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Within a decade, quantum technologies will revolutionise our approach to complex problem solving and enable us to seize new opportunities in the fields of sensing, timing, imaging, and communications.

Thats according to the UK National Quantum Strategy, which then highlights the associated threats to cryptography and the means by which we protect and secure our digital capabilities.

This formed the backdrop for the recent inaugural Quantum Computing (QC) Fair for Defence, which IBM hosted in collaboration with RAF Digital. 100+ delegates from across Defence, academia and industry came together to dive into the world of Quantum Computing, learn from experiences across government and other sectors, explore use cases and develop ideas and next steps.

Despite the theory of quantum computers advancing in the 1980s and 1990s, it's with recent industry breakthroughs that QC begins to move from the labs into the world of Defence and business. Applicable across a broad spectrum of industry sectors, QC is important in the world of defence due to its potential to revolutionise cryptography, communication, optimisation, and simulation tasks. The development of quantum-resistant cryptography will become crucial for maintaining secure defence communications in the future, which is reflected in the UK National Quantum Strategy that looks to establish the UK as a leader in the field.

Recognising the growing opportunities to examine the potential of QC, RAF Digital joined forces with IBM to raise awareness across the RAF and the broader Defence community. As a leading organisation in the field of quantum technologies, IBM was recently announced as a partner to the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), with a remit to support organisations in understanding and applying the power of QC and to provide access to its QC capabilities. This made it ideally placed to deliver two Quantum 101 awareness training sessions to 40 RAF technical experts and senior leaders. Spurred on by the enthusiastic reception, IBM also organised a Quantum Computing Fair for Defence at its Innovation suite in London.

The Fair aimed to catalyse the formation of the Defence Quantum Computing Community and progress thinking about how QC could be applied within the Defence context, amplifying our understanding of the UKs quantum computing capabilities and intent.

I am hugely grateful to IBM for hosting the Fair and to all those who attended. Without doubt, this event has energised discussions about how to exploit such technologies, both to advance Defence capabilities and in support of the broader UK strategy. As Quantum forges towards maturity, the MoD has the opportunity to access Quantum Computing expertise and services, grow skills, and develop use cases; we now have an identified community of interest who can collaborate to formalise our approach in anticipation of what this technology will bring."

Group Captain Ramsden AH RAF Digital Capability

The immersive and interactive day comprised of presentations from leading figures across government, industry, and academia, along with workshops hosted by IBMs network of Quantum Ambassadors and a discussion panel with each of the Defence delegations represented. Rachel Maze, DSIT, outlined the 10-year vision of the UK National Quantum Strategy to build UK to be a world leading quantum-enabled economy by 2033. Geoff Barnes, NQCC, described their exciting work, such as developing a prototype for an intermediate scale full-stack quantum computer. Chris Moore Bick, DST, shared information about the recent refresh of the Defence Command paper. Dr. Phillip Intallura, HSBC, presented how HSBC uses QC to enhance cyber-resilience and then Dominic OBrien, Quantum Computing and Simulation Hub, Oxford, showed how the Hub is now a vibrant network with 17 academic and 28 industrial partners.

Dr. Arif Mustafa, RAF Director Digital, hosted a stimulating panel discussion that demonstrated the value of collaboration in QC and generated valuable insights, with interactive break-out workshops exploring topics such as QC use cases for Defence, programming a Quantum Computer, building a QC workforce and Quantum Safe for Defence.

It was a real pleasure to be able to work with the RAF Digital team deliver the Quantum Computing Fair, an event designed by Defence for Defence, and we are very grateful to all speakers and delegates. With engaged representation and lively debate throughout the day, the main objective to catalyse the cohering of Defences Quantum Computing Community has been surely met. IBM is committed to helping make the NQCC the focus for the adoption of QC by Government and extending its education and training resources to accelerate upskilling in key sectors. We look forward to continuing to work with Defence as it explores and exploits the potential QC represents.

Ed Gillet IBM

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Quantum Computing Fair: Shaping the future world of Defence - Royal Air Force

TORONTO and COLUMBIA, S. C., April 16, 2024 Xanadu, a world leader in photonic quantum computing, and South Carolina Quantum (SC Quantum), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing academia, industry, and entrepreneurs together to build a sustainable quantum ecosystem, have formed a partnership to develop practical, hands-on educational materials and grow a quantum-smart workforce in South Carolina.

Xanadu is on a mission to make quantum computers useful and available to people everywhere. In 2022, Xanadu made the strategic decision to partner with academic institutions and organizations focused on quantum education to help build a global quantum computing workforce. As part of its long-term vision to support quantum education and research in the US, Xanadu expanded its operations by opening a dedicated US entity in March of 2024.

SC Quantums goal is to accelerate the future of a quantum ecosystem through developing relevant quantum education across all levels of education to inspire a professional quantum-smart workforce, creating an environment for innovation and opportunity for entrepreneurs, and engaging with industry and tech to bring real world, complex problems for research opportunities to challenge students critical thinking and provide access to quantum technology.

The quantum field is growing rapidly and the next generation must be highly skilled in a range of tools and approaches. Were excited to partner with SC Quantum to accelerate quantum education and research in the State of South Carolina and across the United States, said Xanadu Founder and CEO, Christian Weedbrook.

PennyLane, Xanadus open-source software framework, will be a pillar of this partnership. With support from the team at Xanadu, researchers in the SC Quantum network will utilize PennyLane to design and develop next-generation quantum algorithms and to test them on simulators and Xanadus photonic quantum hardware. Xanadus technology will also be used as a foundation for developing hands-on educational experiences to be integrated into SC Quantums growing university network.

Our mission is to champion the advancement of quantum talent and technology in South Carolina. To succeed in this mission, we need to partner with world-renowned quantum companies with cutting-edge technologies, making Xanadu an obvious choice for one of our first partnerships. We look forward to the research and training that our network will benefit from, said Joe Queenan, Executive Director, South Carolina Quantum.

About Xanadu

Xanadu is a quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Founded in 2016, Xanadu has become one of the worlds leading quantum hardware and software companies. The company also leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum computing and application development.

About SCQ

South Carolina Quantum (SC Quantum), a 501(c)(3), was established in 2022 in Columbia, South Carolina to Champion the advancement of quantum talent and technologies in South Carolina. As a convening organization, we promote collaboration among academia, entrepreneurs, industry, and government. After a $15 million grant from the state of South Carolina in 2023, SC Quantum quickly grew interest from partners in South Carolina and the region to further the mission of what is now SC Quantum.

Source: Xanadu

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Xanadu and South Carolina Quantum Establish Partnership to Build the Quantum Workforce of Tomorrow - HPCwire

Fintech startups and even incumbent banks continue to explore ways to leverage widely popular artificial intelligence for a host of tasks.

This includes producing and personalizing policy documents, the extraction of information from documents, and communication with customers. AI could be tasked to work with big data, which banks have plenty of, with generative AI also being put to work. There are concerns, however, about AI potentially introducing hallucinations into processes as well as the potential for bad actors to use AI to assail the security of banks and smaller fintechs.

The risks could be further compounded if quantum-powered AI, a potential future tech tag team, gets into the wrong hands -- a nightmare scenario where current encryption protection might be at risk of becoming vulnerable.

In the latest episode of DOS Wont Hunt, Doug Hathaway, vice president of engineering with Versapay; Prashant Kelker, chief strategy officer and partner with ISG; and Sitaram Iyer, senior director of cloud native solutions with Venafi discuss ways innovations that could transform fintech might also require conversations about guardrails and safeguards as technologies converge. Though quantum computing is still down the road, AI is making moves here and now, including in fintech.

Related:AI, Bitcoin, and Distilled Spirits at New York Fintech Week

Listen to the full podcast here.

More here:
AI and Quantum Computing: High Risks or Big Boons to Fintech? - InformationWeek

A device called a quantum drum may serve as "a crucial piece in the very foundation for the Internet of the future with quantum speed and quantum security", says Mads Bjerregaard Kristensen, postdoc from the Niels Bohr Institute in a new research piece. The original research paper has an official briefing available for free on Phys.org, and can be found published in full in the Physical Review Letters journal for a subscription fee.

One key issue with quantum computing and sending quantum data ("qubits") over long distances is the difficulty of maintaining data in a fragile quantum state where losing data or "decohering" becomes a much higher risk. Using a quantum drum at steps along the chain can prevent this data decoherence from occurring, enabling longer and even potentially global communication distances.

The current record for sending qubits over a long distance is held by China and Russia, and is about 3,800 km with only encryption keys sent as quantum data. The standard wired qubit transmission range is roughly 1000 kilometers before loss of photons ruins the data. Quantum drums could potentially address this limitation.

How does a 'quantum drum' work? In a similar manner to how existing digital bits can be converted into just about anything (sound, video, etc.), qubits can be converted as well. However, qubits require a level of precision literally imperceivable to the human eye, so converting qubits without data loss is quite difficult. The quantum drum seems like a potential answer. Its ceramic glass-esque membrane was shown to be capable of maintaining quantum states as it vibrates with stored quantum information.

Another important purpose served by these quantum drums is security. Were we to start transferring information between quantum computers over the standard Internet, it would inherit the same insecurities as our existing standards. That's because it would need to be converted to standard bits and bytes, which could become essentially free to decode in the not-so-distant quantum future.

By finding a quantum storage medium that doesn't lose any data and allows information to be transferred over much longer distances, the vision of a worthwhile "Quantum Internet" begins to manifest as a real possibility, and not simply the optimism of quantum computing researchers.

Quantum computing research continues to be a major area of interest, often with highly technical discussions and details on the technology. A research paper on quantum drums and their potential of course doesn't mean that this technique will prove to be commercially viable. Still, every little step forward creates new opportunities for our seemingly inevitable quantum-powered future.

Join the experts who read Tom's Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news and have for over 25 years. We'll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox.

Originally posted here:
Researchers create 'quantum drums' to store qubits one step closer to groundbreaking internet speed and security - Tom's Hardware

Quantum computing is the next frontier for faster and more powerful computing technologies. It has the potential to better optimize routes for shipping and delivery, speed up battery development for electric vehicles, and more accurately predict trends in financial markets. But to unlock the quantum future, scientists and engineers need to solve outstanding technical challenges while continuing to explore new applications.

One place where theyre working towards this future is the MIT Interdisciplinary Quantum Hackathon, or iQuHACK for short (pronounced i-quack, like a duck). Each year, a community of quhackers (quantum hackers) gathers at iQuHACK to work on quantum computing projects using real quantum computers and simulators. This year, the hackathon was held both in-person at MIT and online over three days in February.

Quhackers worked in teams to advance the capability of quantum computers and to investigate promising applications. Collectively, they tackled a wide range of projects, such as running a quantum-powered dating service, building an organ donor matching app, and breaking into quantum vaults. While working, quhackers could consult with scientists and engineers in attendance from sponsoring companies. Many sponsors also received feedback and ideas from quhackers to help improve their quantum platforms.

But organizing iQuHACK 2024 was no easy feat. Co-chairs Alessandro Buzzi and Daniela Zaidenberg led a committee of nine members to hold the largest iQuHACK yet. It wouldnt have been possible without them, Buzzi said. The hackathon hosted 260 in-person quhackers and 1,000 remote quhackers, representing 77 countries in total. More than 20 scientists and engineers from sponsoring companies also attended in person as mentors for quhackers.

Each team of quhackers tackled one of 10 challenges posed by the hackathons eight major sponsoring companies. Some challenges asked quhackers to improve computing performance, such as by making quantum algorithms faster and more accurate. Other challenges asked quhackers to explore applying quantum computing to other fields, such as finance and machine learning. The sponsors worked with the iQuHACK committee to craft creative challenges with industry relevance and societal impact. We wanted people to be able to address an interesting challenge [that has] applications in the real world, says Zaidenberg.

One team of quhackers looked for potential quantum applications and found one close to home: dating. A team member, Liam Kronman, had previously built dating apps but disliked that matching algorithms for normal classical computers require [an overly] strict setup. With these classical algorithms, people must be split into two groups for example, men and women and matches can only be made between these groups. But with quantum computers, matching algorithms are more flexible and can consider all possible combinations, enabling the inclusion of multiple genders and gender preferences.

Kronman and his team members leveraged these quantum algorithms to build a quantum-powered dating platform called MITqute (pronounced meet cute). To date, the platform has matched at least 240 people from the iQuHACK and MIT undergrad communities. In a follow-up survey, 13 out of 41 respondents reported having talked with their match, with at least two pairs setting up dates. I really lucked out with this one, one respondent wrote.

Another team of quhackers also based their project on quantum matching algorithms but instead leveraged the algorithms power for medical care. The team built a mobile app that matches organ donors to patients, earning them the hackathons top social impact award.

But they almost didnt go through with their project. At one point, we were considering scrapping the whole thing because we thought we couldnt implement the algorithm, says Alma Alex, one of the developers. After talking with their hackathon mentor for advice, though, the team learned that another group was working on a similar type of project incidentally, the MITqute team. Knowing that others were tackling the same problem inspired them to persevere.

A sense of community also helped to motivate other quhackers. For one of the challenges, quhackers were tasked with hacking into 13 virtual quantum vaults. Teams could see each others progress on each vault in real time on a leaderboard, and this knowledge informed their strategies. When the first vault was successfully hacked by a team, progress from many other teams spiked on that vault and slowed down on others, says Daiwei Zhu, a quantum applications scientist at IonQ and one of the challenges two architects.

The vault challenge may appear to be just a fun series of puzzles, but the solutions can be used in quantum computers to improve their efficiency and accuracy. To hack into a vault, quhackers had to first figure out its secret key an unknown quantum state using a maximum of 20 probing tests. Then, they had to change the keys state to a target state. These types of characterizations and modifications of quantum states are fundamental for quantum computers to work, says Jason Iaconis, a quantum applications engineer at IonQ and the challenges other architect.

But the best way to characterize and modify states is not yet clear. Some of the [vaults] we [didnt] even know how to solve ourselves, Zhu says. At the end of the hackathon, six vaults had at least one team mostly hack into them. (In the quantum world where gray areas exist, its possible to partly hack into a vault.)

The community of scientists and engineers formed at iQuHACK persists beyond the weekend, and many members continue to grow the community outside the hackathon. Inspired quhackers have gone on to start their own quantum computing clubs at their universities. A few years ago, a group of undergraduate quhackers from different universities formed a Quantum Coalition that now hosts their own quantum hackathons. Its crazy to see how the hackathon itself spreads and how many people start their own initiatives, co-chair Zaidenberg says.

The three-day hackathon opened with a keynote from MIT Professor Will Oliver, which included an overview of basic quantum computing concepts, current challenges, and computing technologies. Following that were industry talks and a panel of six industry and academic quantum experts, including MIT Professor Peter Shor, who is known for developing one of the most famous quantum algorithms. The panelists discussed current challenges, future applications, the importance of collaboration, and the need for ample testing.

Later, sponsors held technical workshops where quhackers could learn the nitty-gritty details of programming on specific quantum platforms. Day one closed out with a talk by research scientist Xinghui Yin on the role of quantum technology at LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory that first detected gravitational waves. The next day, the hackathons challenges were announced at 10 a.m., and hacking kicked off at the MIT InnovationHQ. In the afternoon, attendees could also tour MIT quantum computing labs.

Hacking continued overnight at the MIT Museum and ended back at MIT iHQ at 10 a.m. on the final day. Quhackers then presented their projects to panels of judges. Afterward, industry speakers gave lightning talks about each of their companys latest quantum technologies and future directions. The hackathon ended with a closing ceremony, where sponsors announced the awards for each of the 10 challenges.

The hackathon was captured in a three-part video by Albert Figurt, a resident artist at MIT. Figurt shot and edited the footage in parallel with the hackathon. Each part represented one day of the hackathon and was released on the subsequent day.

Throughout the weekend, quhackers and sponsors consistently praised the hackathons execution and atmosphere. That was amazing never felt so much better, one of the best hackathons I did from over 30 hackathons I attended, Abdullah Kazi, a quhacker, wrote on the iQuHACK Slack.

Ultimately, [we wanted to] help people to meet each other, co-chair Buzzi says. The impact [of iQuHACK] is scientific in some way, but its very human at the most important level.

Original post:
Unlocking the quantum future - MIT News