WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Joe Bidens pick to lead the Pentagon warns the country is facing a series of enemies, both at home and abroad, and that it will fall, in part, to the United States military to overcome the dangers.

Retired General Lloyd Austin appeared before lawmakers Tuesday and said his first priority if confirmed as the countrys next secretary of defense would be to make sure all military resources are brought to bear against the coronavirus pandemic.

"The greatest challenge to our country right now ... is the pandemic," Austin told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wearing a suit and tie instead of the Army dress uniform he wore when he testified in Congress as the commander of U.S. military forces across the Middle East and South Asia.

"It's killed over 400,000 of our American citizens. That's just an incredible, incredible loss of life," he said. We have to do everything we can to break the cycle of transmission and begin to turn this thing around."

Austin did not offer specifics about how he would ramp up the Pentagons current efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccines as part of what has been known as Operation Warp Speed. But he said he does believe there is more the Pentagon can do to counter what he described as the most immediate national security challenge.

Countering extremism at home

Austin spoke shortly after U.S. defense officials announced 12 National Guard troops initially assigned to help provide security for Bidens inauguration Wednesday were removed due to extremist ties. Austin pledged to take on what he called the enemy within.

The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies, but we can't do that if some of those enemies lie with our own ranks," he said.

This [extremism] has no place in the military of the United States of America, Austin added, describing it as part of a broader battle.

I will fight hard to stamp out sexual assault and to rid our ranks of racists and extremists and to create a climate where everyone fit and willing has the opportunity to serve," he told U.S. lawmakers.

The 67-year-old Austin is a familiar face to many of the lawmakers who will vote on whether to confirm him, though his nomination is not without controversy.

U.S. law requires former active-duty military officers to be retired for seven years before they can serve as defense secretary a law meant to ensure civilian control of the military. But Austin retired just five years ago, stepping down as the leader of U.S. Central Command in 2016.

Waivers have been granted just twice, most recently in 2017 for retired General Jim Mattis, who served as outgoing President Donald Trumps first defense secretary.

On Tuesday, some lawmakers, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, told Austin they would not support a waiver. Cotton went as far as to call his support of a waiver for Mattis a mistake.

Austin said he understood the concerns about "having another recently retired general" take the reins at the Pentagon and promised, that if confirmed, the voices of civilian defense officials would be heard.

"The safety and security of our democracy demands competent civilian control of our armed forces," he said. "I have spent my entire life committed to that."

Like many of President-elect Bidens Cabinet selections, Austin focused on a change in course after four years under Trump and his America First policy.

Reaffirming alliances

Austin, in particular, noted the importance of the countrys military alliances, saying that one of his first trips would be to visit Japan, South Korea and Australia, key allies in the Indo-Pacific, where competition with China is heating up.

China is the most concerning competitor that we're facing," he said.

"Their goal is to be a dominant world power," Austin added. We have to make sure that we begin to check their aggression."

The retired general promised lawmakers a laser-like focus on making sure the U.S. maintains a competitive edge over the growing Chinese military, though he said to do so will require investment in new technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing areas in which China has been closing the gap.

Austin said Russia, long viewed as Washingtons other key adversary in what Trump officials have described as an era of great power competition, remains a concern but not in the same way as Beijing.

"Russia is also a threat but it's in decline," he said, warning Moscow can still do "a great deal of damage" in cyberspace, like with the SolarWinds hack, and with influence operations.

In addition to Russia and China, lawmakers questioned Austin about the incoming Biden administrations position on Iran and talk the U.S. might seek to rejoin the so-called Iran nuclear deal.

Iran - a destabilizing element

Austin indicated any reentry to the nuclear deal would require movement by Tehran.

The preconditions for us considering to reenter into that agreement would be that Iran meet the conditions outlined in the agreement back to where they should have been," Austin said.

And while the former CENTCOM commander said while the Trump administrations successful efforts to help normalize ties between Israel and Arab countries in the region may be helping put additional pressure on the regime, the danger remains.

"Iran continues to be a destabilizing element," Austin told lawmakers. [Iran] does present a threat to our partners in the region and those forces that we have stationed in the region."

As for Afghanistan, where a Trump administration drawdown has left just 2,500 U.S. troops, Austin expressed a cautious hope.

"This conflict needs to come to an end. We need to see an agreement reached," he said.

If confirmed by the Senate, the former four-star general would be the first African American to serve as defense secretary.

Originally posted here:
Defense Secretary Nominee: US Faces Enemies Both at Home and Abroad - Voice of America

An IBM patent shows a hexagonal array of qubits in a quantum computer, arranged to minimize problems controlling the finicky data processing elements.

IBM secured 9,130 US patents in 2020, more than any other company as measured by an annual ranking, and this year quantum computing showed up as part of Big Blue's research effort. The company wouldn't disclose how many of the patents were related to quantum computing -- certainly fewer than the 2,300 it received for artificial intelligence work and 3,000 for cloud computing -- but it's clear the company sees them as key to the future of computing.

The IFI Claims patent monitoring service compiles the list annually, and IBM is a fixture at the top. The IBM Research division, with labs around the globe, has for decades invested in projects that are far away from commercialization. Even though the work doesn't always pay dividends, it's produced Nobel prizes and led to entire industries like hard drives, computer memory and database software.

Get the latest tech stories with CNET Daily News every weekday.

"A lot of the work we do in R&D really is not just about the number of patents, but a way of thinking," Jerry Chow, director of quantum hardware system development, said in an exclusive interview. "New ideas come out of it."

IFI's US patent list is dominated by computer technology companies. Second place went to Samsung with 6,415 patents, followed by Canon with 3,225, Microsoft with 2,905 and Intel with 2,867. Next on the list are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., LG, Apple, Huawei and Qualcomm. The first non-computing company is Toyota, in 14th place.

Internationally, IBM ranked second to Samsung in patents for 2020, and industrial companies Bosch and General Electric cracked the top 10. Many patents are duplicative internationally since it's possible to file for a single patent in 153 countries.

Quantum computing holds the potential to tackle computing problems out of reach of conventional computers. During a time when it's getting harder to improve ordinary microprocessors, quantum computers could pioneer new high-tech materials for solar panels and batteries, improve chemical processes, speed up package delivery, make factories more efficient and lower financial risks for investors.

Industrywide, quantum computing is a top research priority, with dozens of companies investing millions of dollars even though most don't expect a payoff for years. The US government is bolstering that effort with a massive multilab research effort. It's even become a headline event at this year's CES, a conference that more typically focuses on new TVs, laptops and other consumer products.

"Tactical and strategic funding is critical" to quantum computing's success, said Hyperion Research analyst Bob Sorensen. That's because, unlike more mature technologies, there's not yet any virtuous cycle where profits from today's quantum computing products and services fund the development of tomorrow's more capable successors.

IBM has taken a strong early position in quantum computing, but it's too early to pick winners in the market, Sorensen added.

The long-term goal is what's called a fault tolerant quantum computer, one that uses error correction to keep calculations humming even when individual qubits, the data processing element at the heart of quantum computers, are perturbed. In the nearer term, some customers like financial services giant JPMorgan Chase, carmaker Daimler and aerospace company Airbus are investing in quantum computing work today with the hope that it'll pay off later.

Quantum computing is complicated to say the least, but a few patents illustrate what's going on in IBM's labs.

Patent No. 10,622,536 governs different lattices in which IBM lays out its qubits. Today's 27-qubit "Falcon" quantum computers use this approach, as do the newer 65-qubit "Hummingbird" machines and the much more powerful 1,121-qubit "Condor" systems due in 2023.

A close-up view of an IBM quantum computer. The processor is in the silver-colored cylinder.

IBM's lattices are designed to minimize "crosstalk," in which a control signal for one qubit ends up influencing others, too. That's key to IBM's ability to manufacture working quantum processors and will become more important as qubit counts increase, letting quantum computers tackle harder problems and incorporate error correction, Chow said.

Patent No. 10,810,665 governs a higher-level quantum computing application for assessing risk -- a key part of financial services companies figuring out how to invest money. The more complex the options being judged, the slower the computation, but the IBM approach still outpaces classical computers.

Patent No. 10,599,989 describes a way of speeding up some molecular simulations, a key potential promise of quantum computers, by finding symmetries in molecules that can reduce computational complexity.

More comprehensible is patent No. 10,614,370, which describes quantum computing as a service. Because quantum computers typically must be supercooled to within a hair's breadth of absolute zero to avoid perturbing the qubits, and require spools of complicated wiring, most quantum computing customers are likely to tap into online services from companies like IBM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft that offer access to their own carefully managed machines.

See original here:
Quantum computing research helps IBM win top spot in patent race - CNET

In a surprising discovery, Princeton physicists have observed an unexpected quantum behavior in an insulator made from a material called tungsten ditelluride. This phenomenon, known as quantum oscillation, is typically observed in metals rather than insulators, and its discovery offers new insights into our understanding of the quantum world. The findings also hint at the existence of an entirely new type of quantum particle.

The discovery challenges a long-held distinction between metals and insulators, because in the established quantum theory of materials, insulators were not thought to be able to experience quantum oscillations.

If our interpretations are correct, we are seeing a fundamentally new form of quantum matter, said Sanfeng Wu, assistant professor of physics at Princeton University and the senior author of a recent paper in Nature detailing this new discovery. We are now imagining a wholly new quantum world hidden in insulators. Its possible that we simply missed identifying them over the last several decades.

The observation of quantum oscillations has long been considered a hallmark of the difference between metals and insulators. In metals, electrons are highly mobile, and resistivity the resistance to electrical conduction is weak. Nearly a century ago, researchers observed that a magnetic field, coupled with very low temperatures, can cause electrons to shift from a classical state to a quantum state, causing oscillations in the metals resistivity. In insulators, by contrast, electrons cannot move and the materials have very high resistivity, so quantum oscillations of this sort are not expected to occur, no matter the strength of magnetic field applied.

The discovery was made when the researchers were studying a material called tungsten ditelluride, which they made into a two-dimensional material. They prepared the material by using standard scotch tape to increasingly exfoliate, or shave, the layers down to what is called a monolayer a single atom-thin layer. Thick tungsten ditelluride behaves like a metal. But once it is converted to a monolayer, it becomes a very strong insulator.

This material has a lot of special quantum properties, Wu said.

The researchers then set about measuring the resistivity of the monolayer tungsten ditelluride under magnetic fields. To their surprise, the resistivity of the insulator, despite being quite large, began to oscillate as the magnetic field was increased, indicating the shift into a quantum state. In effect, the material a very strong insulator was exhibiting the most remarkable quantum property of a metal.

This came as a complete surprise, Wu said. We asked ourselves, Whats going on here? We dont fully understand it yet.

Wu noted that there are no current theories to explain this phenomenon.

Nonetheless, Wu and his colleagues have put forward a provocative hypothesis a form of quantum matter that is neutrally charged. Because of very strong interactions, the electrons are organizing themselves to produce this new kind of quantum matter, Wu said.

But it is ultimately no longer the electrons that are oscillating, said Wu. Instead, the researchers believe that new particles, which they have dubbed neutral fermions, are born out of these strongly interacting electrons and are responsible for creating this highly remarkable quantum effect.

Fermions are a category of quantum particles that include electrons. In quantum materials, charged fermions can be negatively charged electrons or positively charged holes that are responsible for the electrical conduction. Namely, if the material is an electrical insulator, these charged fermions cant move freely. However, particles that are neutral that is, neither negatively nor positively charged are theoretically possible to be present and mobile in an insulator.

Our experimental results conflict with all existing theories based on charged fermions, said Pengjie Wang, co-first author on the paper and postdoctoral research associate, but could be explained in the presence of charge-neutral fermions.

The Princeton team plans further investigation into the quantum properties of tungsten ditelluride. They are particularly interested in discovering whether their hypothesis about the existence of a new quantum particle is valid.

This is only the starting point, Wu said. If were correct, future researchers will find other insulators with this surprising quantum property.

Despite the newness of the research and the tentative interpretation of the results, Wu speculated about how this phenomenon could be put to practical use.

Its possible that neutral fermions could be used in the future for encoding information that would be useful in quantum computing, he said. In the meantime, though, were still in the very early stages of understanding quantum phenomena like this, so fundamental discoveries have to be made.

Reference: Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator by Pengjie Wang, Guo Yu, Yanyu Jia, Michael Onyszczak, F. Alexandre Cevallos, Shiming Lei, Sebastian Klemenz, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Robert J. Cava, Leslie M. Schoop and Sanfeng Wu, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9

In addition to Wu and Wang, the team included co-first authors Guo Yu, a graduate student in electrical engineering, and Yanyu Jia, a graduate student in physics. Other key Princeton contributors were Leslie Schoop, assistant professor of chemistry; Robert Cava, the Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry; Michael Onyszczak, a physics graduate student; and three former postdoctoral research associates: Shiming Lei, Sebastian Klemenz and F. Alexandre Cevallos, who is also a 2018 Princeton Ph.D. alumnus. Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Material Science in Japan also contributed.

Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator, by Pengjie Wang, Guo Yu, Yanyu Jia, Michael Onyszczak, F. Alexandre Cevallos, Shiming Lei, Sebastian Klemenz, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Robert J. Cava, Leslie M. Schoop, and Sanfeng Wu, was published Jan. 4 in the journal Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9).

This work was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Princeton University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-1420541 and DMR-2011750) and a CAREER award (DMR-1942942). Early measurements were performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by an NSF Cooperative Agreement (DMR-1644779), and the State of Florida. Additional support came from the Elemental Strategy Initiative conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (JPMXP0112101001), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences KAKENHI program (JP20H00354) and the Japan Science and Technology Agencys CREST program (JPMJCR15F3). Further support came from the U.S. Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative on Topological Insulators (W911NF1210461), the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation through a Beckman Young Investigator grant, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF9064).

Read the rest here:
Surprising Discovery of Unexpected Quantum Behavior in Insulators Suggests Existence of Entirely New Type of Particle - SciTechDaily

Dell Technologies have presented what they think about the year 2021 in terms of technologies and the companys view and strategy towards said elements.

For the main discussions, they have shared their insights, analytics, and predictions for the top 4 emerging technologies of 2021, namely quantum computing, silicon chips, 5G, multi-cloud edge solutions.

For starters, the company recognizes the existence and ability of quantum computing but it is not yet practical at least for a couple of years and it should be positioned as an augmentation of conventional computing such as an addition of a new tier towards the highest point of a pyramid hierarchy. They are also impressed by the fact that the cryptography sector has finally met its real challenger in terms of pure brute force speed and have started investing R&D resources to refine modern-day security solutions to match them. Recommendation wise, they are encouraging the development of a simulator and language tailored specifically for quantum computing to train and produce sufficient experts in the future.

Onto semiconductors, they have seen global leaders such as Apple, Intel, and AMD all made their own moves of incorporating their own heterogeneous architectures such as big.LITTLE in their processors one way or another and with NVIDIA purchasing ARM and AMD getting its hands on Xylinx, Dell Technologies are pretty sure future servers are going to follow suit and similar architectures as well, focusing on software modernization, integration platform in conjunction with the silicon chip itself.

The enterprise use of 5G also stemmed the organizations interest as they have predicted that the new standards will really take off during this year as true SA-5G specifications such as mMTC, UR-LLC and MEC provide the groundwork for telecommunications parties to learn, adapt and deploy them in both public and private use cases. Software solutions providers such as Dell Technologies themselves, Microsoft, and more will chime in to continuously refine 5G to be open yet standardized.

Finally, multi-cloud assimilation will solve the issue of edge proliferation which is the excessive independent edge system that currently existed in the ecosystem by clearly classifying resource pools and workload extensions into 2 unique individual categories. In a simpler sense, more workloads and resources targeting public clouds and SaaS edges will involve more logical partitioning compared to the past.

Amit Midha, President of the APAC and Japan region, also added that the entire world is slowly shifting its focus to Asia in terms of business and the technology it carries along and forward into the future. Discussing the companys progress for the social impact aimed for the year 2030 with 9 years to go, they are in the driver seat to achieve a 1:1 ratio of using recycled materials for manufacturing and gender representation for its employees alongside affecting more than 1 billion of lives for a greater good.

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Find out what Dell Technologies has to say about quantum computing, 5G and more for this year - Nasi Lemak Tech

Abu Dhabi Universitys (ADU) Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering in the College of Engineering (CoE), Dr. Montasir Qasymeh, has received a U.S. patent registered under 10,824,048 B2 to develop a first-of-its-kind device that will be capable of connecting superconducting quantum computers over significant distances.

Superconducting quantum computers are the extraordinary computers of the future that will surpass all current ones - and achieve ultrasensitive sensing and unattackable quantum communication networks. Unlike todays conventional computers, quantum computers can process huge amounts of data and perform computations in powerful new ways that were never possible before. Potential applications of quantum computing include accelerating innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning and tackling future cybersecurity challenges.

Dr. Qasymehs device is composed of graphene; a substance that has been hailed as a miracle material due to its electrical properties and the fact that it is the worlds thinnest and second strongest material. Graphene has already innovated the technology sector and is being applied today to laptops, smartphones and headphones. Dr. Qasymeh has been working with graphene for the past seven years and has numerous publications that have studied this substance. The device converts a quantum microwave signal containing data to a laser beam using properly design graphene layers that are electrically connected and subjected to a laser pump.

Dr. Montasir Qasymeh said: I am humbled and honored to be granted this U.S. patent. This invention will advance the field of quantum computing in the UAE taking us one step further towards the quantum age.

He also added: The coming era is an era of knowledge wealth, that brings with it the opportunity to advance all of humankind. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Abu Dhabi University for supporting this project and providing my team with access to its purpose-built academic facilities. I am proud and grateful for Abu Dhabi Universitys continued investment in research.

Dr. Hamdi Sheibani, Dean of the College of Engineering at ADU commented: We are extremely proud of yet another accomplishment from Dr. Montasir Qasymeh. This U.S. patent for one of our professors is evidence of ADUs culture of innovation and our continued commitment to the UAE Governments National Agenda to diversify our economy and strengthen our research and innovation sector. The College of Engineering at Abu Dhabi University is committed to supporting educators who serve as role models and mentors to their students and peers by leading with example through their teachings and projects.

The project was developed with the funding of two important grants: the ADEK Award for Research Excellence grant, which was awarded for the research proposal Graphene-Based Modulator for Passive Transmission and White Light Communications from the Ministry of Education; and the Takamul grant from the Department of Economic Development, which was awarded for patent filling.

Dr. Qasymeh received a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada in 2010. From 2010 to 2011, he was Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellow at the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory, University of Ottawa, Canada. He joined Abu Dhabi University in 2011, where he continues to teach. With over 10 years of experience in the education and research industry, he has published more than 40 articles in reputed refereed journals and international conferences and has led on 4 U.S. patents (1 Issued and 3 pending). He has attracted a significant amount of research funding (approximately AED 1.8 million) including 2 ADEK awards for research excellence.

During his tenure with Abu Dhabi University, Dr. Qasymeh has taught more than 17 different undergraduate and graduate courses. He is an active member of several national and international scientific committees and is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the worlds largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology. He is currently working on topics that include novel terahertz waveguides, room temperature quantum devices and ultrafast modulators.

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ADU Professor Receives Us Patent for a First-of-Its-Kind Hybrid Device Set To Advance the Field of Quantum Computing - Al-Bawaba

Fort Collins, Colorado Report on Quantum Computing Market effectively provides key characteristics of the global investment market, population analysis, companies planning mergers and acquisitions, and concerned or new vendors in the review of research institutes reputable global markets. The Quantum Computing Report by QY Research describes the comprehensive market study covering overview, production, manufacturers, dimensions, revenue, price, consumption, growth rate, sales, import, sourcing, export, future plans and technological advancement for the detailed study of the Quantum Computing Market. Although it allows inexpensive reports readily available, tailor-made research by a team of experts. This report primarily focuses on the consumer and retail sectors.

Global Quantum Computing Market was valued at 193.68 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD1379.67 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 30.02% from 2020 to 2027.

The Quantum Computing Market report comprises various chapters listing the participants which are playing a significant role in the global Quantum Computing Market growth. This section of the report displays the statistics of major players in the international market, including company profile, product specification, market share, and production value. The main type of segmentation mentioned in this report is a commercial and residential category. Based on the extensive historical data a well thought out study on the estimated period for the good expansion of Quantum Computing market globally is produced.

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Consulting solutions Systems

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Machine Learning Optimization Material Simulation

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Split the breakdown data by region, type, manufacturer, and application. Identify trends, drivers, and key influencing factors around the world and in the regions Analysis and study of global Quantum Computing status and future forecast, including production, sales, consumption, history, and forecast. Analysis of the potential and advantage, opportunities and challenges, limitations, and risks of the global market and key regions. Analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, product launches, and acquisitions in the market. Introducing the major Quantum Computing manufacturers, production, sales, market share, and recent developments.

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Quantum Computing Market Size 2021 By Analysis, Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, and Forecasts to 2027 - Jumbo News

As fledgling technology goes, quantum computing sounds as science fiction as it gets. Most people have likely not even heard about it, let alone think it can be used for anything immediately useful.

But if IBM fulfills a very bold promise it made in September, crop producers will see the fruits of this technology in a very tangible way within the next five years.

By using quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the process, IBM researchers are confident they can revolutionize the production of nitrogen fertilizer.

Basically, for every ton of fertilizer produced, we consume one ton of fossil fuel, Teo Laino, manager of IBM Research Zurich, said in an email interview.

We are working to identify and develop materials that will make the conversion of nitrogen into fertilizers happen in a more environmental and sustainable way.

If successful, this could mean lower nutrient costs for producers and given growing concerns about greenhouse gases produce a major PR win for the ag industry, as well.

IBMs goal is to improve the Haber-Bosch process (which turns nitrogen gas into nitrates) in a very fundamental way. This process, created by two German chemists more than a century ago, is both one of the greatest advances in agriculture and one of its biggest challenges.

Fertilizers have helped to sustain two times more people on Earth (than otherwise), said Laino.

(But) this process is consuming nearly two to three per cent of the global energy production on a yearly basis.

The impact of the current process has brought the population to the verge of a sustainability crisis.

This is what prompted the global technology giant to pledge that it would use its quantum computing and AI capability to fundamentally improve the Haber-Bosch process.

We will need to discover new processes that have a greater respect for the environment and the planet, he said. This will also have benefits for the primary producers less impact to the environment means less disaster events related to climate.

This effort to find a much less energy-intensive way to make fertilizer in five years is tremendously exciting, said University of Manitoba soil scientist Mario Tenuta, one of the countrys leading experts on fertilizer use and the senior Canada research chair in 4R nutrient management.

(IBM is) not thinking about making a widget its thinking about making something thats going to change the structure of our industrial processes and get us closer to where we need to go in terms of living and sustaining our presence here, he said.

IBMs specific goal is to find a new catalyst for the Haber-Bosch process a seemingly small thing but one with huge implications. (A catalyst is a substance that makes a chemical reaction proceed much more quickly without being consumed in the reaction.)

Making nitrogen fertilizer requires, not surprisingly, nitrogen. Theres plenty out there (it makes up 78 per cent of the air we breathe), but plants can only use it in its fixed form. In nature, that means it must be harvested from the atmosphere by micro-organisms to form ammonia, nitrites and nitrates which help plants grow.

IBMs bid to greatly reduce the amount of energy needed to make fertilizer would have a huge advance for agriculture, says Mario Tenuta, a University of Manitoba soil scientist and one of the countrys top experts on fertilizer use.photo: Supplied

Legumes can do this, but to do it on an industrial scale with the Haber-Bosch process requires very high temperatures, and hence lots of energy. For decades, researchers have tried to engineer a better catalyst that would reduce the energy needed to produce ammonia through the Haber-Bosch process, but identifying one has been problematic. There are virtually endless combinations of materials to sort through and processing all of them has proven itself beyond the capacity of both humans and traditional computers.

Thats where quantum computing comes in.

Quantum computers are exponentially faster than even the largest mainframe computers. The simplest explanation is instead of encoding information in bits that exist in a binary state of either 1 or 0, they use qubits that exist in states of both 1 and 0 simultaneously. Youd probably need a PhD in quantum physics to understand much more, but it is this state of superposition that makes quantum computing so fast.

IBM researchers plan to extract the materials quantum computers identify as possible catalysts and then with the help of AI construct, test and validate predictive models that could make a more energy-efficient fertilizer production process possible.

We use an entire ecosystem of technologies, from AI to tackle sustainable goal challenges to quantum computing, which isan important part of accelerating the scientific discovery process, said Laino. We currently use quantum computing to address several important chemical challenges in these processes.

Meanwhile, we study how to solve more holistic problems while making progress on a road map that is bringing us closer to running bigger solutions on larger quantum computing hardware.

If all is successful, the next step would be to scale the process.

The company foresees the use of fuel cells that would work like a reverse battery. Basically, instead of storing energy, fuel cells would use energy from renewable sources to combine nitrogen from the atmosphere and hydrogen from water to produce ammonia. The catalytic molecules identified by the technology would be used to lower the amount of energy needed to sustain the nitrogen fixation process.

While this would be a good thing overall, what would it actually mean for crop farmers trying to keep their input costs down?

Basic economics dictate that a less energy-intensive process for making fertilizer should mean savings for fertilizer companies (less energy equals less cost), with those savings theoretically passed on to the producer.

However, there are still some unknown factors at play, particularly when it comes to the kind of energy that will fuel fertilizer production, said Tenuta.

With IBMs focus on using renewables such as solar and hydro as fuel for the production process, how much farmers would wind up paying for the end product is anyones guess, he said.

I am personally expecting that by 2050 our reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source is going to be in the minoritycompared to renewables, he said. You just dont know what the cost of those renewables is going to be down the road.

That said, Tenuta believes the fact that IBM is looking for this catalyst using in-reach technology is itself remarkable.

And who knows where that might lead, he said, adding it might even allow fertilizer to be made on farms.

Maybe a really good catalyst will ensure there is no difference between a factory and a farmers yard, said Tenuta. You would still think that (production) would be more efficient in a big factory than making it at a small scale, but who knows?

Read more here:
A fertilizer revolution is on the horizon - Alberta Express

Quantum computing is emerging as a subfield of quantum information science. This technology has already started attracting interest from researchers and technology companies with almost feverish excitement and activity. Companies have even begun racing to achieve quantum supremacy. In 2019, Google officially announced that it achieved quantum supremacy. Quantum computing promises great potential in diverse areas, including medical research, financial modeling, traffic optimization, artificial intelligence, weather forecasting, and more.

Quantum computing can be a ground-breaking technology for cybersecurity, enabling companies to improve their cybersecurity strategies. It will help detect and deflect quantum computing-based attacks before they cause harm to groups and individuals.

Quantum cybersecurity is the field of study of all aspects affecting the security and privacy of communications and computations owing to the development of quantum technologies. Quantum computers are likely to solve problems that cannot be done by traditional computers, such as solving the algorithms behind encryption keys that safeguard data and the internets infrastructure. Moreover, as most of todays encryption relies heavily on mathematical formulas that would take impractically much time to decode using todays computers, a quantum computer can easily factor those formulas and break the code.

Over 20 years ago, Peter Shor, an MIT professor of applied mathematics, developed a quantum algorithm that could easily factor large numbers far more quickly than a conventional computer. Since then, scientists have been working on developing quantum computers that can break asymmetric encryption.

The development of large quantum computers could have calamitous consequences for cybersecurity. In this context, thinking quantum cybersecurity solutions will be an advantageous edge. Quantum cybersecurity can pave more robust and compelling opportunities for the security of critical and personal data. It will particularly be useful in quantum machine learning and quantum random number generation, as noted byIBM.

The pace of quantum research undoubtedly continues to accelerate in the years ahead. But it will also pose challenges and vulnerabilities to mission-critical information needed to retain its secrecy. Adapting to advanced cryptography to address these threats could be an obvious solution. The quantum cryptography approach is based on creating algorithms that are hard to break even for quantum computers. This approach can also work with conventional computers.

Another security approach against quantum computing attacks is lattice-based cryptography. Conventional cryptographic algorithms can be replaced with lattice-based algorithms that are designed with proven security. These new algorithms can conceal data inside complex math problems called lattices. Google already has begun testing post-quantum cryptography methods that integrate lattice-based algorithms. According to IBM researcher Cecilia Boschini, lattice-based cryptography will prevent future quantum computing-based attacks and form a basis for Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) that makes it possible for users to perform calculations on a file without seeing the data or revealing it to hackers. The NSA, NIST, and other governmental agencies are also starting to invest in this developing method.

Moreover, according to aForbes article, quantum computing can transform cybersecurity in four areas: quantum random number generation is fundamental to cryptography; quantum-secure communications, specifically quantum key distribution (QKD); post-quantum cryptography, and quantum machine learning.

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The Promise and Impact of Quantum Computing on Cybersecurity - Analytics Insight

Scientists at the Freie Universitt Berlin have come up with an AI-based solution for calculating the ground state of the Schrdinger equation in quantum chemistry.

The Schrdingers equation is primarily used to predict the chemical and physical properties of a molecule based on the arrangement of its atoms. The equation helps determine where the electrons and nuclei of a molecule are and under a given set of conditions what their energies are.

The equation has the same central importance as Newtons law motion, which can predict an objects position at a particular moment, but in quantum mechanics that is in atoms or subatomic particles.

The article describes how the neural network developed by the scientists at the Freie Universitt Berlin brings more accuracy in solving the Schrdingers equation and what does this mean for the future.

In principle, the Schrdingers equation can be solved to predict the exact location of atoms or subatomic particles in a molecule, but in practice, this is extremely difficult since it involves a lot of approximation.

Central to the equation is a mathematical object, a wave function that specifies electrons behaviour in a molecule. But the high dimensionality of the wave function makes it extremely difficult to find out how electrons affect each other. Thus the most you get from the mathematical representations is a probabilistic account of it and not exact answers.

This limits the accuracy with which we can find properties of a molecule like the configuration, conformation, size, and shape, which can help define the wave function. The process becomes so complex that it becomes impossible to implement the equation beyond a few atoms.

Replacing the mathematical building blocks, the scientists at Freie Universitt Berlin came up with a deep neural network that is capable of learning the complex patterns of how electrons are located around the nuclei.

The scientists developed a Deep Neural Networks (DNN) model, PauliNet, that has several advantages over conventional methods to study quantum systems like the Quantum Monte Carlo or other classical quantum chemistry methods.

The DNN model developed by these scientists is highly flexible and allows for a variational approach that can aid accurate calculation of electronic properties beyond the electronic energies.

Secondly, it also helps the easy calculation of many-body and more-complex correlation with fewer determinants, reducing the need for higher computation power. The model mainly helped solve a major tradeoff issue between accuracy and computational cost, often faced while solving the Schrodinger equation.

The model can also calculate the local energy of heavy nuclei like heavy metals without using pseudo-potentials or approximations.

Lastly, the model developed in the study has anti-symmetry functions and other principles crucial to electronic wave functions integrated into the DNN model, rather than let the model learn. Thus, building fundamental physics in the model has helped it make meaningful and accurate predictions.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has helped solve many scientific problems that otherwise seemed impossible using traditional methods.

AI has become instrumental in anticipating the results of experiments or simulations of quantum systems, especially due to its sciences complex nature. In 2018, reinforcement learning was used to design new quantum experiments in automated laboratories autonomously.

Recent efforts by the University of Warwick and another IBM and DeepMind have also tried to solve the Schrdingers equation. However, PauliNet, with its greater accuracy of solving the equation now, presents us with a potential to use it in many real-life applications.

Understanding molecules composition can help accelerate drug-discovery, which earlier was difficult due to the approximations to understand its properties.

Similarly, it could also help discover several other elements or metamaterials like new catalysts, industrial chemical applications, new pesticides, among others. It can be used in characterising molecules that are synthesised in laboratories.

Several academic and commercial software use Schrdingers equation at the core but are based on applications. The accuracy of this software will improve. Quantum computing in itself is based on quantum phenomena of superposition and is made up of qubits that take advantage of the principle. Quantum computing performance will improve as qubits will be able to be measured faster.

While the current study has come up with a faster, cheaper, and accurate solution, there are many challenges to overcome before it is industry-ready.

However, once it is ready, the world will witness many applications as a result of greater accuracy in solving Schrdingers equation.

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AI Helps Solve Schrdinger's Equation What Does The Future Hold? - Analytics India Magazine

In 2011, the movie "Contagion" eerily predicted what a future world fighting a deadly pandemic would look like. In 2020, I, along with hundreds of thousands of people around the world, saw this Hollywood prediction play out by being diagnosed with COVID-19. It was a frightening year by any measure, as every person was impacted in unique ways.

Having been involved in the development of the Internet in the 1970s, Ive seen first-hand the impact of technology on peoples lives. We are now seeing another major milestone in our lifetimethe development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

What the"Contagion" didnt show is what happens after a vaccine is developed. Now, as we enter 2021, and with the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine being administered, a return to normal feels within reach. But what will our return to normal look like really? Here are threepredictions for 2021.

1. Continuous and episodic Internet of Medical Things monitoring devices will prove popular for remote medical diagnosis. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the practice of clinical medicine at least in the parts of the world where Internet access is widely available and at high enough speeds to support video conferencing. A video consult is often the only choice open to patients short of going to a hospital when outpatient care is insufficient. Video-medicine is unsatisfying in the absence of good clinical data (temperature, blood pressure, pulse for example). The consequence is that health monitoring and measurement devices are increasingly valued to support remote medical diagnosis.

My Prediction: While the COVID-19 pandemic persists into 2021, demand for remote monitoring and measurement will increase. In the long run, this will lead to periodic and continuous monitoring and alerting for a wide range of chronic medical conditions. Remote medicine and early warning health prediction will in turn help citizens save on health care costs and improve and further extend life expectancy.

2. Cities will (finally) adopt self-driving cars. Self-driving cars are anything but new, having emerged from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Grand Challenge in 2004. Sixteen years later, many companies are competing to make this a reality but skeptics around this technology remain.

My Prediction: In the COVID-19 aftermath, I predict driverless car service will grow in 2021 as people will opt for rides that minimize exposure to drivers and self-clean after every passenger. More cities and states will embrace driverless technology to accommodate changing transportation and public transportation preferences.

3. A practical quantum computation will be demonstrated. In 2019, Google reported that it had demonstrated an important quantum supremacy milestone by showing a computation in minutes that would have taken a conventional computer thousands of years to complete. The computation, however, did not solve any particular practical problem.

My Prediction: In the intervening period, progress has been made and it seems likely that by 2021, we will see some serious application of quantum computing to solve one or more optimization problems in mechanical design, logistics scheduling or resource allocation that would be impractical with conventional supercomputing.

Despite the challenges 2020 presented, it also unlocked some opportunities like leapfrogging with tech adoption. My hope is that the public sector sustains the speed for innovation and development to unlock even greater advancements in the year ahead.

Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. Cerf has held positions at MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, Stanford University, UCLA and IBM. Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and was founding president of the Internet Society. He served on the U.S. National Science Board from 2013-2018.

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The Year Ahead: 3 Predictions From the 'Father of the Internet' Vint Cerf - Nextgov

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 6, 2021 Harris-Stowe State University has announced a multi-million dollar collaboration with IBM on a comprehensive program designed to develop diverse and high demand skill sets that align with industry needs and trends so both students and faculty can develop the skills they need today for the jobs of tomorrow.

IBM and Harris-Stowe State University are building on the need to advance digital skills in education and are dedicated to providing future focused curriculum and educational tools to help train the diverse workforce of tomorrow in fast-growing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, data science, cybersecurity, cloud and quantum.

Harris-Stowe State University is thrilled to collaborate with IBM to provide greater access to skills and training in the tech industry, said Dr. Corey S. Bradford, Sr., president of Harris-Stowe State University. As the world, more than ever relies on the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to solve grand societal challenges, Harris-Stowe must continue to develop well prepared and ready graduates to join the STEM workforce. This collaboration is yet another example of our commitment to supporting student and faculty development and assisting in preparing students to compete and lead globally.

The collaboration extends IBMs recent investment in technology, assets, resources and skills development with HBCUs across the United States through the IBM Skills Academy and enhanced IBM Academic Initiative.

Equal access to skills and jobs is the key to unlocking economic opportunity and prosperity for diverse populations, said Valinda Scarbro Kennedy, HBCU Program Lead, IBM Global University Programs. As we announced earlier this fall, IBM is deeply committed to helping HBCU students build their skills to better prepare for the future of work. Through this collaboration, Harris-Stowe State University students will have an opportunity to gain modern skills in emerging technologies across hybrid cloud, quantum and AI so they can be better prepared for the future of work in the digital economy.

As part of its multi-year Global University Programs, which include the IBM Academic Initiative and the IBM Skills Academy, IBM is providing more than $100M in assets, faculty training, pre-built and maintained curriculum content, hands on labs, use cases, digital badges and software to participating HBCUs. The IBM Academic Initiative provides access to resources at no-charge for teaching, learning and non-commercial research with recent enhancements including access to guest lectures. The IBM Skills Academy is a comprehensive, integrated program through an education portal designed to create a foundation of diverse and high demand skill sets that directly correlate to what students will need in the workplace. The learning tracks address topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain, data science and quantum computing.

IBMs investment in HBCUs like Harris-Stowe State University is part of the companys dedicated work to promote social justice and racial equality by creating equitable, innovative experiences for HBCU students to acquire the necessary skills to help unlock economic opportunity and prosperity.

About IBM

IBM is a global leader in business transformation, serving clients in more than 170 countries around the world with open hybrid cloud and AI technology. For more information, please visit here.

About Harris-Stowe State University

Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU), located in midtown St. Louis offers the most affordable bachelors degree in the state of Missouri. The University is a fully accredited four-year institution with more than 50 majors, minors and certificate programs in education, business and arts and sciences. Harris-Stowes mission is to provide outstanding educational opportunities for individuals seeking a rich and engaging academic experience. HSSUs programs are designed to nurture intellectual curiosity and build authentic skills that prepare students for leadership roles in a global society.

Source: IBM

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IBM Provides Harris-Stowe State University with $2M in AI, Cloud Resources for Student Skill Building - HPCwire

A multinational team of researchers has developed a photonic processor that uses light instead of electronics and could help usher in a new dawn in computing.

Current computing relies on electrical current passed through circuitry on ever-smaller chips, but in recent years this technology has been bumping up against its physical limits.

To facilitate the next generation of computation-hungry technology such as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles, researchers have been searching for new methods to process and store data that circumvent those limits, and photonic processors are the obvious candidate.

Funding boost for UK quantum computing

Featuring scientists from the Universities of Oxford, Mnster, Exeter, Pittsburgh, cole Polytechnique Fdrale (EPFL) and IBM Research Europe, the team developed a new approach and processor architecture.

The photonic prototype essentially combines processing and data storage functionalities onto a single chip so-called in-memory processing, but using light.

Light-based processors for speeding up tasks in the field of machine learning enable complex mathematical tasks to be processed at high speeds and throughputs, said Mnster Universitys Wolfram Pernice, one of the professors who led the research.

This is much faster than conventional chips which rely on electronic data transfer, such as graphic cards or specialised hardware like TPUs [Tensor Processing Unit].

Led by Pernice, the team combined integrated photonic devices with phase-change materials (PCMs) to deliver super-fast, energy-efficient matrix-vector (MV) multiplications. MV multiplications underpin much of modern computing from AI to machine learning and neural network processing and the imperative to carry out such calculations at ever-increasing speeds, but with lower energy consumption, is driving the development of a whole new class of processor chips, so-called tensor processing units (TPUs).

The team developed a new type of photonic TPU capable of carrying out multiple MV multiplications simultaneously and in parallel. This was facilitated by using a chip-based frequency comb as a light source, which enabled the team to use multiple wavelengths of light to do parallel calculations since light has the property of having different colours that do not interfere.

Our study is the first to apply frequency combs in the field of artificially neural networks, said Tobias Kippenberg, Professor at EPFL

The frequency comb provides a variety of optical wavelengths which are processed independently of one another in the same photonic chip.

Described in Nature, the photonic processor is part of a new wave of light-based computing that could fundamentally reshape the digital world and prompt major advances in a range of areas, from AI and neural networks to medical diagnosis.

Our results could have a wide range of applications, said Prof Harish Bhaskaran from the University of Oxford.

A photonic TPU could quickly and efficiently process huge data sets used for medical diagnoses, such as those from CT, MRI and PET scanners.

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Photonic processor heralds new computing era | The Engineer The Engineer - The Engineer