Fujitsu Launches $100,000 Quantum Simulator Challenge 2024

Fujitsu Limited has announced the $100,000 Quantum Simulator Challenge 2024, inviting industry and academia to test its quantum simulator on new problems and applications. The contest builds on the previous year’s challenge, with new features in Fujitsu’s Quantum Simulator. The simulator uses “Qulacs,” a fast quantum simulator software developed by Osaka University and QunaSys Corporation. Fujitsu has also prepared a software development kit partially compatible with Qiskit, a major tool for quantum computer software. The challenge will run from July to October 2024, with prizes for the top three projects.

Fujitsu’s Quantum Simulator Challenge 2024

Fujitsu Limited, a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company, has announced its Quantum Simulator Challenge 2024. The competition invites industry and academia members to test Fujitsu’s quantum simulator on new problems and applications. This year’s challenge builds on the success of the 2023 edition, with several new features added to the quantum simulator.

The objectives of the challenge include applying the quantum simulator to customer pain points, testing the simulator with real-world applications, exploring quantum use cases collaboratively with selected participants, and obtaining feedback on performance and scalability.

Benefits and Prizes

Participants stand a chance to win up to $100,000 in prize money, with the first, second, and third prizes being $50,000, $30,000, and $20,000 respectively. In addition to the monetary rewards, participants will have free access to Fujitsu’s quantum technologies for project development, collaboration opportunities with quantum experts for training and support, potential future partnerships, and co-branding and marketing activities.

Fujitsu’s Quantum Simulator

Fujitsu has developed a 40-qubit CPU-based state vector quantum simulator system. The system comprises 1024 FX700 nodes using A64FX processors. The simulator uses “Qulacs,” a fast quantum simulator software developed by Osaka University and QunaSys Corporation.

Fujitsu has enhanced Qulacs to execute in a parallel and distributed way on the cluster system using MPI (Message Passing Interface) technology and optimizing memory bandwidth using SVE (Scalable Vector Extension) operation. A software development kit (SDK) partially compatible with Qiskit, a major development tool for quantum computer software, is also available to offer a convenient development environment.

Evaluation Criteria and Challenge Duration

Projects will be evaluated based on their uniqueness, business applicability, quality of quantum algorithms developed, number of qubits used for simulation, and valuable feedback and contribution to enhancing Fujitsu’s quantum simulator and libraries. The challenge is set to run from July to October 2024.

Participation and Privacy Notice

To participate, interested parties are required to download and fill out an application form and send it to Fujitsu by June 30, 2024. All applications will be reviewed based on problem innovation, breadth of applicability, and resulting customer impact. Selected participants will need to agree to a Participant Agreement separately designated by Fujitsu. Applicants must be a legal entity, such as a company or an institution.

Fujitsu will collect and process personal information about members for the purpose of operating, managing, and promoting the challenge. The information will be deleted once the purpose is achieved or becomes obsolete. Members have the right to request access to their information, request that their information should be deleted, rectified, blocked, or restricted for future use.