Category Archives: Quantum Computing

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 19, 2022 IonQ, an industry leader in quantum computing, today announced its participation in IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE22). The weeklong event will take place in Broomfield, Colorado, on September 18-23, 2022, and brings together some of the worlds leading quantum researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and academics to discuss and explore the latest advancements in the field of quantum.

IonQ co-founder and Chief Scientist Chris Monroe will keynote the event on September 19, where he will summarize the distinct advantages of trapped ion quantum computers in both academic and industrial settings, along with their uses in scientific and commercial applications. Fellow co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jungsang Kim will also be participating in a workshop program on September 20, focused on constructing control systems for trapped ion quantum computers.

Additional IonQ team members will also be joining a number of workshops and panel discussions throughout the week, exploring topics like working with the Microsoft Azure Quantum Platform, the need for low-level programming to deliver quantum advantage, and the key challenges when scaling towards practical quantum computing. Fellow panelists and workshop participants include researchers and executives from Microsoft, IBM, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and more.

Visit the conference page here to learn more about QCE22, or click here to learn more about IonQs latest updates to its IonQ Aria system.

About IonQ

IonQ is a leader in quantum computing, with a proven track record of innovation and deployment. IonQs current generation quantum computer, IonQ Forte, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems, including IonQ Aria, a system that boasts industry-leading 23 algorithmic qubits. Along with record performance, IonQ has defined what it believes is the best path forward to scale. IonQ is the only company with its quantum systems available through the cloud on Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as through direct API access. IonQ was founded in 2015 by Christopher Monroe and Jungsang Kim based on 25 years of pioneering research.

Source: IonQ

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IonQ to Participate in IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering - HPCwire

At a glance.

Cisco Talos says the Russian threat actor Gamaredon (also known as Primitive Bear) continues to conduct espionage campaigns against Ukrainian organizations. The threat actor is using spearphishing emails to distribute malicious Microsoft Office documents:

"Cisco Talos discovered Gamaredon APT activity targeting users in Ukraine with malicious LNK files distributed in RAR archives. The campaign, part of an ongoing espionage operation observed as recently as August 2022, aims to deliver information-stealing malware to Ukrainian victim machines and makes heavy use of multiple modular PowerShell and VBScript (VBS) scripts as part of the infection chain. The infostealer is a dual-purpose malware that includes capabilities for exfiltrating specific file types and deploying additional binary and script-based payloads on an infected endpoint."

Kaspersky warns that the RedLine Trojan is being distributed with a bundle of malware that can spread itself by posting YouTube videos with malicious links. The researchers note that while this technique is unusual, it's achieved by "using relatively unsophisticated software":

"In addition to the payload itself, the discovered bundle is of note for its self-propagation functionality. Several files are responsible for this, which receive videos, and post them to the infected users YouTube channels along with the links to a password-protected archive with the bundle in the description. The videos advertise cheats and cracks and provide instructions on hacking popular games and software. Among the games mentioned are APB Reloaded, CrossFire, DayZ, Dying Light 2, F1 22, Farming Simulator, Farthest Frontier, FIFA 22, Final Fantasy XIV, Forza, Lego Star Wars, Osu!, Point Blank, Project Zomboid, Rust, Sniper Elite, Spider-Man, Stray, Thymesia, VRChat and Walken. According to Google, the hacked channels were quickly terminated for violation of the companys Community Guidelines."

Researchers at AdvIntel haveobservedmore than 1.2 million Emotet infections since the beginning of 2022. Most of the infections (35.7%) are located in the United States. The researchers also warn that the Quantum and BlackCat ransomware groups are now using the malware distribution botnet following the breakup of Conti in June 2022. BleepingComputeraddsthat significant spikes in Emotet activity were observed by both AdvIntel andESETin 2022.

According to Check Points visibility, however, the FormBook infostealer replaced Emotet as the most prevalent malware strain in August 2022, followed by the AgentTesla Trojan, the XMRig cryptominer, and the Guloader downloader.

Deloitte has published the results of a survey on awareness of cybersecurity risks related to quantum computing. The survey found that just over half (50.2%) of respondents are aware of harvest now, decrypt later attacks. These attacks involve stealing encrypted data and storing it until a quantum computer is developed that can break the encryption.

26.6% of respondents said their organization has already conducted a risk assessment on quantum computing risks, while 18.4% plan to conduct an assessment within one year.

Additionally, 27.7% of respondents said their organization would be most likely to address quantum risks following regulatory pressure, while 20.7% cited leadership demand within the organization to enable the cryptographic agility which can address the algorithms made obsolete by quantum computing.

Continued here:

Gamaredon continues to target Ukraine. RedLine stealer disguised as game cheats. Emotet's place in the malware landscape. Quantum computing risks. -...

Intel Groundbreaking SiteNew Albany, Ohio

12:35 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Pat, for that introduction. And pretty amazing pretty amazing. It was just back in January when we were together at the White House with Senator Brown and Senator Portman announcing this historic investment.

In March, I shared the story in my State of the Union Address the story of the field of dreams in the middle of Ohio where Americas future will be built.

In August, we were back at the White House as I signed the CHIPS and Science Act, one of the most significant science and technology investments in our history.

And now, in September, Gov, were here breaking ground. And thanks for the passport to get to the state, Gov. Appreciate it. (Laughter and applause.)

All in nine months in America.

I want to thank Sherrod Brown for his relentless work, especially making sure that labor is in on this deal. And Pat just mentioned what Sherrod makes clear: Its time to bury the label Rust Belt and call it, as Pat says, the Silicon Heartland. Thats whats happening on these 1,000 acres.

I want to thank Rob Portman for being the gentleman and decent man that he is and for showing that Democrats and Republicans can work together to get big things done for our country. (Applause.) I really mean it. Trying to find where hes sitting, but hes a good man. Thank you. Youre leaving a hell of a legacy as you lead. What youre doing is a consequence of you, in large part.

And thanks to the bipartisan group of Ohios congressional delegation here today.

Tim Ryan, thank you for your leadership always representing the interests of working people.

Thank you, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. And, you know, I dont think we couldve gotten the infrastructure bill done without Joyce. She was the final capstone. We all thought it was hanging in the balance there. I dont know what you did that last four hours, but whatever you did, you got it done. (Applause.)

And, Dave Joyce, Anthony Gonzales, Mike Carey, Tony [Troy] Balderson for the work in the House.

Were also joined by congressional leaders from around the country who fought so hard for this bill. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Chair of the House Science Committee. Eddie, this whole bill would have gotten wouldnt have gotten done without you. It really wouldnt have.

And were also joined by Congressman Ro Khanna. Ro is a tireless champion for American innovation and seeing that workers workers are part of the deal.

While she couldnt be here, Maria Cantwell also deserves a lot of credit. Shes Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee from the state of Washington. Maria was tireless in getting this bill through the Senate.

And again, Mike, I want to thank you for your work on this project as well.

And I especially want to thank the labor leaders here: My deep friend dear friend Lonnie Stephenson of the IBEW; Tim Burga, the President of the [Ohio] AFL-CIO; Brent Booker, Treasurer of the national building trades; and Mike Kinsley, President of Ohios building trades.

You know, its fitting to break ground for Americas future here in Ohio. Think about it. Theres kind of a tradition here. The Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn. They defined Americas spirit a spirit of daring and innovation.

Pat just laid out Intels vision that builds on that legacy. A brand new $20 billion campus; 7,000 construction jobs union construction jobs; 3,000 fulltime jobs that will pay an average of $135,000 a year, and not all of them require college degrees once these facilities are built.

And heres a critical piece: Intel is using a project labor agreement for this investment. (Applause.) For the folks at home, these are agreements that contractors, subcontractors, and unions put in place before construction begins. They ensure major projects are handled by well-trained, well-prepared, highly skilled workers. They resolve disputes ahead of time, ensuring safer work sites, avoiding disruptions and work stoppages that can cause expensive delays down the line.

These agreements make sure construction is top-notch and projects are on time, on task, and on budget.

Back in February, I signed an executive order to make sure federal construction projects use these project labor agreements. Its a big deal that Intel is using one here, and I thank them for that.

And Intel is going to build a workforce of the future right here in Ohio. As you already heard, Intel committed $50 million to partner with community colleges and universities like Ohio State University, including Central State University the only [public] historically Black university in Ohio (applause) to build a pipeline for students in the semiconductor industry.

The Director of National Science Foundation is here, Dr. Ponch. Hes here. And NSF and Intel are going to invest $50 million each to support these kinds of partnerships.

Folks at home at home, you might be wondering why is this such a big deal for manufacturing, something so small in size as a fingerprint, as a you know, an a semiconductor.

Well, semiconductors are small computers that power everyday lives smartphones, cars, washing machines, hospital equipment, the Internet, electric grid, and so much more, including our national security.

And heres the deal: America invented this chip. America invented it. It powered NASAs Moon mission. Federal investment helped bring down the cost of making these chips, creating a market and an entire industry.

As a result, over 30 years ago, America had more than 30 percent of the global chip production.

Then something happened. America ba- America manufacturing, the backbone the backbone of our economy got hollowed out. Companies moved jobs overseas, especially from the industrial Midwest. And as a result, today were down to producing barely 10 percent of the worlds chips, despite leading in chip research and design.

And as we saw during the pandemic, when factories that make these ships [sic] shut down chips shut down, the global economy comes to a halt, driving up costs for families and everyone not just here, but around the world.

In fact, one third of the core inflation last year was due to higher prices of automobiles because of the shortage of the semiconductors needed to build those automobiles. Folks, we need to make these chips right here in America to bring down everyday costs and create good jobs. (Applause.) Dont take my word for it. You heard Pat. (Applause.) Listen to the business leaders across this country. Theyre making decisions right now about where to invest and produce these chips.

China, Japan, South Korea, European Union all these places are investing tens of billions of dollars to attract chip manufacturers to their countries. But industry leaders are choosing us, the United States, because they see America is back and America is leading the way. (Applause.)

Folks, since I took office, our economy has created nearly 10 million new jobs, more than 668,000 manufacturing jobs proof of point that Made in Ohio and Made in America is no longer just a slogan. Its happening. (Applause.) Its a reality today. And its just beginning.

Because I signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act, were accelerating the progress. This new law makes historic investments for companies to build advanced manufacturing facilities here in America. Since I signed the CHIPS and Science Act, its already started happening.

The American company Micron announced its going to invest $40 billion in the next 10 years to build factories, special chips called memory chips that store information on your smartphones. Thats going to create 40,000 good-paying jobs and increase the share Americas share of the memory chip market 500 percent.

Two other companies, GlobalFoundries and Qualcomm, announced a $4 billion partnership to produce chips in America that would otherwise have been made overseas. Qualcomm is one of the worlds largest designers of chips, and planning to boost production by up to 50 percent over the next five years.

Today in North Carolina, Wolfspeed is investing $5 billion to make chip devices for electric vehicles that are going to create 1,800 good-paying jobs over five years.

Folks, the future of the chip industry is going to be made in America. (Applause.) Made in America. Folks at home should know the manufacturing of these semiconductors connects countless small businesses and manufacturers into a supply chain thats going to thrive all because of this law.

Imagine if we had more of these kinds of factories across the country. This law makes that a reality. It matters. All of this is in our economic interest, and its in our national security interest as well.

Earlier this year, I went to Lockheeds factory in Alabama. Theyre making the Javelin missile that were supplying to Ukraine to defend itself against Putins unprovoked war. We need semiconductors not only for those Javelin missiles, but also for the weapons systems of the future that are only going to be more reliant on computer chips. This goes well beyond commercial need.

Unfortunately, we produce zero zero of these advanced chips in America. Zero. And China is trying to move way ahead of us in manufacturing them. Its no wonder which (inaudible) somewhat unusual that the Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied U.S. business against this law. Basically, You want to do business in our country, dont do it there.

The United States has to lead the world in producing these advanced chips, and this law makes sure that we will. (Applause.)

And to be clear, the CHIPS and Science Act is not handing out blank checks to companies. Ive directed my administration to be laser-focused on the guardrails that will protect taxpayers dollars. And well make sure that companies partner with unions, community colleges, technical schools to offer training and apprenticeships and to work with small and minority-owned businesses as well.

Were going to make sure that companies that take taxpayers dollars dont turn around and make investments in China to undermine our supply chain and national security. You know, we have the power we have the power to take back any federal funding if companies dont meet these requirements.

The law also requires that companies build these semiconductor facilities by Davis-Bacon prevailing wage so people can live with a little bit of breathing room. (Applause.) And this will ensure tens of thousands of new construction jobs and high-paying jobs and, more often, high-paying union jobs. And will not only will companies use these funds to buy ba- they cannot use these funds for stock buybacks and issue dividends. They have to manufacture.

And finally, the law is about more than chips. Its about science as well. You know, decades ago, the United States of America invested 2 percent of its gross domestic product 2 percent in research and development. We led in everything. We created everything from the Internet to the GP- to GPS. Today, we invest somewhere between seven tenths but less than 1 percent in research and development.

The United States of America, we used to rank number one in the world in research and development; now we rank number nine. China was number eight a decade [decades] ago; now China is number two. And other countries are closing in fast.

The CHIPS and Science Act moves us up once again. It authorizes funding to boost our research and development investment back closer to 1 percent of our GDP. Thats the fastest single-year growth in 70 years, but its still not enough.

Were going to make sure we lead the world in industries of the future from quantum computing, to artificial intelligence, to advanced biotechnology. Think of the things and the kinds of investment we deliver: vaccines for cancer, cures for HIV, inventing the next be- best thing that hasnt even been imagined yet. Thats who America has always been.

Its something thats really important: Were going to make sure that any company that uses federal funding for research and development to invent new technologies will have to make that technology here in America. (Applause.)

And that means we will invent it in America and make it in America. And were going to make sure we include all of America.

Were going to support entrepreneurs and technology hubs all across the country, including historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, Tribal colleges. Were going to going to tap into the greatest competitive advantage we have: our diverse and talented workforce thats urban, rural, and suburban.

Folks, Ive asked Pat and many other leading businessmen leaders this question: When the United States decides to invest in considerable resources in a new industry that we need to build, does that encourage business to invest as well? And the answer is yes, overwhelmingly. Ask any major businessperson, because they say if we think its worth investing in and were putting tax dollars into it, it has an increased possibility of being usable and workable.

Federal investments attract private investment. It creates jobs. It creates industries. It demonstrates were all in this together.

And I believe theres another reason why companies are choosing the United States. Its because were better positioned globally than we have been in a long, long time. Weve seen a faster, stronger economic recovery than any other advanced nation on Earth.

I met with one of the leading companies research companies in South Korea. I asked why theyre going to invest billions of dollars in the United States. He said, Because youre the most secure nation in the world. We know if we invest, it will be secure. And secondly this surprised me you have the best workforce in the world. (Applause.)

Folks, and we have the best universities in the world, dynamic venture capitalist system, a rule of law that protects intellectual property.

And thanks to the infrastructure law that I signed with the help of many of the members who are here today, that means better roads, bridges, ports, airports, clean water, high-speed Internet for every American. And its going to create millions of jobs all by itself. This is a gamechanger.

Let me close with this: This is about our economic security. Its about our national security. Its about good-paying, union jobs that you can raise a family on as my dad would say and have a little bit of breathing room. Jobs now. Jobs for the future. Jobs in every part of the country. Were not going to leave a part behind. Theres no need to not develop the whole country. Jobs that show the industrial Midwest is back the industrial Midwest is back. (Applause.)

And thats what youll see in this field of dreams: PhD engineers and scientists alongside community college graduates, skilled craftsmen men and women; people of all ages, races, backgrounds with advanced degrees or no degrees, working side by side doing the most sophisticated manufacturing thats ever done.

Pat was explaining to me what these are going to look like. Correct me if Im wrong, Pat, but I was I was impressed. Youre going to dig down 60 feet, 10 football fields long. Youre going to have make that all cement. Youre going to use that as a basis to build on. Because you need security, you need stability for what you have on top. And youre going to build up stories beyond I mean, this is incredible.

Making a tiny computer chip the size of a fingertip.

Theyre showing what weve always believed and I want to emphasize this, and then Ill get out of your hair. And I mean this. Youve heard me say this for a long time. There is nothing - I mean this from the bottom of my heart there is nothing not a single thing beyond our capacity as a nation if we do it together as the United States of America. And thats what were going to do. This is an inflection point on everything. (Applause.) Were going to look back on this period 20 years from now and say, Thats when it began to change.

God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.) And, Pat, thank you.

12:51 P.M. EDT

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Remarks by President Biden on Rebuilding American Manufacturing Through the CHIPS and Science Act - The White House

Following collaborations with leading universities like MIT, Stanford, and Oxford University, IBM Research has announced that it will partner with one of Israels leading academic institutions, the Technion, and the Hebrew University, to invest millions of dollars for Ph.D. students to develop AI research. The announcement was officially signed by President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Asher Cohen, Vice President AI and director of IBM Research Lab in Israel Dr. Aya Soffer, Executive Vice President for Research of the Technion Prof. Koby Rubinstein, and Senior Vice President and director of IBM Research, Dr. Dario Gil.

What we really wanted to do was bring a little more structure, and in particular, find a way to engage Ph.D. students in a more focused way on topics that we believe are going to be important for the future of science, explained Dr. Soffer, who spoke to CTech during the Tech, Science, and Sustainable Society Summit, hosted by IBM Research celebrating 50 years of its presence in Israel.

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President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Asher Cohen, Vice President AI and director of IBM Research Lab in Israel Dr. Aya Soffer, Executive Vice President for Research of the Technion, Prof. Koby Rubinstein and Senior Vice President and director of IBM Research, Dr. Dario Gil

(Photo: Daniel Elior)

Soffer explained that the partnership, which will be spread over three years, will focus on efforts relating to Scaleable AI as an engine of growth. Specifically, emphasis will be placed on three main areas: NLP, accelerated discovery of drug development, and multi-cloud infrastructure, which Soffer described as the future of cloud.

The Tech, Science, and Sustainable Society Summit took place in Tel Aviv and marked the first time that IBM Research brought together academia, industry, startups, investors, and governments. Described as an active conference, it included a wide range of roundtables where each guest was encouraged to discuss topics relating to AI such as the metaverse, drones, NLP, and cybersecurity. Following opening remarks by Soffer and a keynote speech by Dr. Gil, the audience was then treated to two panels exploring the future of AI and quantum computing before splitting into 17 different groups for intimate discussions lasting almost an hour.

Panels were hosted by Soffer and Dr. Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, vice president of Europe and director of the IBM Research lab in Zurich. They included insights from Pitango Venture Capital Co-Founder Chemi Peres, former Israel Innovation Authority CEO Aharon Aharon, and Mellanox Co-Founder Eyal Waldman, among others.

It was beyond all expectations, Soffer said about the event. I was walking around and everyone was sitting at the tables and engaging, its like your vision coming true. We had a vision that this is what it was going to be, and it was just amazing. There were so many deep conversations and a lot of insights came out of it at the end.

The strong belief in collaboration was the inspiration for the summit, which aimed to recreate the attitude felt in IBM Research labs. IBM has been present in Israel for 50 years and Soffer herself has been part of the team for 23 years. The relationship with the Technion started during the very early days of its time in the country, and so the new partnership represents somewhat of a full circle for the company. IBM Research also has partnerships with Ben-Gurion University in the field of cybersecurity.

The combination of a leading technology company like IBM together with our excellent researchers is a combination that provides an optimal response to the information revolution and the computational revolution, said President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Asher Cohen, in a statement. Executive Vice President for Research of the Technion, Prof. Koby Rubinstein added: In recent years, the Technion has been conducting in-depth and extensive activity in AI in a variety of fields. The collaboration with IBM, which will be led by researchers engaged in the field, will be a force multiplier for research and development in the field.

IBMs research laboratory is based in Haifa and represents its largest outside the U.S. It employs hundreds of researchers in a variety of fields such as AI, hybrid cloud, quantum computing, blockchain, healthcare, and IoT. It fosters relationships with various academic institutions and partners in Israel and abroad.

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IBM Research, Hebrew University, and Israels Technion partner to promote AI efforts - CTech

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, will showcase emerging technology trends and provide actionable insights for innovators looking to advance their engineering innovation in 5G and 6G, electric and autonomous vehicles, quantum computing and systems, and digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI). This four-day online vision conference will be held in regions around the world throughout October, November and December 2022.

Every day, technological advancements are reshaping the human experience - from how we live and work, to how we move through the world. There is no doubt that the rapid pace of technology innovation is only going to accelerate and present new challenges and opportunities for all of us, stated Jeff Harris, vice president of Portfolio and Global Marketing at Keysight Technologies. At Keysight World: Innovate, industry leaders, experts, and even a mad scientist or two will share their expertise and predictions to give technology leaders, engineers and innovators a head start on near-term and future developments in technology innovation.

Rapidly evolving technologies, including quantum computing, digital twins, artificial intelligence, electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as 5G and 6G, are powering endless imagination and innovation across all industries. Each day of Keysight World: Innovate will feature an industry expert keynote on near-term trends, a moderated panel discussion on key industry challenges, an industry luminary vision keynote and relevant solution demonstrations. Specific sessions include:

The Next Tier of Deployment, Evolving to 6G: Global 5G deployments are accelerating and scaling digital transformation across sectors. This session explores how to capture the full potential of 5G private networks, the use cases driving their development and implementation and how global 5G deployments are helping to move digital transformation beyond manufacturing and shaping research into 6G.

Building the Foundation for Quantum: Decades-long hype has centered on quantum systems and how they will revolutionize computing. This session looks at the state of quantum technology today, its near and next-term potential and the kinds of problems it will solve.

Advancing Development with Digital Twins and Artificial Intelligence: Digital twins and artificial intelligence are transformative technologies promising to dramatically alter the world. This session examines how digital twins are transforming product development and the changes on the horizon from the growing role of AI in design and manufacturing.

Accelerating the Automotive Revolution: The automotive revolution is re-shaping our world, with innovations in both electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles (AVs) continuing at a feverish pace. This session examines the challenges to wide-scale adoption that still lie ahead and explores what the next decade will hold as the industry progresses down the path to full vehicle autonomy.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight delivers advanced design and validation solutions that help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysights dedication to speed and precision extends to software-driven insights and analytics that bring tomorrows technology products to market faster across the development lifecycle, in design simulation, prototype validation, automated software testing, manufacturing analysis, and network performance optimization and visibility in enterprise, service provider and cloud environments. Our customers span the worldwide communications and industrial ecosystems, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics markets. Keysight generated revenues of $4.9B in fiscal year 2021. For more information about Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS), visit us at http://www.keysight.com.

Additional information about Keysight Technologies is available in the newsroom at https://www.keysight.com/go/news and on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

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Keysight World: Innovate to Spotlight Emerging Technologies and Trends - Business Wire

The ACM Gordon Bell Prize, which comes with a $10,000 award courtesy of HPC luminary Gordon Bell, is widely considered the highest prize in high-performance computing. Each year, six finalists are selected who represent the pinnacle of outstanding research achievements in HPC. Last month, listings on the SC22 schedule revealed those finalists. Over the last few weeks, HPCwire got in touch with members of the six finalist teams to learn more about their projects.

Last year, for the first time, the Gordon Bell Prize nominees included two projects powered by exascale computing specifically, Chinas new Sunway supercomputer, also known as OceanLight. These research papers, at the time, constituted the most substantively official reveal of the system (which remains unranked). One of those OceanLight-powered papers a challenge to Googles quantum supremacy claim won that years Gordon Bell Prize.

In 2022, OceanLight has exascale-caliber competition: not one but two of the other five finalist projects used the new American exascale supercomputer, Frontier, which launched earlier this year at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL). And, beyond OceanLight and Frontier, previous Top500-toppers Fugaku (RIKEN) and Summit (ORNL) both return to the list under multiple finalist teams, along with Perlmutter (at NERSC, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center) and Shaheen-2 (at KAUST, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology).

And now: the finalist projects.

This year sees OceanLight return to the stage as the sole supercomputer behind a paper titled 2.5 Million-Atom Ab Initio Electronic-Structure Simulation of Complex Metallic Heterostructures with DGDFT a project involving simulations of millions of atoms that made use of tens of millions of cores on OceanLight.

Abstract: Over the past three decades, ab initio electronic structure calculations of large, complex and metallic systems are limited to tens of thousands of atoms in both numerical accuracy and computational efficiency on leadership supercomputers. We present a massively parallel discontinuous Galerkin density functional theory (DGDFT) implementation, which adopts adaptive local basis functions to discretize the Kohn-Sham equation, resulting in a block-sparse Hamiltonian matrix. A highly efficient pole expansion and selected inversion (PEXSI) sparse direct solver is implemented in DGDFT to achieve O(^1.5) scaling for quasi two-dimensional systems. DGDFT allows us to compute the electronic structures of complex metallic heterostructures with 2.5 million atoms (17.2 million electrons) using 35.9 million cores on the new Sunway supercomputer. In particular, the peak performance of PEXSI can achieve 64 PFLOPS (5 percent of theoretical peak), which is unprecedented for sparse direct solvers. This accomplishment paves the way for quantum mechanical simulations into mesoscopic scale for designing next-generation energy materials and electronic devices.

Per the SC22 schedule, this team includes researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, the Qilo University of Technology and the University of Science and Technology of China.

Our team is highly excited [to be] nominated for the Gordon Bell Prize finalists as we started preparation for this work since last year, said Qingcai Jiang, a researcher at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), in an email to HPCwire. Our work for the first time achieves plane-wave precision electronic structure calculation for large-scale complex metallic heterostructures containing 2.5 million atoms (17.2 million electrons), and our optimization techniques make our work able to achieve peak performance of 64 PFLOPS (5 percent of theoretical peak), which is unprecedented for sparse direct solvers.

The first of projects powered by Frontier, titled ExaFlops Biomedical Knowledge Graph Analytics, also made use of ORNLs previous chart-topper, Summit, and focuses on large-scale mining of biomedical research literature.

Abstract: We are motivated by newly proposed methods for mining large-scale corpora of scholarly publications (e.g., full biomedical literature), which consists of tens of millions of papers spanning decades of research. In this setting, analysts seek to discover relationships among concepts. They construct graph representations from annotated text databases and then formulate the relationship-mining problem as an all-pairs shortest paths (APSP) and validate connective paths against curated biomedical knowledge graphs (e.g., SPOKE). In this context, we present COAST (Exascale Communication-Optimized All-Pairs Shortest Path) and demonstrate 1.004 EF/s on 9,200 Frontier nodes (73,600 GCDs). We develop hyperbolic performance models (HYPERMOD), which guide optimizations and parametric tuning. The proposed COAST algorithm achieved the memory constant parallel efficiency of 99 percent in the single-precision tropical semiring. Looking forward, COAST will enable the integration of scholarly corpora like PubMed into the SPOKE biomedical knowledge graph.

Per the SC22 schedule, this team includes researchers from AMD, the Georgia Institute of Technology, ORNL and the University of California, San Francisco.

The ability to establish paths between any pair of biomedical concepts with the richness of PubMed in a reasonable time has the potential to revolutionize biomedical research and apply national research funds more effectively, said Ramakrishnan Kannan, group leader for discrete algorithms at ORNL, in an email to HPCwire. The comparison of knowledge encoded within SPOKE, which is largely human-curated, against concept relationships that might be mined automatically from a scholarly database like PubMed will result in faster and automated integration of biomedical information at scale.

According to the team, this project is the first exascale graph AI demonstration to run at over one exaflops. This first demonstration of exascale computation speed will transform the way we currently conduct search in complex heterogeneous knowledge graphs like SPOKE, the research team told HPCwire. Specifically, it will enable a new class of algorithms to be implemented in graphs of unprecedented size and complexity. This will greatly improve the quality of biomedical research inquiry, and accelerate the time to patient diagnosis and care like never before.

The second project to use Frontier: Pushing the Frontier in the Design of Laser-Based Electron Accelerators with Groundbreaking Mesh-Refined Particle-In-Cell Simulations on Exascale-Class Supercomputers. Though the title of the paper which revolved around kinetic plasma simulations winks at its use of Frontier, the team actually used four supercomputers: Frontier, Fugaku (RIKEN), Summit and Perlmutter (NERSC), meaning that this one paper used four of the top seven supercomputers on the most recent Top500 list. In an email to HPCwire, Jean-Luc Vay a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab outlined the science runs of the research, which were conducted on Frontier (up to 8,192 nodes), Fugaku (up to ~93,000 nodes) and Summit (up to 4,096 nodes).

Abstract: We present a first-of-kind mesh-refined (MR) massively parallel Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code for kinetic plasma simulations optimized on the Frontier, Fugaku, Summit, and Perlmutter supercomputers. Major innovations, implemented in the WarpX PIC code, include: (i) a three level parallelization strategy that demonstrated performance portability and scaling on millions of A64FX cores and tens of thousands of AMD and Nvidia GPUs (ii) a groundbreaking mesh refinement capability that provides between 1.5x to 4x savings in computing requirements on the science case reported in this paper, (iii) an efficient load balancing strategy between multiple MR levels. The MR PIC code enabled 3D simulations of laser-matter interactions on Frontier, Fugaku, and Summit, which have so far been out of the reach of standard codes. These simulations helped remove a major limitation of compact laser-based electron accelerators, which are promising candidates for next generation high-energy physics experiments and ultra-high dose rate FLASH radiotherapy.

Per the SC22 schedule, this team includes researchers from Arm, Atos, CEA-Universit Paris-Saclay, ENSTA Paris, GENCI, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and RIKEN.

Plasma accelerator technologies have the potential to provide particle accelerators that are much more compact than existing ones, opening the door to exciting novel applications in science, industry, security and health, Vay explained. Exploiting the most powerful supercomputers in the world to boost the research to make these complex machines a reality is so stimulating to all of us.

It is thrilling for the entire team to be selected as finalist of the Gordon Bell Prize, even for the one of us (Axel Huebl), for whom it is dj vu as he was already a finalist in 2012 with another (PIConGPU) team, Vay added. It is the vindication of years of hard work from the U.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project participants and longstanding collaborators from CEA Saclay in France, coupled to the more recent hard work with colleagues from various labs and private companies in France (Genci, Arm, Atos) and RIKEN in Japan.

The exascale-enabled research only constitutes half the list. Another finalist paper Reshaping Geostatistical Modeling and Prediction for Extreme-Scale Environmental Applications used Shaheen-2 as well as Fugaku.

Abstract: We extend the capability of space-time geostatistical modeling using algebraic approximations, illustrating application-expected accuracy worthy of double precision from majority low-precision computations and low-rank matrix approximations. We exploit the mathematical structure of the dense covariance matrix whose inverse action and determinant are repeatedly required in Gaussian log-likelihood optimization. Geostatistics augments first-principles modeling approaches for the prediction of environmental phenomena given the availability of measurements at a large number of locations; however, traditional Cholesky-based approaches grow cubically in complexity, gating practical extension to continental and global datasets now available. We combine the linear algebraic contributions of mixed-precision and low-rank computations within a tilebased Cholesky solver with on-demand casting of precisions and dynamic runtime support from PaRSEC to orchestrate tasks and data movement. Our adaptive approach scales on various systems and leverages the Fujitsu A64FX nodes of Fugaku to achieve upto 12X performance speedup against the highly optimized dense Cholesky implementation.

Per the SC22 schedule, this team includes researchers from KAUST, ORNL and the University of Tennessee. Perhaps notably, the team also includes Jack Dongarra, one of SC22s keynote speakers.

For our exploratory science runs, and to demonstrate the acceptable accuracy of our algorithmic variations on Cholesky factorization and further manipulation of massive covariance matrices, we used Shaheen-2 at KAUST, explained David Keyes, director of the Extreme Computing Research Center at KAUST, in an email to HPCwire. Shaheen-2 has only 6,192 nodes, so we applied to use Fugaku at RIKEN to scale further and were generously considered by RIKEN. Fugaku has 158,976 nodes, about 25 times more than Shaheen-2, and each node has 48 cores, 1.5 times more than a Shaheen-2 node. However, each Fugaku node is equipped with only 32GB of memory, one-quarter as much as Shaheen-2s 128GB per node, thus only one-sixth as much per core, which required us to make software adaptations.

Entering the Gordon Bell competition was exciting for all of the team members, especially the students and postdocs, Keyes said. It provided an opportunity to run on the worlds second ranked computer. The required algorithmic adaptations to architecture led to improvements in our tools that will be useful at all scales. More importantly, the nomination created excitement with the statistics community since 2022 appears to be the first time after 35 years of the prize that any significant spatial statistics computation, environmental or otherwise, has thus advanced.

The final of Fugakus three appearances among the finalist list comes courtesy of Extreme Scale Earthquake Simulation with Uncertainty Quantification, which used the second-ranked system to advance scientific understanding of earthquakes and fields with similar dynamics.

Abstract: We develop a stochastic finite element method with ultra-large degrees of freedom that discretize probabilistic and physical spaces using unstructured second-order tetrahedral elements with double precision using a mixed-precision implicit iterative solver that scales to the full Fugaku system and enables fast Uncertainty Quantification (UQ). The developed solver designed to attain high performance on a variety of CPU/GPU-based supercomputers enabled solving 37 trillion degrees-of-freedom problem with 19.8 percent peak FP64 performance on full Fugaku (89.8 PFLOPS) with 87.7 percent weak scaling efficiency, corresponding to 224-fold speedup over the state of the art solver running on full Summit. This method, which has shown its effectiveness via solving huge (32-trillion degrees-of-freedom) practical problems, is expected to be a breakthrough in damage mitigation, and is expected to facilitate the scientific understanding of earthquake phenomena and have a ripple effect on other fields that similarly require UQ.

Per the SC22 schedule, this team includes researchers from Fujitsu, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, RIKEN and the University of Tokyo.

We are very happy to be selected as finalists, wrote Tsuyoshi Ichimura, a professor with the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, in an email to HPCwire. We believe that this has a great impact in showing that capability computing can contribute to an unprecedented Uncertainty Quantification (UQ).

Last, but certainly not least: Extreme-Scale Many-against-Many Protein Similarity Search, which used the Summit supercomputer to perform protein similarity calculations across hundreds of millions of proteins in just a few hours.

Abstract: Similarity search is one of the most fundamental computations that are regularly performed on ever-increasing protein datasets. Scalability is of paramount importance for uncovering novel phenomena that occur at very large scales. We unleash the power of over 20,000 GPUs on the Summit system to perform all-vs-all protein similarity search on one of the largest publicly available datasets with 405 million proteins, in less than 3.5 hours, cutting the time-to-solution for many use cases from weeks. The variability of protein sequence lengths, as well as the sparsity of the space of pairwise comparisons, make this a challenging problem in distributed memory. Due to the need to construct and maintain a data structure holding indices to all other sequences, this application has a huge memory footprint that makes it hard to scale the problem sizes. We overcome this memory limitation by innovative matrix-based blocking techniques, without introducing additional load imbalance.

Per the SC22 schedule, this team includes researchers from Indiana University, the Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, the Department of Energys Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Microsoft, NERSC and the University of California, Berkeley.

In an email to HPCwire, the team stressed the importance of this research area to critical fields. Many-against-many sequence search is the backbone of biological sequence analysis used in drug discovery, healthcare, bioenergy, and environmental studies, they wrote. Our work is perhaps the first [Gordon Bell] finalist for a biological sequence analysis problem, which is surprising because sequence analysis is a perfect supercomputing application due to its data and compute intensive nature.

Our pipeline, PASTIS, performs a novel application of sparse matrices to narrow down the search space and to avoid quadratic number of sequence comparisons. Sparse matrix computations are much harder to map efficiently to modern supercomputing hardware, especially to GPU-equipped supercomputers such as the Summit system we have used in this work. Our approach cuts back the turnaround time from days to minutes in discovering similar sequences in huge protein datasets to complete the subsequent analytical steps in bioinformatics and allow for exploratory analysis of data sets under different parameter settings.

Thats all of them. For those keeping score at home: three finalist teams used Fugaku; three used Summit; two used Frontier; and OceanLight, Perlmutter and Shaheen-2 were each used by one finalist team. Were still watching for the reveal of the finalists for the Gordon Bell Special Prize for High Performance Computing-Based Covid-19 Research, which will be awarded for the third time at SC22. At SC22 itself set to be held in Dallas from November 13-18 the finalists for both Gordon Bell Prizes will present their research ahead of the award ceremony.

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Inside the Gordon Bell Prize Finalist Projects - HPCwire

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET's complete coverage from and about Apple's annual developers conference.

Apple and Google are updating their phone software and web browsers this year with technology called passkeys that's designed to be easy to use and more secure than passwords.

Passwords are plagued with problems, but tech giants have cooperated to design a practical alternative that reduces vulnerabilities and hacking risks.

With the iOS 16 release on Monday, Apple will introduce support for passkeys, a new logon technology that promises to be more secure than passwords at guarding access to our bank accounts and email.Apple demonstrated passkeysat its Worldwide Developers Conference and said they'll come toiOS 16andMacOS Venturathis fall, and they're coming to Google's Android and to web browsers, too.

Passkeys are as easy -- maybe easier -- to use than passwords. They replace the riot of keystrokes needed for passwords with a biometric check on our phones or computers. They also stop phishing attacks and banish the complications of two-factor authentication, like SMS codes, that strengthen the password system's weaknesses.

Once you set up a passkey for a site or app, it's stored on the phone or personal computer you used to set it up. Services like Apple's iCloud Keychain or Google's Chrome password manager can synchronize passkeys across your devices. Dozens of tech companies developed the open standards behind passkeys in a group called the FIDO Alliance, which announced passkeys in May.

"Now is the time to adopt them," Garrett Davidson, an authentication technology engineer at Apple, said in a WWDC talk about passkeys. "With passkeys, not only is the user experience better than with passwords, but entire categories of security -- like weak and reused credentials, credential leaks, and phishing -- are just not possible anymore."

You'll have to spend a little time on the learning curve before passkeys meet their potential. You'll also have to decide whether Apple, Microsoft or Google is the best option for you.

Here's a look at the technology.

It's a new type of login credential consisting of a little bit of digital data your PC or phone uses when logging onto a server. You approve each use of that data with an authentication step, such as fingerprint check, face recognition, a PIN code or the login swipe pattern familiar to Android phone owners.

Here's the catch: You'll have to have your phone or computer with you to use passkeys. You can't log onto a passkey-secured account from a friend's computer without a device of your own.

Passkeys are synchronized and backed up. If you get a new Android phone or iPhone, Google and Apple can restore your passkeys. With end-to-end encryption, Google and Apple can't see or alter the passkeys. Apple has designed its system to keep passkeys secure even if an attacker or Apple employee compromises your iCloud account.

It's pretty simple. Use your fingerprint, face or another mechanism to authenticate a passkey when a website or app prompts you to set one up. That's it.

These steps show how to log on with passkeys on an Android phone: choose the passkey option, choose the appropriate passkey, and authenticate with a fingerprint ID. Face recognition also is an option on compatible phones.

When using a phone, a passkey authentication option will appear when you try to log on to an app. Tap that option, use the authentication technique you've chosen, and you're in.

For websites, you should see a passkey option by the username field. After that, the process is the same.

Once you have a passkey on your phone, you can use it to facilitate login on another nearby device, like your laptop. Once you're logged in, that website can offer to create a new passkey linked to the new device.

You can use a passkey stored on your phone to log onto another nearby device, like a laptop you're borrowing. The login screen on the borrowed laptop will have an option to present a QR code you can scan with your phone. You'll use Bluetooth to ensure your phone and the computer are close by, then let you use a fingerprint or face ID check on your own phone. Your phone then will communicate with the computer over a secure connection to complete the authentication process.

Passkeys employ a time tested security foundation called public key cryptography for login operation. That's the same technology that protects your credit card number when you type it into a website. The beauty of the system is that a website only has to base its passkey record on your public key, data that's designed to be openly visible. The private key used to set up a passkey is stored only on your own device. There's no database of password data that a hacker can steal.

Another big benefit is that passkeys block phishing attempts. "Passkeys are intrinsically linked to the website or app they were set up for, so users can never be tricked into using their passkey on the wrong website," Ricky Mondello, who oversees authentication technology at Apple, said in a WWDC video.

Using passkeys requires that you have your device handy and be able to unlock it, a combination that offers the protection of two-factor authentication but with less bother than SMS codes. And with passkeys, nobody can snoop over your shoulder to watch you type your password.

Passkeys begin emerging this year.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple said it'll bring passkeys to iOS 16 and MacOS Ventura, its major operating system software updates expected this fall. In May, Google will bring passkey support to Android software by the end of 2022 for developer testing, Google authentication leader Mark Risher said. Passkey support should arrive in Chrome and Chrome OS at the same time. Microsoft plans support in Windows in coming months.

Some websites and apps will be eager to update their login software to use passkeys, so they can take advantage of the security benefits. Others will move more slowly. Even if passkeys catch on fast, don't expect passwords to disappear.

It's unlikely you'll be forced to use passkeys while the technology is new and unfamiliar. Websites and apps you already use will likely add passkey support alongside existing password methods.

If you need to log into a friend's computer that doesn't have your passkey, scanning a QR code will let your phone handle the authentication process.

When you sign up for a new service, passkeys may be presented as the preferred option. Eventually, they may become the only option.

Not exactly. Although passkeys are anchored to one company's technology suite, you'll be able to bridge out of, say, Apple's world to use passkeys with Microsoft's or Google's.

"Users can sign in on a Google Chrome browser that's running on Microsoft Windows, using a passkey on an Apple device," Vasu Jakkal, a Microsoft leader of security and identity technology, said in a May blog post.

Passkey advocates also are working on technology to let people migrate their passkeys from one tech domain to another, Apple and Google say.

Password managers play an increasingly important role in generating, storing and synchronizing passwords. But passkeys will likely be anchored to your phone or personal computer, not your password manager, at least in the eyes of tech giants like Google and Apple.

That could change, though.

"We expect a natural evolution to an architecture that allows third-party passkey managers to plug in, and for portability among ecosystems," Google's Risher said.

He anticipates that passkeys will evolve to lower barriers between ecosystems and to accommodate third-party passkey managers. "This has been a discussion point since early in this industry push."

Indeed, password manager Dashlane is testing passkey support and plans to release it broadly in coming weeks. "Users can store their passkeys for multiple sites and benefit from the same convenience and security they already have with their passwords," the company said in a blog post.

1Password maker AgileBits just joined the FIDO Alliance, andDashLane and LastPass already are members.

See the rest here:

Passkeys, the No-Password Login Tech, Come to iOS 16 on Monday - CNET

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Baidu is the latest entrant in the quantum computing race, which has been ongoing for years among both big tech and startups. Nevertheless, quantum computing may face a trough of disillusionment as practical applications remain far from reality.

Last week, Baidu unveiled its first quantum computer, coined Qian Shi, as well as what it claimed is the worlds first all-platform integration solution, called Liang Xi. The quantum computer is based on superconducting qubits, which is one of the first types of qubits, among many techniques that have been investigated, that became widely adopted, most notably in the quantum computer which Google used to proclaim quantum supremacy.

Qian Shi has a computing power of 10 high-fidelity qubits. High fidelity refers to low error rates. According to the Department of Energys Office of Science, once the error rate is less than a certain threshold i.e., about 1% quantum error correction can, in theory, reduce it even further. Beating this threshold is a milestone for any qubit technology, according to the DOEs report.

Further, Baidu said it has also completed the design of a 36-qubit chip with couplers, which offers a way to reduce errors. Baidu said its quantum computer integrates both hardware, software and applications. The software-hardware integration allows access to quantum chips via mobile, PC and the cloud.

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Moreover, Liang Xi, Baidu claims, can be plugged into both its own and third-party quantum computers. This may include quantum chips built on other technologies, with Baidu giving a trapped ion device developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as an example.

With Qian Shi and Liang Xi, users can create quantum algorithms and use quantum computing power without developing their own quantum hardware, control systems or programming languages, said Runyao Duan, director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at Baidu Research. Baidus innovations make it possible to access quantum computing anytime and anywhere, even via smartphone. Baidus platform is also instantly compatible with a wide range of quantum chips.

Despite Baidus claim of being the worlds first such solution, the Liang Xi platform is reminiscent of Israels Innovation Authority approach, which is also aimed at being compatible with various types of qubits.

Although this is Baidus first quantum computer, the company has already submitted over 200 patents throughout the last four years since the founding of its quantum computing research institute. The patents span various areas of research including quantum algorithms and applications, communications and networks, encryption and security, error correction, architecture, measurement and control and chip design.

Baidu claims its offering paves the way for the industrialization of quantum computing, making it the latest company to make grandiose claims about quantum computing being on the verge of widespread adoption. Some quantum startups have already amassed staggering valuations of over $1 billion.

However, real applications for quantum computers, besides encryption, have yet to emerge. And even if they do, its expected that those will require thousands, which is far from what has anyone yet been able to achieve. For example, this scalability concern led Intel to stop pursuing the popular superconducting qubit approach in favor of the less mature silicon and silicon-germanium qubits, which are based on transistor-like structures that can be manufactured using traditional semiconductor equipment.

Nevertheless, voices are already emerging to warn of overhyping the technology. In the words of the Gartner Hype Cycle, this may mean that quantum computing may approach its trough of disillusionment.

The other main challenge in quantum computing is that real qubits tend to be too noisy, leading to decoherence This leads to the necessity of using quantum error correction, which increases the number of qubits far above the theoretical minimum for a given application. A solution called noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) has been proposed as a sort of midway, but its success has yet to be shown.

The history of classical computers is filled with examples of applications that the technology enabled that had never been thought of beforehand. This makes it tempting to think that quantum computing may similarly revolutionize civilization. However, most approaches for qubits currently rely on near-absolute zero temperature. This inherent barrier implies quantum computing may remain limited to enterprises.

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How reality gets in the way of quantum computing hype - VentureBeat

By Yuval Boger

When companies recognize that quantum computing has the potential to dramatically transform their business, they often seek to hire quantum information science PhDs to staff their quantum activities. The thought is that such PhDs are quantum experts and are equipped with knowledge and experience that can help accelerate a companys quantum program. But would hiring many such PhDs be a realistic approach? What might be good alternatives?

One challenge with hiring quantum PhDs is that there are not enough of them. McKinseys June 22 Quantum Technology Monitor reports that there were 851 active quantum computing job postings in Dec 21, yet annually only 290 quantum technology graduates are available to fill these positions without requiring significant training. The same report notes that only 12 universities in the US (and a total of 29 universities worldwide) offer a quantum technology masters degree, so its unlikely that the number of graduates will increase as quickly as the need for their services.

But thats not the only concern. Companies build quantum teams to explore quantum solutions to their specific challenges option pricing, chemical simulation, supply chain optimization, etc. How quickly would these quantum graduates pick up the intricacies of the business? Even if such a graduate became well-versed in high-end finance, for example, they might not have the personal relationships and interpersonal skills to navigate company politics and build organizational support for their efforts. They also often lack relationships with peers in the industry and thus might be limited in their ability to leverage lessons learned in other organizations.

An alternative could be up-skilling, providing quantum training to in-house scientists and engineers that already understand the business and are well-connected in the organization as well as in their respective industries. Quantum computing is a hot topic and, in my experience, many would be highly motivated to participate in quantum training. Many online (sometimes free) courses are available for both beginners and advanced users. Additionally, the emergence of higher-level libraries and abstraction layers makes it easier to create useful quantum software without mastering the fine details of how quantum computers are built or resorting to intricate low-level coding. Often, quantum computing efforts sometimes grow from the bottom up, not by executive edict, and motivated employees just need permission to spend more time learning and exploring. Last, up-skilling promotes employee retention and job satisfaction.

Another option is to plug the skills gap using consulting companies. Firms like BCG or Deloitte can perform two types of functions. The first educating executives, identifying promising use cases, and providing industry benchmarks can be very useful to accelerate a companys quantum program. The second actually writing quantum computing code, whether by generalist companies or those specializing in quantum computing can be a mixed blessing. They might provide trained, able consultants, but organizations sometimes worry about IP-sharing arrangements or the ability to develop their workforce when relying on outside parties.

Last, an emerging option is quantum API marketplaces. Just like Google provides an API for finding the best route between two points, quantum API marketplaces provide pay per use quantum algorithms for optimization, random number generation, and more. They potentially allow faster exploration of use cases without the burden of coding sophisticated algorithms.

Im not recommending shying away from hiring quantum PhDs but rather exploring an intelligent mix of these alternatives. Quantum computing is too important to ignore. Dont slow down the progress by exclusively relying on outside talent.

Yuval Boger is a quantum computing executive. Known as the original Qubit Guy, he most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer for Classiq.

September 1, 2022

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Is Hiring Quantum PhDs the Answer? - Quantum Computing Report

Fujitsu and Japans Riken research institution will team to deliver Japan-made quantum computing starting next April, according to an article on the Nikkei Asia news site.The story states that Fujitsus quantum system is expected to have 64 qubits, more than the 53 qubits in Googles 2019 machine and second to IBMs 127 qubits developed in 2021, Nikkei reported, adding that Fujitsu hopes to deliver a machine with more than 1,000 qubits in 2026.

Last April, Fujitsu and Riken built a base in Saitama, Japan for joint quantum computing development, the Nikkei story stated, with approximately 20 researchers on site. The system is expected to be used for financial forecasting, new materials and medical workloads.

Fujitsu will now use technology and know-how from Riken to become the first Japanese company to build quantum computers, the story said. Like Google and IBM, Fujitsu will adopt a method of computing with a superconductive circuit that is cooled to extremely low temperatures to eliminate electrical resistance.

In other quantum, Chinese AI company Baidu announced last week its first superconducting quantum computer that fully integrates hardware, software, and applications, according to the company.

Baidu also introduced the worlds first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration solution that provides access to various quantum chips via mobile app, PC, and cloud, the company said.

Located at Baidus Quantum Computing Hardware Lab in Beijing, Qian Shi is Baidus first industry-level superconducting quantum computer. Baidu said the system incorporates its hardware platform with Baidus home-grown software stack.

Qian Shi offers high-fidelity 10 quantum bits (qubits) of power, the company said. In addition, Baidu has recently completed the design of a 36-qubit superconducting quantum chip with couplers, which demonstrates promising simulation results across key metrics.

Baidu also highlighted development of Liang Xi, which the company said is the first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration that offers quantum services through private deployment, cloud services, and hardware access. Liang Xi plugs into Qian Shi and other third-party quantum computers, including a 10-qubit superconducting quantum device and a trapped ion quantum device developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Users can visit these quantum computational resources via mobile app, PC, and cloud, Baidu said.

With Qian Shi and Liang Xi, users can create quantum algorithms and use quantum computing power without developing their own quantum hardware, control systems, or programming languages, said Dr. Runyao Duan, Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at Baidu Research. Baidus innovations make it possible to access quantum computing anytime and anywhere, even via smartphone. Baidus platform is also instantly compatible with a wide range of quantum chips, meaning plug-and-play access is now a reality.

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Fujitsu, Riken Partner to Deliver Quantum Computing in Japan Next Year - High-Performance Computing News Analysis | insideHPC - insideHPC