum Computing heats-up, Germany often seems suspiciously quiet from the perspective of the rest of the world. Historically Germany was one of the leaders of the Quantum revolution that began in the 1920’s and one hundred years later it is making use of its heavy research and industrial might to ensure that it remains core to the development of the Quantum industry.
Aaron Young is a researcher at the University of Colorado in the Kaufman group where he looks “under the hood” of quantum physics aiming to understand how nature can be exploited to build technological innovation the Quantum Computing space.
Honeywell recently achieved a Quantum Volume of 128 with its quantum computer during late September of 2020. In the race for Quantum computing dominance we see another announcement by a Quantum Computing player – Honeywell.
Neural architecture search, or NAS, is to search for the best-performing neural networks automatically using computers. Recent advances in the methods used in NAS have made building faster, more compact, and power-saving problem-specific networks possible.
IQM recently revealed their new breakthrough. Its new high-speed nanoscale radiation detector is now on par with the most powerful quantum computer readers available. The research for the detector was carried out at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland by many of IQM’s present employees.
The quantum revolution is on its way. Whilst researchers are still finding the killer applications that take Quantum Computing into prime time that hasn’t stopped developers learning the basis of Quantum Computing and how to program qubits in a range of devices and simulators that come from the Likes of IBM, Microsoft and Google plus lesser known start-ups such as CQC (Cambridge Quantum Computing) and Xanadu.
Today, IonQ, a leader in quantum computing, revealed their next-gen quantum computer system featuring thirty-two (32) perfect qubits with low gate errors, placing the quantum volume expected to be greater than four million (4,000,000). In the “quantum race” we are seeing company after company announce ground breaking achievements in Quantum Volume.
Today, BT and Toshiba Europe Limited announced the first industrial quantum-secure network in the UK. It transmits between the National Composites Centre (NCC), the world-leading composite research and development facility in the UK, and the Centre for Modelling & Simulation (CFMS), a pioneer in new digital engineering capabilities and a not-for-profit organisation.
Zapata announced a few days ago that Rigetti quantum hardware is now accessible to Orquestra users through Amazon Braket. While Zapata has been accessing Rigetti’s QVM simulator and users of Orquestra can leverage Forest and pyQuil, it is the debut of this function and feature.
In August, The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that members of the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC) will counsel the Administration on how to continue having Americans lead in quantum information science.
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John Martinis was Google’s former head quantum scientist, allowing the dominant company to achieve quantum supremacy before recently joining Silicon Quantum Computing, an Australian startup, validating its approach to quantum technology.
Recently, Microsoft called for an intermediate representation for quantum programs, called QIR (Quantum Intermediate Representation), which work as common interfaces between different programming languages for gate-based quantum computing and target quantum computation programs.
The leader in quantum computing systems, software, and other services, D-Wave Systems Inc. just announced that its next-gen quantum computing platform will be available to the general public. Sporting improved hardware, software, and tools, it can speed up and deliver much more accurate results when running in-production quantum computing applications.
Menten AI, the US based drug design company presented at the latest D-wave sponsored event Qubits2020. They explain how they use Quantum Computing to design therapeutic peptides. The company outline how difficult it is to explore the existing space of proteins that even nature hasn’t had a chance to explore.
XtalPi, an AI drug discovery and development technology company, announced yesterday that they have received an oversubscribed Series C funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, PICC Capital, and Morningside.
Qiskit hosted a course this past summer, which saw over 4000 students from more than 100 countries registering to attend the same quantum computing courses taught to IBM Quantum interns. Now, Qiskit is planning to offer the same course to anyone who wants to get their feet wet in the world of quantum computing and […]
Volkswagen built an algorithm built on AWS that used QPU’s from D-wave. The project was called Quantum Shuttle and was done at last years 2019 WebSummit conference in Lisbon. This was the first time a real-time service utilized a quantum processor. Here VW talk about using Quantum Computing to optimize the painting of their vehicles. […]
In a move from Austin powers where Dr Evil ransoms the earth for a million dollars and later changes to 100 billion, one minute might not seem a lot. But using a D-wave can bring plenty of benefits for solving optimization problems in just a few milliseconds, so in theory there is a enough time to try out the Leap and Ocean tools from D-wave.
Last year, UCD and IBM Research Europe in Ireland worked together to hold the Quantum Technologies Colloquium, and this year they hosted the 2020 Quantum Computing Hackathon together. This virtual event had the use of the open source software network Qiskit as its main course. IBM developed Qiskit to write code for quantum computers, which […]
The Canadian Quantum start-up/scale up launched its Qubits2020 conference to further the development of Quantum Annealing and the use of its Quantum Computers. The annual conference is open to registrants and is free. So if you want to learn more about what D-wave is up to and what its machines are being user for.
One of the first killer applications of quantum computing is optimization. No surprise that smart minds are looking at the intersection of Quantum and Finance. We spoke with Chicago Quantum who are driving innovation in Quantum Finance, by using the latest advances in Quantum technology to optimize stock portfolios.
Last week Baidu held a developer conference in which it showcased Quantum Leaf, a new cloud quantum computing platform for programming, simulating, and running quantum workloads. Baidu says that Quantum Leaf is meant to provide a programming environment for quantum-infrastructure-as-a-service setups. It is also meant to work in tandem with Paddle Quantum, the development toolkit Baidu released earlier this year.
Across different industries, there are always complex optimisation problems to be encountered, including routing vehicles, managing supply chains, assessing risks, optimising portfolios, operating power grids, and more. Even with numerous complicated algorithms developed to efficiently handle select problems, a lot of real-world optimisation problems are still difficult to optimise. This is despite many advancements in […]
Zapata, a Boston-based quantum computing startup, announced its commercial release of Orquestra. It is an advanced software platform used to create repeatable quantum and quantum-based workflows.
Quantum Zeitgeist was at the 4th annual QTEC conference where quantum based and allied companies pitch for investment. We collected a few of these Quantum companies seeking investment for their quantum technologies.
IBM Quantum’s grand project During 2020’s summer season, the U.S. saw numerous protests against systematic racism and police brutality against Black Americans. These protests were nationwide and marked a critical point for American racial and social justice. Such protests also had the effect of reminding tech companies and other industries to do more in providing […]
In another poll from QZ, we ask the community what technology is likely to be the most promising. Out of a range of possibilities, the audience chose super conducting technology as the qubit technology that is likely to be most promising. Here are the results in full: Super Conducting Qubits 50% Ion Trap Qubits 25% […]
A quantum photonics start-up based in the UK, AegiG has secured 1.4 million pounds from Innovate UK, a government agency that funds and supports business innovation and is a part of UK Research and Innovation. It will start exploring secure quantum communications for both fibre-optic- and satellite-based platforms. Joining a worldwide-spanning pilot project, AegiQ will […]
If God were to play dice, he would play Quantum Dice! Today we focus on one company with a seemingly strange remit: that is to make numbers more random. For the uninitiated this doesn’t sound a huge problem until you realize that it is very difficult to make truly random numbers and much of modern security depends on truly random numbers. One start-up tackling this area is the Oxford Company named Quantum Dice.
One of the applications of Quantum technology and perhaps one of the earliest use cases is the Quantum Random Number Generator which could be instrumental in keeping our security systems secure. The new application delivered on IBM Q services will enable true random numbers.
At QuantumZeitgeist we enjoy looking under the hood of start-up’s and companies doing very innovate things in the quantum space. We talk to the founders of MemComputing (MemCPU) which offers a new paradigm of computing which moves away from von Neumann architecture, about their technology, what they are working on and where they are headed.
QZ attended the latest QTEC investor showcase which highlights the latest in investment pitches from putative and current Quantum start-ups. We heart pitches from companies such as CDT (Sumitomo) to FlouretiQ to KETS.
Currently the qubit count stands at 65, but next year a new chip named Eagle (Quantum chips are codenamed after birds) with 127 Qubits, then in 2022 Osprey with 433 Qubits, followed by Condor with 1,121 Qubits.
Recently NVIDIA agreed to acquire ARM for around $40bn making the combined company a formidable force in the world of classical computing which will now include CPU’s as well as GPU’s. Right now NVIDIA is not involved in the Quantum space, but we think that might well change in the future as the whole area of Quantum Machine Learning heats up. Now the UK will benefit from a new Artificial Intelligence research centre.
If the tensions between the US are China are already inflamed, the recent news that China has built a much more powerful quantum computer is likely to cause much consternation. But it could lead to more investment flowing into US science and technology as Trump wants to see US at the forefront of the race for Quantum Dominance.
Noise and errors are some of the major problems that plague the field of quantum computing. There should be no surprise then that research teams around the globe are looking at ways to reduce noise and come up with clever schemes to deal with errors that take place during computing. Now a team at IBM have come up with a new methodology that enables a Quantum Computer to better compensate for errors.
Two very hot fields right now. Combine recent accelerated trends in the automotive sector caused by cvoid-19, self driving, electrification and couple that to Quantum Computing. McKinsey the management consultants have written an article on how Quantum Computing is impacting not only cars but the whole industry from manufacture to efficient routing of vehicles.
Two leading Quantum technology companies have joined forces wirh a global partnership to further their continued development of quantum computing technology. Q-CTRL which specializes in utilizing control systems and Quantum Machines, which develops a Quantum Orchestration platform to work across multiple qubit technologies.
I’ve been itching to get to this place since I first visited when it wasn’t even called a museum and was a collection of a few volunteers in the same space as the Bletchley Park museum and was called “retro beep”. In fact I had hoped to go as Bletchley park re-opened but alas I had to wait another month or so until 8th of September 2020 until the NMoC opened again.
We get to talk to Saesun Kim who is a researcher at the University of Oklahoma. We get to ask Saesun Kim about his work and where Quantum computing is headed, but importantly we get an inside look at the research that goes on in fundamental physics – eminently useful for Quantum Computing.
In another of our fun polls, in taking the zeitgeist of the quantum sector, we posed the follow question about which company is the most investment worthy out of four companies: IBM, Intel, Google and Honeywell.
In a one-up against the might of super conducting qubits. Xanadu has launched their cloud accessible photonic quantum cloud computing platform. Eight and twelve qubits are currently available but soon 24 qubits are expected to come online, giving existing platforms a run for their money. The heat is on!
One of the most well-funded Quantum Computing companies will lead a £10 million consortium to accelerate the commercialisation of quantum computing in the United Kingdom. The aim is to create, build a quantum computer for the UK and have this accessible via the cloud.
Go to any conference on Quantum and take a straw poll about which interpretation of Quantum Mechanics the audience prefers and you’ll likely find the Many Worlds interpretation beats out many of the even well accepted conventions such as the Copenhagen interpretation, or even Bohmian Mechanics or QBism. We review the latest book from Sean Carroll exploring the nature of our Quantum reality and excitingly explores Many Worlds.
Last year and earlier this year we reported on the development of Riverlane’s Quantum Operating system named DeltaFlow.OS and it’s funding of 7.6m (GBP). The operating system is the key to getting better performance and capacity from quantum hardware. Now Riverlane have announced that the operating system has now reached a point of maturity where it could be used.
We chatted to the team at Quantum Mads, a quantum computing start-up aimed squarely at the finance sector. The growing team is proving commercial focused finance services using the latest quantum computing developers. Introducing….Quantum mads!
The votes show that t|ket won our vote as being the most popular language framework for programming quantum computers. Followed by Qiskit. Surprisingly Q# and Cirq are not as popular as we expected. There are plenty of resources on Qiskit and is supported by IBM, Q# supported by Microsoft and Cirq is supported by Google.
In the growing quest for applications of Quantum Computing, Google have shown how to simulate a chemical system with 54 qubits. The largest chemical simulation performed to date on a Quantum Computer. The team used a Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) to simulate a chemical system employing the Hartree-Fock approximation.
Following off the back of the announcement of massive funding into Quantum sciences and information. One of the recipients of a new Quantum Institute is the Fermi Lab. The new institute is named Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) and will have as its key industry partner Rigetti, who have been commercializing super conducting quantum qubits.
After the major announcement of massive funding from the white house into AI and Quantum, new institutes are being set-up with the aim of furthering research and collaboration with industry partners. One institute at the Argonne National Laboratory named Q-Next will work with Intel on building research capabilities out in a number of key areas.
The Whitehouse today has announced that it will fund 12 new institutes with a massive funding splurge to ensure that the US remains competitive in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. In the next 5 years, one billion dollars (US$) is earmarked for the two sectors which are taking the world by storm, with AI perhaps the most visible. But importantly Quantum Science has been recognised as an industry of the future.
The results are in. We had some fun collecting data from out latest survey on what Quantum computing platform is most popular. Out of the four possible providers, it turns out that the IBM Q was the favorite provider.
Recent announcement in quantum computing progress are using a metric known as Quantum Volume, not simply the number of qubits. The more complex metric is perhaps not as obvious and not as headline grabbing. But what does it actually mean? Both Honeywell and IBM are using Quantum Volume despite IBM inventing the term.
We rarely write about Intel and its quantum computing efforts. The company which has dominated much of the classical computing landscape remains rather quiet about their quantum computing effort. But Intel is one of the only chip makers out there who actually is involved in building Quantum Hardware.
We are having some fun by asking our readers to vote for their favorite Quantum Cloud platform. There is only once day left to vote, so please go on over to the twitter account, vote and follow us too please.
In a move reminiscent of the computer processor industry and Moore’s law, IBM has announced that it has doubled the performance of its quantum systems from 32 to 64. The measure is Quantum Volume, which doesn’t just take into account the number of qubits but the fidelity of connected nature of those qubits. IBM achieved a quantum volume of 64 on a system with 27 qubits.
The new proposal released on Friday sanctions a spending increase of around 30% in the non-defense budget for artificial intelligence and quantum information science, which will include Quantum Computing. Recently there has been renewed interest in the competitive threats from China and the news realizes an effort to ensure the US remains competitive in emerging technologies.
The team at Google have recently published a paper: “Single-Photon Image Classification” describing how applying a quantum transformation can improve the accuracy of determining MNIST (digits) or MNIST (fashion) with just a single photon. In the toy model, the team show that for the quantum setup, an improvement in accuracy up to almost 41.27% for MNIST is achievable, almost double the classical set-up accuracy of 21.27%.
As the summer hits us, the traditional holiday on the beach might not happen due to corona (covid 19). But that should not stop you from enjoying some great reads over the summer. We put together a small reading list for those interested in Quantum Computing but don’t know where to start.
Not even one year ago Amazon launched its quantum computing cloud service. The service named Braket. No that is not a typo. Braket is named after the notation that quantum scientists used: Bra’s and Ket’s. But the name will likely just be called “bracket” in terms of pronunciation, we suspect. Now Amazon is making Amazon Braket open for General Release.
Predicting the future is hard. Really hard. Just look at science fiction movie classics such as Back to the Future. Imagining what the future can bring is a tricky task that very few have been able to attain. Sure we can often get the trends right, but it is often the most disruptive breakthroughs that change everything. Think Lasers, Microprocessors – almost unimaginable in the 1950’s. But are we now in the 1950’s of Quantum Computing?
A recent paper published in Nature Physics has highlighted progress in dealing with noise in quantum systems. Noise represents one of the biggest barriers to effective and practical quantum computing as the qubit count increases. The team from Sydney show a new protocol for dealing with a 14-qubit super conducting system. The work allows a correlation matrix ro be constructed highlighting interactions between qubits that has not previously been detected.
As the excitement in Quantum computing and allied technologies hots up, more dedicated funding is looking at the sector. An early stave investment fund from the UK is looking to invest up to £12 million for Quantum companies based in the United Kingdom.
Last week, IBM’s global summer school ended successfully. It was well attended with over 5000 participating over the world and 2000+ people were watching at the same time, and a huge discord channel was created for the purpose. It was more like a conference with lots of excitement and fascination with a new rising technology: The […]
Sadly the world still runs on carbon and despite the need to reduce it, or eliminate it completely there are still plenty of gas guzzlers on the road. The question is whether any optimization could help the environment without going full electric. Microsoft, Toyota and Jij worked on using Quantum algorithms to efficiently help traffic flow around the streets of Japan.
A new fund from the technology transfer experts at IP Group is taking aim at the Quantum sector with £12 million up for grabs. The new fund aims to stimulate investment and innovation in the growing UK sector. The funds are of course backed by the highly adept team who are behind the funding of one of the worlds most promising DNA sequencing company: Oxford Nano Pore.
Back in December 2019, Amazon Web Services (The cloud arm of the retail tech giant) announced an important partnership with Caltech to establish the AWS Center for Quantum Computing which is due to open in spring 2021.
From Qubit to Shor: Experiments Quantum Computing at IBM Qiskit Global Summer School 2020
The home of the computer is a place that often gets overlooked. In the United Kingdom during the war, a mathematician and logician named Alan Turing and a whole host of other individuals (Bill Tutte, Tommy Flowers and countless more) were responsible for breaking the WW2 Nazi codes on the site of an mansion house: Bletchley Park. The byproduct of this effort was the computer has become ubiquitous. We visited after lock-down to see where the beginning of modern history began.
There is a lot of hype around quantum computing. Some are erroneously touting that Quantum Computing can speed up all our lives and make encryption insecure. Separating fact from fiction is key to understanding what QC can and cannot do for your business. Here we outline some of the key take-away messages from Quantum Computing.
Rigetti, Berkeley, CA is one of the most well funded Quantum start-ups out there in the Quantum landscape. In fact, due its growing size it may actually qualify as a scale-up. The latest investment tranche sees a placement of $79 million possibly bringing its capitalization to over $1 Billion – a potential tech unicorn.
As the interest in Quantum Computing, Quantum cryptography and the Quantum Internet grows, don’t be fooled into thinking that the breakthroughs we are seeing will always happen in western nations. The Chinese are coming and they are also working on Quantum technologies. We’ll highlight five of the largest technology companies in China that have an interest in Quantum Computing and technology.
TikTok has taken the social media world by storm. The network enables people to send short movie clips to each other. The dedicated site service appears to have caught some of the existing players off guard. But more importantly than what it does is where it does it… China. The Chinese owned company has created headlines with President Trump threatening to ban the service in the United States. However what about the competitive threat in the Quantum Computing arena from China?
Unless you have been living in a cave, you must have heard of quantum computing, the field that is set to overturn the world as we know it – or is it? For sure there is a great deal of quantum hype in the field. But what should you tune into and how might Quantum developments impact your business. We highlight some thinking around Quantum Computing with the aim to shine light on developments which could mean Quantum Computing is more disruptive than the Internet.
Qiskit, the guys and gals behind the very popular quantum computing language have just completed their first two week Qiskit summer school. The popular programme was over subscribed as students scrambled for limited lab space, although the course was open to pretty much all. The programme introduced quantum computing, qubits, quantum physics and how to build quantum circuits.
The company that brought the world the first quantum cloud has teamed up with the Japanese to bring quantum computing to the academic and commercial sphere in Japan with the aim to deepen ties.
The development by researchers at Microsoft and ETH-Zurich has the potential to impact global climate change by finding efficient catalysts for carbon fixation which reduces CO2 by turning into products which are more useful (such as methanol).
The field of Quantum Computing is still searching for killer applications. Despite a number of promising applications such as Shor’s algorithm, Grover and HHL, Quantum Computing has not made a material impact on sectors such as medicine. The founder of Sydney startup Q-CTRL states that Quantum Computing could deliver new tools for drug development which could help in the event of any future pandemics.
The buzz around quantum computing continues and quantum computing could inspire a whole new generation of engineers, scientists, programmers building the technology of the future. We outline some courses that can help you lean the fundamentals and the background to quantum computing.
I grew up in the twilight time between home computers and PC’s or more specifically IBM compatible PCs. The early nineties were a mix of playing with primitive machines like the BBC micro, spectrum machines and the Commodore 64. But it was the IBM PC that really set me on the journey into computing, science and much more. Here was a proper business machine that could be used at home for everything from spreadsheets to games to word-processing to developing read world applications.
The popular quantum programming language named Qiskit is likely to have a lot more users after the 2020 Qiskit summer school, which aims to teach students and anyone for that matter the basics of quantum computing and how to use the programming language to build circuits to execute quantum algorithms.
Quantum Computers could become more mainstream then previously thought possible. New investment into QC takes off with ORCA computing raising £2.9m in their seed round to develop photonic based Quantum Computers. “Light contained within optical fibers is also an excellent carrier of quantum information but so-far several challenges have prevented optical fiber playing a role […]
A recent initiative from Hackaday is making quantum computing accessible. Hackaday is running a Quantum Computing allowing students to learn about the fundamentals of quantum computing. To learn more about the project you can go to the web page and understand how Kitty (from Microsoft) is transforming quantum education with her amazing quantum comics. Kitty […]
There is a new look at the qiskit website. The popular open-source quantum programming framework supported by IBM sports a new look. Right now in the quantum space, there is a battle for platform dominance. Qiskit is undoubtedly one of the most well used languages despite being only three years old.
David Bohm was one of the most famous quantum scientists that you might not of heard of. His work on non-locality, interconnectedness and consciousness has intrigued many over the years. Now there is great movie about the Quantum physicist exploring the relation between quantum physics and consciousness.
A trend we are seeing is that increasingly more and more financial organizations are looking at exploring quantum computing. Companies such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan already have teams exploring quantum algorithms. Standard Charted is the latest to join the quest for financial use cases with quantum algorithms.
Personal computing had a history in the home-brew clubs of schools and universities. That bedroom mentality is hard to recreate when you need expensive equipment, refrigerators and industrial lab equipment. But could an initiative from Noah Woods change all that with a plan to create an open source quantum computing project?
Just like classical programming languages such as C++, Python, JavaScript or even the ancient but still useful FORTRAN there are reasons to select one language over another. For example FORTRAN can still run pretty fast but lacks the ease of use and the libraries of Python which can be slower. But what about in the Quantum space, what language is appropriate? Here we’ll highlight languages that are suitable for almost anyone to get into Quantum programming.
Quantum companies are not just the preserve of Silicon Valley, with many regions creating technologies and services in the quantum space. Regions from Toronto to Texas are seeing quantum computing companies emerge. We’ll highlight five companies from the United Kingdom that aim to shake-up the Quantum Computing space.
As we have been saying at QZ for a long time, Banking and Finance will be one of the first major use cases of Quantum Computing. Coupled with the funds and the need to explore any advantages, banks are looking at Quantum Computing with interest. The latest piece from the times explores how RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) is working with Quantum Computing company 1Qbit.
When we saw what the WEF did with interactive strategic intelligence tool we had to share it. Clicking on a subject or theme you can drill down and explore a range of subjects and how they interact. The tool allows you Post-Quantum Computing, Security, Practical Applications for Quantum Computing, Quantum Computing Theory, Quantum Computer Design and Quantum Computer Memory.
We like to surface new learning materials and we came across Microsoft’s very business focused AI/Machine Learning portal which helps understand the importance of using AI in a variety of sectors from Retail to education. Each pathway of learning is tailored to a specific theme. There are learning paths for Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Government and Education.
Being stuck in because of covid could a great time to brush up on the latest in machine and quantum machine learning. The summer school is hosted by Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany. You can find a summary of what talks are available virtually and online.
In line with the events and the growing interest in Quantum Computing and allied technology a new journal launches soon aimed at quantum information science and technology with an impact of lasting and profound impact.
The AWS centre Quantum Computing founded last year (2019) well see one of the famous names in Quantum Computing join it as a scholar. John Preskill announced the position on his twitter feed.
Rahko a British Quantum Start-up is concentrated on building the capability to model the behaviour of drugs and chemical reactions, and design advanced materials with greater speed and accuracy than what is currently possible, at reduced cost. The company was entered with IQM, Oxford Quantum Circuits and Phasecraft for the Europas Award 2020. Rahko states […]
The WEF (World Economic Forum) has issued a piece asking for the community to take seriously the implications of Quantum Computing. This is because quantum computing has the potential to break the systemically important cryptographic underpinnings of the infrastructure on which enterprises and the wider digital economy rely. In addition the community must also ensure that security doesn’t itself become a barrier to the progress and development of quantum computing.
The Singapore based company, Horizon Quantum Computing has announced funding of its seed round led by Sequoia Capital India.
Over the weekend (Saturday) was the live screening about the work and implications of David Bohms work. David attempted to better explain Quantum physics and the introduced concepts such as Hidden variables and Quantum potentials in his effort to better explain quantum physics.
At QZ we always get excited when we see a new framework or programming language. A team of researchers at have created a new high level language which aims to make programming quantum computers more intuitive resulting in more efficient gate usage – well that that is the aim of Silq, which is a new high-level programming language for quantum computing with a strong static type system, developed at ETH Zürich.
Honeywell the industrial giant has created a quantum computer with a quantum volume of 64 which is twice as powerful as the next most powerful quantum computer.
Just out today the list from MIT of 35 innovators under the age of 35. The lis contains Zlatko Minev from IBM who is showing that quantum physics isn’t quite as unpredictable as first thought. His experiments may be used to enhance quantum error correct leading to the ability to use fewer qubits or deploy more qubits successfully.
So far it has been quite a week for Ion Trapped devices. We have seen Universal Quantum on the south coast of the UK (Brighton) get their initial funding to pioneer ion trapped qubits. We have also seen the Pennylane platform from Xanadu integrate AQT’s ion trapped hardware. Now we see massive funding (16th June 2020) into IonQ.
The quantum machine learning platform from Xanadu: Pennylane will now support Ion trapped qubits provided from AQT. Xanadu has its own photonic systems but adding AQT’s hardware to the line-up will provide alternative hardware for users.
The surge of interest in the field over the last few years signals that we at the point where quantum computing is now “a thing”. Students are asking to study computing computing and whether there are any undergraduate degrees. High-school students can attend summer schools on QC. Popular online learning platforms are hosting QC courses. Major name (and some less well known) tech companies are building Quantum Computers.
The UK has announced that it was support the quantum computing industry in the United Kingdom with 70 million in funding ranging over 38 projects. The Science Minister Amanda Solloway has today announced the projects which will help the UK be a leader in the Quantum Computing Revolution.
The finish company IQM has obtained a grant for €2.5M and investment of up to €15M. The EIC awarded the funds to IQM and long with other sources IQM has recieved around $30M in funding so-far. The EIC is the European EIC Accelerator program which provides funding to start-ups that fit its criteria (IQM received its maximum grant).
Showing the geographical diversity of some of the Quantum companies around. The south coast of England see its very own Quantum Company raise $4.5m for its quantum computing effort to build large scale quantum computing.
The director of IBM’s Research group stated that a Quantum App store is coming soon. Rather like the Apple app store or the Google play store or even itunes. Could getting access to quantum computing algorithms and compute really be as easy as one click?