Case Quantum Computing Club and Case Hacker Society will co-host a hackathon Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom A.

Students are invited to participate to learn how to program quantum computers through introductory challenges as well as in-depth projects.

Red Bull is sponsoring this event and will drop off free drinks. There also will be free food and prizes for participants.

There will be two options to participate in the hackathon. The first option is to complete the provided tutorial challenges to learn the basics of coding programs on quantum computers. Assistance will be available. Anyone who either completes these challenges or shows up and attempts them for at least an hour will earn a free Mitchells Ice Cream scoop coupon.

The second option is a traditional hackathon challenge that will be released at the start of the event. Students can participate in teams and the code will be due Sunday night. The winning team will win $100 worth of Amazon gift cards to be split among the team members.

Register for the event on CampusGroups.

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Quantum Computing Spring Hackathon The Daily - The Daily | Case Western Reserve University

NEW DELHI :On 28 November, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Indias largest IT services company, partnered with Amazon Web Services to set up a quantum computing lab for building applications. On 12 April, TCS announced that it would not cut down on its research and development spending despite an expected industry-wide tech spending decline in FY24. And, on 19 April, the Centres decision to launch a 6,004 crore National Quantum Mission came as a shot in the arm for the company. In an interview, K. Ananth Krishnan, the chief technology officer of TCS, spoke about the companys investment plans for new technologies, hiring and more. Edited excerpts:

NEW DELHI :On 28 November, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Indias largest IT services company, partnered with Amazon Web Services to set up a quantum computing lab for building applications. On 12 April, TCS announced that it would not cut down on its research and development spending despite an expected industry-wide tech spending decline in FY24. And, on 19 April, the Centres decision to launch a 6,004 crore National Quantum Mission came as a shot in the arm for the company. In an interview, K. Ananth Krishnan, the chief technology officer of TCS, spoke about the companys investment plans for new technologies, hiring and more. Edited excerpts:

How is TCS investing in new areas amid the projected uncertainties in tech spending in FY24?

How is TCS investing in new areas amid the projected uncertainties in tech spending in FY24?

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We will continue to make new tech investments based on four key parameters and business returns. For instance, quantum computing has been a buzzword for over a decade, but we did not make any investments until 2016-17. Today, we make a cumulative research and innovation investment of 30-40% of our total innovation and R&D expenditure on initiatives such as quantum computing, which are showing early signs of business interest.

(In FY22, TCS spent 2,178 crore in innovation and R&D. Its FY23 innovation and R&D spending was not available. Samir Seksaria, the chief financial officer of TCS, said during its FY23 earnings call that it would not cut down on investments in this segment, despite a projected downturn for FY24.)

Beyond this, will we be making investments specifically for quantum computing? Yes, because it is a long-term play. Today, we have just a mid-double-digit number of members working on it. However, the case is strong for us to invest more, even if it does not offer immediate returns.

Talking of new tech, are clients still interested in the metaverse, now that the bubble has burst?

The tech underpinning the metaverse buzzword has been augmented and virtual reality, collaboration platforms, blockchain and visual interfaces. The core tech areas remain persistent among clients and are evolving as there are specific use cases that people have been trying to solve. The tech interest continues in areas of very specific solutions built on augmented reality, minus the buzzwords. We have seen sufficient investments in avatar-based presence. We are still executing projects quietly, minus the drum-beating. Practical use cases are finding traction with AR in manufacturing for component simulation, and banking, financial services and insurance.

Quantum computing is expensive. How is TCS optimizing access to hardware?

After two decades of development, today, all global commercial quantum computing vendors are active in India. Several of them have made their simulators available, while a few brought the actual quantum hardware here. The number of qubits in their machines has already crossed triple digits, and some exploratory work can be done on the devices. Were actively engaging with these partners to gain access to quantum computing power.

What interests have businesses shown in terms of early access to quantum computing?

Technology is progressing steadily. Were still about three to four years away from practical, mainstream applications perhaps more. Another decade is the most probable stage where real problems will start getting solved. But, right now is when active business scenarios in financial services, manufacturing, life sciences and chemistry are starting to develop. Businesses are asking whether there are good quantum machines with better quality qubits than we have now and what problems could be solved. Supply chain optimization is the fifth sector that is also interested in it. TCS is looking to build research bandwidth on these factors. Were working with all technology vendors and their hardware and using our reach to these industrial segments to start building use cases for specific problems that can be encoded into various quantum technologies.

Which sectors have shown interest in exploring quantum applications?

In BFSI, portfolio optimization, forecasting and wealth management in the capital markets are key use cases. We have good simulation techniques and algorithms for maximizing returns on portfolios, and minimizing and maximizing risks as part of quantum applications. Post-quantum cryptography is an area of interest. BFSI clients are talking to us about these applications to understand how much time they had before they were to act and improve their infrastructure. In manufacturing, aerospace and applications, such as material chemistry and material design, are being explored.

Achieving quantum supremacy will help revolutionize basic materials research, which will be crucial for manufacturers, aerospace and battery makers.

The third sector that is drawing interest right now is optimization. This pertains to logistics and aviation too. In the latter, right now, whenever any disruption occurs due to any unexpected circumstance, only about a tenth of a clients network is readily optimized to bring operations back online and recovering the rest takes days. In theory, quantum machines can do real-time optimization of the whole network of a typical airline with over 100 aeroplanes. We might be a decade away from such an application, but questions are already being asked by our clients on the impact of quantum computing on flight operations or customer care.

Is there interest in collaboration with academia on new technologies?

There are multiple academic institutions taking on quantum initiatives IISER, Pune, has a quantum hub that has been active for the past few years. It is part of the national mission for cyber-physical systems and is being funded as a Section 8 company, with a board of directors that includes TCS as well. Others, such as IISc, IIT Madras and TIFR, are also involved in various quantum research initiatives IIT Madras is developing quantum communications, while TIFR is building superconducting qubits, and IISc is developing quantum algorithms.

All of these institutes are also linked to the TCS research group. We started it about six years ago and have double-digit members of the research community now. We actively partner with research institutes and regularly publish research papers on topics such as quantum chemistry, benchmarking, post-quantum cryptography and quantum communications.

Do Indian institutes offer enough talent to hire for quantum computing and research?

We are indeed looking at Indian institutes since this is our largest base, and a lot of our quantum engineering and research teams are India-based. Can we take more in? Yes, and this is where our academia partnerships come in handy. Not all the people we work with necessarily need to be within TCS Research and Innovation unless they are being hired for a core IP of ours. We do this internationally as well. A double-digit workforce for this is where we are.

Is there enough supply for talent? This is where hype would help, and initiatives such as the National Quantum Mission would come in.

Is there a timeframe for TCS to upskill its workforce in quantum computing?

Skilling, of course, is important. A lot of engineers are getting into this to understand the new technologies. The next two to three years will see most of the foundational work done in quantum research as well as technologies, which is when the talent for this sector will develop. During this time, well see good-enough machines become available, and more interesting applications will also become available. That will make building on these technologies feasible, too. For us, itll be important to hire people with backgrounds in quantum capabilities.

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Business interest in quantum already starting to develop | Mint - Mint

IBM to help build new climate action center in New York City

By Justina Nixon-Saintil, Vice President & Chief Impact Officer and Solomon Assefa, Vice President of IBM Research Climate & Impact Science

April 24, 2023

Today, we are proud to be selected jointly with Stony Brook University by the City of New York to anchor The New York Climate Exchange, a world-class climate solutions center on Governors Island in New York Citys harbor.

By bringing together a diverse coalition of partners, The Exchange will be a first-of-its kind international center for developing and deploying dynamic solutions to our global climate crisis. It will also act as a hub for New Yorkers to benefit from the rapidly evolving green economy by:

This partnership touches three important pillars of IBMs DNA: our connection to New York and our commitment to sustainability and education. IBM has a longstanding relationship with the city and the state of New York. It is where we produce our mainframe computers that power the global economy, where we host IBMs first quantum computing plant, and where we recently announced a plan to invest $20 billion to expand the technology ecosystem. IBM also has a long history on sustainability and education including the establishment of our first education department in the state in 1932 and our first environmental policy in 1971.

The Exchange continues this legacy of using technology to turn sustainability ambition into action. Through this initiative, over 5 years, IBM will contribute technology, skills training, and research capabilities needed to help find climate solutions that put justice and equity at the center including:

As our global community continues to respond to climate change this initiative tackles the need for cross-sector collaboration and deep science to support our collective efforts. This is also aligned with IBMs commitment to provide our technology including AI and hybrid cloud to researchers, governments, institutions and other partners, to help rapidly advance climate research and create viable solutions to climate change.

We look forward to partnering with the city of New York and Stony Brook University to build this world-class climate center, ensuring the communities most impacted by climate change are at the heart of its solutions.

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Quantum computing is still in its infancy, but most experts expect it to reach transformational powers in the next decade, bringing massive technological revolution but also new opportunities for early movers.

In this episode,Mark Simpson(Partner, London) is joined by Elena Strbac (Global Head of Data Science Innovation, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking, Standard Chartered) and Peter Chapman (President and CEO, IonQ) to explore how and why the finance sector is gearing up for this monumental shift.

Content is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be construed as legal advice. This may qualify as "Attorney Advertising" requiring notice in some jurisdictions. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. For more information, please visit:www.bakermckenzie.com/en/client-resource-disclaimer.

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FInsight: Special Edition - Solutions for a Connected World ... - Lexology

The next generation of quantum devices requires high-coherence qubits that are less error-prone. Responding to this need, researchers at the Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT) at Berkeley Lab, a state-of-the-art collaborative research laboratory funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, developed a blueprint for a novel quantum processor based on fluxonium qubits. Fluxonium qubits can outperform the most widely used superconducting qubits, offering a promising path toward fault-tolerant universal quantum computing.

In collaboration with researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University, the AQT team pioneered a systematic theoretical study of how to engineer fluxonium qubits for higher performance while offering practical suggestions to adapt and build the cutting-edge hardware that will fully harness the potential of quantum computing. PRX Quantum published their results in August 2022.

Superconducting quantum processors consist of multiple qubits designed to have different transition frequencies facilitating precise control of individual qubits and their interactions. The transmon qubit, one of the most widely used in the field for superconducting processors, typically has low anharmonicity. Anharmonicity is the difference between relevant transition frequencies in a qubit. Low anharmonicity contributes to spectral crowding (when qubit frequencies are close to resonating with each other), making the processor more difficult to control since qubit frequencies are arranged tightly together. In contrast, high anharmonicity allows researchers to have better qubit control because theres less overlap between the frequencies that control the qubits and those that drive any given qubit to higher energy levels. The fluxonium qubit has inherent advantages for complex superconducting processors, such as high anharmonicity, long coherence times, and simple control.

Building on AQTs robust research and development history on superconducting circuits, the team leading the fluxonium-based architecture focused on the scalability and adaptability of the processors main components, with a set of parameters that researchers can tune to increase the runtime and fidelity of quantum circuits. Some of these adaptations allow simpler operation of the system. Researchers proposed, for example, controlling the fluxonium qubits at low frequency (1-GHz) via microwave pulses directly generated by an electrical arbitrary waveform generator. This straightforward approach allows researchers to design processors and set up multiple qubits flexibly.

Long B. Nguyen is a project scientist at AQT and the papers lead author. Nguyen started researching alternative superconducting qubits as a University of Maryland graduate student working with Professor Vladimir Manucharyan. Manucharyan introduced fluxonium qubits to the field just a decade earlier, and in 2019 Nguyen demonstrated the possible longer coherence times with fluxonium circuits. The fluxonium circuit is composed of three elements: a capacitor, a Josephson Junction, and a superinductor, which helps suppress magnetic flux noise a typical source of unwanted interference that affects superconducting qubits and causes decoherence.

I always wanted to study new physics, and I focused on fluxonium because it appeared to be a better alternative to the transmon at the time. It has three circuit elements that I could play with to get the type of spectra I wanted. It could be designed to evade decoherence due to material imperfections. I also recently realized that scaling up fluxonium is probably more favorable since the estimated fabrication yield is high, and the interactions between individual qubits can be engineered to have high-fidelity, explained Nguyen.

To estimate and validate the performance of the proposed fluxonium blueprint, the team at AQT, in collaboration with the papers researchers, simulated two types of programmable quantum logic gates the cross-resonance controlled-NOT (CNOT) and the differential ac-Stark controlled-Z (CZ). The high fidelities resulting from the gates simulation across the range of proposed qubit parameters validated the teams expectations for the suggested blueprint.

We provided a potential path towards building fluxonium processors with standard, practical procedures to deploy logic gates with varying frequencies. We hope that more R&D on fluxonium and superconducting qubit alternatives will bring about the next generation of devices for quantum information processing, said Nguyen.

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Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Labs facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science.

DOEs Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

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Innovating quantum computers with fluxonium processors - EurekAlert