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Fans of Marvel movies know the word 'quantum' too well.

It's the name of the realm the Avengers used to time travel and fantastical as that is, the concept of quantum mechanics is far from fiction.

Scientists have toyed with the idea since the 1920s in an attempt to explain the mysteries of our universe that can not be explained by traditional physics.

The University of Sydney (USYD) and University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW) are among Google's new partners, which already included Macquarie University (MQ) and the University of Technology (UTS).

Associate Professor Ivan Kassal, from USYD believes advancements in quantum chemistry could develop life saving medicines and help predict the impact of atmospheric matter on our climate.

"Simulating chemistry is likely to be one of the first applications of quantum computers, and my goal is to develop the quantum algorithms that will allow near-term quantum computers to give us insights into chemical processes that are too complicated to simulate on any classical supercomputer," Kassal said.

Those are very physical problems to solve, but the potential of quantum computers could also speed up solving systems, crack cryptography and enable new applications of machine learning.

Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley said Google's interest in Australia is "testament to the world class research that has been supported by the Australian Research Council for over two decades".

"I am delighted that Google sees Australia as somewhere to do quantum research. A step in building Australia's quantum industry here," said Dr Foley.

Google is building its quantum research team in Sydney, including its newly-appointed quantum computing scientist, Dr Marika Kieferova.

Professor Michael Bremner of UTS said one of this biggest challenges in quantum computing "is understanding which applications quantum computers can deliver performance that goes beyond classical computing."

"In this project, my team at UTS will work with Google on this problem, examining the mathematical structures that drive quantum algorithms to go beyond classical computing," Professor Michael Bremner, UTS

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Quantum computing and the Australians on the cutting edge - 9News

USC has been an animating force for computing research since the late 1960s.

With the advent of the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in 1972 and the Department of Computer Science in 1976 (born out of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), USC has played a propulsive role in everything from the internet to the Oculus Rift to recent Nobel Prizes.

Here are seven of those victories reimagined as cinemagraphs still photographs animated by subtle yet remarkable movements.

Cinemagraph: Birth of .Com

1. The Birth of the .com (1983)

While working at ISI, Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel pioneered the Domain Name System, which introduced the .com, .edu, .gov and .org internet naming standards.

As Wired noted on the 25th anniversary, Without the Domain Name System, its doubtful the internet could have grown and flourished as it has.

The DNS works like a phone book for the internet, automatically translating text names, which are easy for humans to understand and remember, to numerical addresses that computers need. For example, imagine trying to remember an IP address like 192.0.2.118 instead of simply usc.edu.

In a 2009 interview with NPR, Mockapetris said he believed the first domain name he ever created was isi.edu for his employer, the (USC) Information Sciences Institute. That domain name is still in use today.

Grace Park, B.S. and M.S. 22 in chemical engineering, re-creates Len Adlemans famous experiment.

2. The Invention of DNA Computing (1994)

In a drop of water, a computation took place.

In 1994, Professor Leonard Adleman, who coined the term computer virus, invented DNA computing, which involves performing computations using biological molecules rather than traditional silicon chips.

Adleman who received the 2002 Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computer science saw that a computer could be something other than a laptop or machine using electrical impulses. After visiting a USC biology lab in 1993, he recognized that the 0s and 1s of conventional computers could be replaced with the four DNA bases: A, C, G and T. As he later wrote, a liquid computer can exist in which interacting molecules perform computations.

As the New York Times noted in 1997: Currently the worlds most powerful supercomputer sprawls across nearly 150 square meters at the U.S. governments Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. But a DNA computer has the potential to perform the same breakneck-speed computations in a single drop of water.

Weve shown by these computations that biological molecules can be used for distinctly non-biological purposes, Adleman said in 2002. They are miraculous little machines. They store energy and information, they cut, paste and copy.

Professor Maja Matari with Blossom, a cuddly, robot companion to help people with anxiety and depression practice breathing exercises and mindfulness.

3. USC Interaction Lab Pioneers Socially Assistive Robotics (2005)

Named No. 5 by Business Insider as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women Engineers in Tech, Maja Matari leads the USC Interaction Lab, pioneering the field of socially assistive robotics (SAR).

As defined by Matari and her then-graduate researcher David Feil-Seifer 17 years ago, socially assistive robotics was envisioned as the intersection of assistive robotics and social robotics, a new field that focuses on providing social support for helping people overcome challenges in health, wellness, education and training.

Socially assistive robots have been developed for a broad range of user communities, including infants with movement delays, children with autism, stroke patients, people with dementia and Alzheimers disease, and otherwise healthy elderly people.

We want these robots to make the user happier, more capable and better able to help themselves, said Matari, the Chan Soon-Shiong Chair and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience and Pediatrics at USC. We also want them to help teachers and therapists, not remove their purpose.

The field has inspired investments from federal funding agencies and technology startups. The assistive robotics market is estimated to reach $25.16 billion by 2028.

Is the ball red or blue? Is the cat alive or dead? Professor Daniel Lidar, one of the worlds top quantum influencers, demonstrates the idea of superposition.

4. First Operational Quantum Computing System in Academia (2011)

Before Google or NASA got into the game, there was the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center (QCC).

Led by Daniel Lidar, holder of the Viterbi Professorship in Engineering, and ISIs Robert F. Lucas (now retired), the center launched in 2011. With the worlds first commercial adiabatic quantum processor, the D-Wave One, USC is the only university in the world to host and operate a commercial quantum computing system.

As USC News noted in 2018, quantum computing is the ultimate disruptive technologyit has the potential to create the best possible investment portfolio, dissolve urban traffic jams and bring drugs to market faster. It can optimize batteries for electric cars, predictions for weather and models for climate change.Quantum computing can do this, and much more, because it can crunch massive data and variables and do it quickly with advantage over classical computers as problems get bigger.

Recently, QCC upgraded to D-Waves Advantage system, with more than 5,000 qubits, an order of magnitude larger than any other quantum computer. The upgrades will enable QCC to host a new Advantage generation of quantum annealers from D-Wave and will be the first Leap quantum cloud system in the United States. Today, in addition to Professor Lidar one of the worlds top quantum computing influencers QCC is led by Research Assistant Professor Federico Spedalieri, as operations director, and Research Associate Professor Stephen Crago, associate director of ISI.

David Traum, a leader at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), converses with Pinchas Gutter, a Holocaust survivor, as part of the New Dimensions in Testimony.

5. USC ICT Enables Talking with the Pastin the Future (2015)

New Dimensions in Testimony, a collaboration between the USC Shoah Foundation and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), in partnership with Conscience Display, is an initiative to record and display testimony in a way that will continue the dialogue between Holocaust survivors and learners far into the future.

The project uses ICTs Light Stage technology to record interviews using multiple high-end cameras for high-fidelity playback. The ICT Dialogue Groups natural language technology allows fluent, open-ended conversation with the recordings. The result is a compelling and emotional interactive experience that enables viewers to ask questions and hear responses in real-time, lifelike conversation even after the survivors have passed away.

New Dimensions in Testimony debuted in the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in 2015. Since then, more than 50 survivors and other witnesses have been recorded and presented in dozens of museums around the United States and the world. It remains a powerful application of AI and graphics to preserve the stories and lived experiences of culturally and historically significant figures.

Eric Rice and Bistra Dilkina are co-directors of the Center for AI in Society (CAIS), a remarkable collaboration between the USC Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

6. Among the First AI for Good Centers in Higher Education (2016)

Launched in 2016, the Center for AI in Society (CAIS) became one of the pioneering AI for Good centers in the U.S., uniting USC Viterbi and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.

In the past, CAIS used AI to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among homeless youth. In fact, a pilot study demonstrated a 40% increase in homeless youth seeking HIV/AIDS testing due to an AI-assisted intervention. In 2019, the technology was also used as part of the largest global deployment of predictive AI to thwart poachers and protect endangered animals.

Today, CAIS fuses AI, social work and engineering in unique ways, such as working with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority to address homelessness; battling opioid addiction; mitigating disasters like heat waves, earthquakes and floods; and aiding the mental health of veterans.

CAIS is led by co-directors Eric Rice, a USC Dworak-Peck professor of social work, and Bistra Dilkina, a USC Viterbi associate professor of computer science and the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Early Career Chair.

Pedro Szekely, Mayank Kejriwal and Craig Knoblock of the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) are at the vanguard of using computer science to fight human trafficking.

7. AI That Fights Modern Slavery (2017)

Beginning in 2017, a team of researchers at ISI led by Pedro Szekely, Mayank Kejriwal and Craig Knoblock created software called DIG that helps investigators scour the internet to identify possible sex traffickers and begin the process of capturing, charging and convicting them.

Law enforcement agencies across the country, including in New York City, have used DIG as well as other software programs spawned by Memex, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded program aimed at developing internet search tools to help investigators thwart sex trafficking, among other illegal activities. The specialized software has triggered more than 300 investigations and helped secure 18 felony sex-trafficking convictions, according to Wade Shen, program manager in DARPAs Information Innovation Office and Memex program leader. It has also helped free several victims.

In 2015, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announced that DIG was being used in every human trafficking case brought by the DAs office. With technology like Memex, he said, we are better able to serve trafficking victims and build strong cases against their traffickers.

This is the most rewarding project Ive ever worked on, said Szekely. Its really made a difference.

Published on July 28th, 2022

Last updated on July 28th, 2022

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USC's Biggest Wins in Computing and AI - USC Viterbi | School of Engineering - USC Viterbi School of Engineering

NEW YORK, July 27, 2022 IQT Research foresees major commercial opportunities arising to protect blockchain against future quantum computer intrusions and agrees with the White House National Security Memorandum NSM-10, released on May 04, 2022, which indicates the urgency of addressing imminent quantum computing threats and the risks they present to the economy and to national security in our latest report The Quantum Threat to Blockchain: Emerging Business Opportunities.

Although primarily associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain has been proposed for a wide range of transactions, including in insurance, real estate, voting, supply chain tracking, gaming, etc. These areas are all vulnerable to quantum threats, which lead to operations disruption, trust damage, and loss of intellectual property, financial assets, and regulated data.

For a sample of this report, click on Request Excerpt here.

About the Report:

Quantum computers threaten classical public-key cryptography blockchain technologies because they can break the computational security assumptions of elliptic curve cryptography. They also weaken the security of hash function algorithms, which protect blockchains secrets. This new IQT Research report identifies not only the challenges, but also the opportunities in terms of new products and services that arise from the threat that quantum computers pose to the blockchain mechanism. According to a recent study by the consulting firm Deloitte, approximately one-fourth of the blockchain-based cybercurrency Bitcoin in circulation in 2022 is vulnerable to quantum attack.

This report covers both technical and policy issues relating to the quantum vulnerability of blockchain.

From the Report:

About IQT Research

IQT Research is a division of 3DR Holdings, and the first industry analyst firm dedicated to meeting the strategic information and analysis needs of the emerging quantum technology sector. In addition to publishing reports on critical business opportunities in the quantum technology sector, Inside Quantum Technology produces a daily news website on business-related happenings in the quantum technology field. For more information, please visit https://www.insidequantumtechnology.com.

3DR Holdings also organizes the Inside Quantum Technology conferences. The next conference is dedicated to quantum cybersecurity and will be held October 25-27 in New York City.

Source: IQT

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IQT Predicts Blockchain and Quantum Threat to Spread Beyond Cybercurrencies - HPCwire

NYU Langone and Fermilabs Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center have proposed a pilot program to study a new method in MR imaging that combines quantitative MR (qMR) with quantum computing.

The two would develop algorithms that quantum computers could use to accurately and rapidly determine multiple tissue properties from MR scans. While quantum computing would speed up and make scans more accurate, the algorithms would improve qMR for clinical use to allow doctors to confirm interpretations by comparing MR scans based on statistics and machine learning, rather than inconsistencies in image contrast.

We expect to be able to model a large number of properties and the interactions among them to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the underlying structure of the imaged tissues. This will be possible not just because quantum computers enable faster generation of the large models, but also because they are better suited than traditional computers to model the interactions between tissue properties in MR, since they are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, Dr. Riccardo Lattanzi, an associate radiology professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and principal investigator, told HCB News.

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The data is held within the 3D pixels of MR scans, which quantum computers can use to measure properties to assess and monitor patient health across multiple scans. It also can speed up measurements and create more accurate MR simulations to show the underlying properties of the MR data fingerprints.

Having multiple quantitative parameters that reflect the underlying properties of tissues improves detection of lesions and pathologies. Furthermore, by looking at them from different angles (i.e., by having multiple biophysical parameters estimated for the same pixel), we can also better characterize these lesions to help create personalized treatments," said Lattanzi.

He adds that another potential application is being able to generate digital twins to detect and characterize abnormalities.

SQMS Center is made up of 23 institutions studying the use of quantum computing. The partnership is the first one it has undertaken for directly advancing healthcare.

NYU has received DOE Office of Science approval to become a member of the SQMS Center.

The collaboration is pending final approval of a formal agreement between NYU and Fermi Research Alliance, which manages Fermilab.

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NYU Langone, Fermilab to enhance, speed up quantitative MR with quantum computing - DOTmed HealthCare Business News

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(PHOTO BY Karen Schaffner)

From left, Joselyn Pirro, 14, and Sagan Friskey, 18, work diligently at their computers learning Qiskit, a programming language that enables their computers to communicate with quantum computers.

At Quantum Quest, an all-girls quantum computing camp, 20 teenage female students recently stood on the precipice of a brand new technology: quantum coding.

(Scientists) use quantum computers, Program Manager Gabbie Meis said. (Quantum computers) actually use quantum mechanics to solve some of the worlds largest problems, like things with lots of data or simulations that our classical computers just dont have enough power to do. Instead of our classical computers, quantum computers are actually an entirely different type of machine that is still being developed today.

This kind of computer requires quantum coding and when programmed could be used to help solve problems like mitigating the impacts of climate change; transportation mapping, such as figuring out how to remap the entire country of Australia with more efficient roadways; or even biomedical research, such as protein folding for vaccine development or drug discovery research.

Back in 2019 Google ran a problem on their quantum computer that they estimated would take the most powerful supercomputer about 10,000 years to solve, Meis said. They said they got their (quantum) computers to solve it in less than two days.

During the camp, students learned the programming language Qiskit, an open source (free) software development kit. Meis called it a Python-backed library, Python being a programming language. Qiskit allows the students classical computers the kind most of use at home to communicate with quantum computers. Ironically, although the students all had their laptops open, the learning was done on dry erase boards.

Quantum is interdisciplinary so theyre learning the basics in linear algebra, Meis said. Theyre learning computer science and how to code in Python, and theyre learning quantum physics, all wrapped in this single week.

The Coding School, located in Southern California, has a quantum coding initiative called Qubit by Qubit, the most basic unit of information in quantum computing. The initiative seeks to make quantum computing education accessible to students in K-12, because as it stands right now, according to Meis, students dont usually see quantum computing until they are graduate students.

To bring quantum coding to the masses, the School developed the Quantum Quest camp and partners with other organizations to offer it locally. For Tucson, they partnered with the University of Arizonas Office of Societal Impact and the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona (GSSA).

When this all came about it was the perfect marriage between the Coding School, the U of A and the Girl Scouts in trying to bring accessibility to this more advanced part of STEM, Colleen McDonald said, director of staff supported programs for the GSSA. As Girl Scouts we see ourselves as the connector. We want to make sure that all girls have access to it.

The Coding School has been offering this camp for some time this is its 10th camp but its the first time its been offered in Tucson. Camp topics included everything from foundational concepts that make up the quantum world such as entanglement and qubits, and end with teaching girls how to code real quantum computers.

Its all new science. These students are at the very foundation of quantum coding, according to Meis, and that is part of why it is so important to offer this to young women. One, they are introduced to quantum computing, but two, so they do not feel alone in their interest in this field, Meis said.

This is a hard science, right? Meis said. We really want our students to feel that theres a place in this for girls. Were really trying to empower them now while theyre still in high school.

Ive worked with girls for two decades doing STEM with them and one of the biggest things I hear is they think that theyre alone in liking STEM, that they dont realize there are other girls who are also willing to push themselves, Michelle Higgins added. Shes the associate director of the Office of Societal Impact.

The lead instructor for this camp is herself an example to these students. Emily Van Milligen is a doctoral student at the UArizona department of physics. Her field of study is quantum entanglement and routing protocols. She noticed that not one student fell behind; they all listened.

They love it, Van Milligen said. They like the lectures Im giving, which is exciting because that means they enjoy the content. Im not doing anything that special.

One student, 18-year-old Sagan Friskey and future Pima Community College student, spoke enthusiastically about the camp.

I think its super interesting to learn about, especially since were at the very beginning of it becoming a part of something that you can learn about and work with, she said.

Gabriela Malo-Molina, 14, a student at Catalina Foothills High School, said shes never seen this before and could be interested in looking deeper into it.

I think this is a very special opportunity, and that this field will definitely be more commonly used in the future, she said. And quantum computing in the future will be very helpful for discoveries, especially in the medical field.

Link:
Coding the future | Currents Feature - Tucson Weekly