Daily Archives: February 11, 2022

Germany Expands its Quantum Computing Roadmap with QuaST

By Carolyn Mathas

Germany aims to become a leader in quantum technologies and is rapidly rolling out its roadmap. A newly launched Quantum-enabling Services and Tools for Industrial Applications (QuaST) Consortium will enable rapid quantum adoption without requiring relevant prior knowledge or major investment. End users will simply submit their complex optimization problem and a solution including a co-design process will be automatically generated. Potential applications include logistic optimization, scheduling in production management, health care and drug development and cases from automotive and cybersecurity.

The project is managed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS, with the additional involvement of such industry partners as the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC), for Integrated Circuits (IIS), and for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB), the Leibniz Supercomputing Center, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), as well as companies DATEV eG, Infineon Technologies AG, IQM and ParityQC. The project sponsor is German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Each member brings guidance, technology, training, or funding to the effort. ParityQC, through its architecture and operating system, for example, offers a new approach to optimization encoding and is developing a solution path that automatically finds ideal algorithmic building blocks to solve a problem, and suggesting the most efficient way to encode it on a quantum computer.

The QuaST project emerged from the Munich Quantum Valley initiative for the promotion of Quantum Sciences and Quantum Technologies in Bavaria. QuaST will run until the end of 2024. It has so far received 5.5 million euros ($6.3M USD) in funding, and the total volume of the project amounts to 7.7 million euros ($8.8M USD) with funds provided by Germanys Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action. For more information, access the press release here.

February 9, 2022

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Germany Expands its Quantum Computing Roadmap with QuaST - Quantum Computing Report

One of downtown Durhams most memorable landmarks, the Chesterfield building looks like it was aesthetically designed to maintain the countrys morale during World War II. On the former cigarette factorys roof rests a brilliant red sign thats visible from miles away:

But dont mistake the buildings quaint exterior for antiquity: the Chesterfield Building is home to one of the nations most powerful quantum computers. Managed by the Duke Quantum Center, the computer is part of Dukes effort to bolster the Scalable Quantum Computing Laboratory (SQLab).

On February 2nd, the labs director Christopher Monroe joined engineering professor Michael Reiter and English professor Charlotte Sussman to discuss the growing presence of computation at Duke and in research institutions across the country.

Monroe opened by detailing the significance of quantum computing in the modern world. He explained that quantum mechanics are governed by two golden rules: first, that quantum objects are waves and can be in superposition, and second, that the first rule only applies when said objects are not being measured.

The direct impact of quantum mechanics is that electrons can be in two orbits at the same time, which revolutionizes computing. Quantum computers factor numbers exponentially faster than classical computers, converge to more desirable solutions in optimization problems and have been shown to bolster research in fields like biomolecular modeling.

Still, Monroe insists that the future reach of quantum computing is beyond anyones current understanding. Says Monroe, quantum computing is an entirely new way of dealing with information, so we dont know all the application areas it will touch. What we do know, he says, is that quantum computers are poised to take over where conventional computers and Moores Law leave off.

While Monroe discussed computing innovations, Michael Reiter James B. Duke Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering demonstrated the importance of keeping computing systems safe. By pointing to the 2010 Stuxnet virus, a series of cyberattacks against Iranian nuclear centrifuges, and the 2017 Equifax Data Breach, which stole the records of 148 million people, Dr. Reiter provided evidence to show that modern data systems are vulnerable and attractive targets for cyber warfare.

To show the interdisciplinary responsibilities associated with the nations cybersecurity needs, Reiter posed two questions to the audience. First, what market interventions are appropriate to achieve more accountability for negligence in cybersecurity defenses? Second, what are the rules of war as it relates to cyber warfare and terrorism?

After Reiters presentation, Charlotte Sussman transitioned the conversation from the digital world to the maritime world. A professor of English at Duke, Sussman has always been interested in ways to both memorialize and understand the middle passage, the route slave trading ships took across the Atlantic from Africa to the Americas. Through the Universitys Bass Connections and Data+ research programs, she and a group of students were able to approach this problem through the unlikely lens of data science.

Sussman explained that her Data+ team used large databases to find which areas of the Atlantic Ocean had the highest mortality rates during the slave trade, while the Bass Connections team looked at a single journey to understand one young migrants path to the bottom of the sea.

Monroe, Reiter, and Sussman all showed that the applications of computing are growing without bound. Both the responsibility to improve computing infrastructures and the ability to leverage computing resources are rapidly expanding to new fields, from medicine and optimization to cybersecurity and history.

With so many exciting paths for growth, one point is clear about the future of computing: it will outperform anyones wildest expectations. Be prepared to find computing in academia, business, government, and other settings that require advanced information.

Many of these areas, like the Chesterfield Building, will probably see the impact of computing before you know it.

Post by Shariar Vaez-Ghaemi, Class of 2025

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Hidden in Plain Sight: The Growing Role of Computation in Science - Research Blog - Duke Today

While the rest of us are doing good, honest work like podcasting and influencer-ing, theres a group of thinkers out there conducting horrific experiments. Theyre conjuring pedantic monsters, murdering innumerable cats, and putting humans inside of computers.

Sure, these thought experiments are all in their heads. But thats how it starts. First you dont know whether the cats dead or alive and then a demon opens the box and were all in the Matrix.

Unfortunately, there are only two ways to fight science and philosophy:

Thus, well arm ourselves with the collective knowledge of those whove gone before us (ahem, Google Scholar) and critique so snarky it could tank a Netflix Original. And well decide once-and-for-all whose big, bright ideas are the worst.

What if I told you there was a box that gave away a free lunch every time it was opened? Some of you are reading this and thinking is Neural suggesting we eat dead cats?

No. Im talking about a different box from a different thought experiment. Erwin Schrdingers cat actually came along some 68 years after James Clerk Maxwells Demon.

In Maxwells Demon, we have a box with a gate in the middle separating its contents (a bunch of particles) into two sides. Outside the box, theres what Maxwell calls a finite being (who other scientists later inexplicably decided was a demon) who acts as the gatekeeper.

So this demon being controls which particles go from one side of the box to the other. And, because particle behavior varies at different temperatures, this means the demons able to exploit physics to harness energy from the universes tendency towards entropy.

This particular thought experiment is awful. As in: its awfully good at being awesome!

Maxwells Demon has managed to stand the test of time and, a century-and-a-half later, its at the heart of the quantum computing industry. It might be the best scientific thought experiment ever.

The worst is actually Szilards Engine. But you have to go through Maxwells Demon to get there. Because in Szilards box, rather than Maxwells Demon exploiting the tendencies of the universe, the universe exploits Maxwells Demon.

Szilards work imagines a single-molecule engine inside of the box that results in a system where entropy works differently than it does in Maxwells experiment.

This difference in opinion over the efficacy of entropy caused a kerfuffle.

It all started when scientists came up with the second law of thermodynamics, which basically just says that if you drop an ice cube in a pot of boiling water, it wont make the water hotter.

Well, Maxwells Demon essentially says sure, but what if were talking about really tiny things experiencing somewhat quantum interactions? This made a lot of sense and has led to numerous breakthroughs in the field of quantum physics.

But then Szilard comes along and says, Oh yeah, what if the system only had one molecule and, like, the demon was really bored?

Those probably arent their exact words. Im, admittedly, guessing. The point is that Szilards Engine was tough to swallow back when he wrote it in 1929 and its only garnered more scrutiny since.

Dont just take my word for it. Its so awful that John D. Norton, a scientist from the department of history and philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh, once wrote an entire research paper describing it as the worst thought experiment.

In their criticism, Norton wrote:

In its capacity to engender mischief and confusion, Szilards thought experiment is unmatched. It is the worst thought experiment I know in science. Let me count the ways it has misled us.

Thats borderline hate-poetry and I love it. The only criticism I have to add is that its preposterous Szilard didnt reimagine the whole thing as Szilards Lizard.

The missed opportunity alone gets it our stamp for worst scientific thought experiment.

Honestly, Id say Ren Descartesscogito, ergo sum is the worst thought experiment of all time. But theres not much to discuss.

You ever meet someone who, if they started a sentence with I think, youd want to interrupt them to disagree? Imagine that, but at the multiverse level.

Accepting Descartesspremise requires two leaps of faith in just three words and Im not prepared to give anyone that much credit.

But, admittedly, thats low hanging fruit. So lets throw another twist in this article and discuss my favorite paper of all time because its also the worst philosophical thought experiment ever.

Nick BostromsSimulation Argument lies at the intersection of lazy physics and brilliant philosophy. Its like the Han Solo of thought experiments: you love itbecause its so simple, not in spite of it.

It goes like this: Uh, what if, like, we live inside a computer?

For the sake of fairness, this is how Bostrom puts it:

This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a posthuman stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.

Think about it for a second.

Done? Good. It doesnt go any deeper. It really is just, what if all of this is just a dream? But instead of a dream, were digital entities in a computer simulation.

Its uh, kinda dumb, right?

But that doesnt mean Bostroms paper isnt important. I think its the most influential thought experiment since Descartess off-puttinginsistence upon his own existence (self involved much D?)

Bostroms a master philosopher because he understands that the core of explanation lies not in burdening a reader with unessential thought, but in stripping it away. He understands perfection as Antoine de Saint Exupry did when he declared it was attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.

Bostrom whittled the Simulation Argument down with Occams Razor until it became a paper capable of pre-empting your biggest yeah but, what about. queries before you could think them.

Still though, you dont have to be the head of Oxfords philosophy department to wonder if life is but a dream.

Theres no official name for this one, so well just call it That time the people building the A-bomb had to spend a few hours wondering if they were about to set the atmosphere on fire before deciding the math looked good and everything was going to be fine.

A close runner-up for this prize is That time the Nazis most famous quantum physicist was asked if it was possible that Germanys weapons could blow up the Earth by setting all the oceans aflame and he was all like: lol, maybe.

If I can channel our pal John D. Norton from above: these thought experiments are the worst. Allow me to list the ways I hate them.

The Axis and Allies werent far apart in their respective endeavors to create a weapon of mass destruction during World War II.

Of course we know how things played out: the Germans never got there and the US managed to avoid lighting the planet on fire when it dropped atomic bombs on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In reality, Albert Einstein and company on the Allies side and Warner Heisenberg and his crew on the Axis were never concerned with setting off a globally-catastrophic chain reaction by detonating an atomic bomb. Both sides had done the math and determined it wasnt really a problem.

Unfortunately, the reason were aware of this is because both sides were also keen to talk to outsiders. Heisenberg famously joked about it to a German politician; Arthur Compton, whod worked with Einstein and others on The Manhattan Project, gave a now infamous interview wherein he made it seem like the possibility of such a tragic event was far greater than it actually was.

This is our selection for the absolute worst thought experiment(s) of all time because its clear that both the Axis and the Allies were pretty far along in the process of actually building atomic bombs before anyone stopped and thought hey guys, are we going to blow up the planet if we do this?

Thats Day One stuff right there. Thats a question you should have to answer during orientation. You dont start building a literal atom bomb and then hold an all-hands meeting to dig into the whole killing all life thing.

Those are all great examples of terrible thought experiments. For scientists and philosophers anyway. But everyone knows the worst ideascome from journalists.

I think I can come up with a terrible thought experiment thatll trump each of the above. All I have to do is reverse-engineer someone elses work and restate it with added nonsense (hey, it worked for Szilard right?).

So lets do this. The most important part of any thought experiment is its title. We need to combine the name of an important scientist with a science-y creature if we want to be taken seriously like Maxwell and his Demon or Schrdinger and his Cat.

And, while substance isnt really what were going for here, we still need a real problem that remains unsolved, can be addressed with a vapid premise, and is accessible to intellects of any level.

Thus, without further ado, I present: Ogres Ogre, athought experiment that uses all the best ideas from the dumb ones mentioned above but contains none of their weaknesses (such as math and the scientific method).

Unlike those theories, Ogres Ogre doesnt require you to understand or know anything. Its just quietly cajoling you into a natural state of curiosity.

In short, Ogres Ogre isnt some overeager overachiever like those others. Where Maxwells Demon demonizes particles by maximizing the tendency toward entropy, and Szilars Engine engages in entropy in only isolated incidents, Ogres Ogre egregiously accepts all eventualities.

It goes like this: What if C-A-T really spelled dog?

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The worst thought experiments imaginable - The Next Web

ARMONK, N.Y.and WALLDORF,Germany,Feb. 10, 2022 IBM today announced it is teaming with SAP to provide technology and consulting expertise to make it easier for clients to embrace a hybrid cloud approach and move mission-critical workloads from SAP solutionsto the cloudfor regulated and non-regulated industries.

As clients look to adopt hybrid cloud strategies,moving the workloads and applications that are the backbone of their enterprise operation requires a highly secured and reliable cloud environment. With todays launch of thepremium supplier option with IBM for RISE with SAP, clients will have the tools to help accelerate the migration of their on-premise SAP software workloads to IBM Cloud, backed by industry-leading security capabilities1.

IBM is also unveiling a new program,BREAKTHROUGH with IBM for RISE with SAP, a portfolio of solutions and consulting services that help accelerate and amplify the journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Built on a flexible and scalable platform, the solutions and services use intelligent workflows to streamline operations. They provide an engagement model that helps plan, execute and support holistic business transformation. Clients are also offered the flexibility and choice to migrate SAP solution workloads to the public cloud with the support of deep industry expertise.

Todays announcement of IBM becoming a premium supplier makes IBM the first cloud provider to offer infrastructure, business transformation and application management services as part of RISE with SAP. IBMs premium supplier designation is a continuation of SAPs long-standing efforts to provide choice and optionality to customers, further supporting IBM customers that have a preference for their RISE with SAP package to run on IBM Cloud.

Additionally, migration to SAP S/4HANA on IBM Cloud from on-premise data centers can potentially deliver the following benefits, according to a study by IDC, sponsored by IBM:2

We are thrilled to advance our long-standing partnership through RISE with SAP, saidJohn Granger, Senior Vice President, IBM Consulting. Our shared commitment is to meet our clients, especially those in highly regulated industries, where they are in their digital journey, while giving them choices for migrating or modernizing their mission critical workloads with a hybrid cloud approach.

BREAKTHROUGH with IBM is an outstanding complement to RISE with SAP as it lays the foundation for our customers to embark on or advance their business transformation journeys. Further, it reaffirms the value customers recognize from RISE with SAP and the impact and innovation opportunity RISE with SAP offers to organizations that move to the cloud. I have every confidence that the combined expertise and experience SAP and IBM offer will accelerate cloud adoption and business growth for customers across the globe, saidBrian Duffy, President of Cloud, SAP.

IBM and SAP have worked with hundreds of clients globally on thousands of individual projects to modernize their systems and business processes based on an open, hybrid cloud approach. Recent examples includeCoca-Cola European Partners,Parle Products,Harmont & Blaine,Puravankara LtdandVirgin Megastore KSA.

Underscoring its commitment to SAP S/4HANA both as an SAP customer and a business partner for 50 years, IBM has also made a significant investment in RISE with SAP to help transform its own infrastructure. IBM is a new premium supplier for the RISE with SAP offering and is using the IBM Hybrid Cloud, including IBM Power-enabled Infrastructure as a Service, to enhance the performance, availability and security of deployments of private editions of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

To learn more about the BREAKTHROUGH with IBM program for the RISE with SAP offering, please visit:https://www.ibm.com/services/sap/rise-with-sap.

Notes

1 Based on IBM Hyper Protect Crypto Service, the only service in the industry built on FIPS 140-2 Level 4certified hardware. FIPS 140-2 Level 4 provides the highest level of security defined in this standard. At this security level, the physical security mechanisms provide a comprehensive envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.

2IDC White Paper, sponsored by IBM, Business Benefits Possible by Choosing the Right Cloud Provider to Run SAP Workloads. Doc #US47166220, December 2020.

About IBM

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBMs hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBMs breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBMs legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visitwww.ibm.comfor more information.

About SAP

SAPs strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve peoples lives. For more information, visitwww.sap.com.

Source: IBM, SAP

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IBM and SAP Partnership to Help Clients Move Workloads from SAP Solutions to the Cloud - HPCwire