Quantum Machines at IEEE Quantum Week 2022: Scientific Program

Tutorial: Real-time quantum control via intuitive software: accelerating the realization of useful quantum computers

Tues, Sep 20, 10:00-14:30 Mountain Time (MDT) — UTC-6

During this workshop, directed by accomplished physicists, we will present and discuss the following topics: 

• The race for a quantum advantage in the NISQ era, as well as how to easily program complicated quantum error correction (QEC) protocols from software. 
• How classical control systems for error mitigation can be leveraged with sophisticated feedback, and how to simplify correction and calibration procedures with real-time processing. 
• Novel adaptive error syndrome measurements, and repeat-until-success protocols, 
• How classical and quantum feedbacks are used with neutral atoms for error correction and mitigation.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve important problems beyond the reach of any classical technology. However, error rates pose a great challenge to the realization of a practical machine. 

In this workshop, we will focus on the classical control stack, the enabler for mitigating these error sources in building a practical quantum computer. We will demonstrate how it is implemented on Quantum Machine’s Quantum Orchestration Platform (QOP), where real-time control sequences are intuitively programmed in software to dramatically improve productivity and unlock the potential of current and future quantum devices.

We will discuss the race for a quantum advantage in the NISQ era, as well as how to easily program complicated quantum error correction (QEC) protocols from software. We will expand on how we can leverage classical control systems for error mitigation with sophisticated feedback and simplify correction and calibration procedures with real-time processing. We will discuss novel adaptive error syndrome measurements and repeat-until-success protocols, and we will see how both classical and quantum feedbacks are used with neutral atoms for error correction and mitigation.

Panel: Expected Need for Low-level Programming to Deliver Quantum Advantage 

Wed, Sep 21, 2022, 15:15 – 16:45 Mountain Time (MDT) — UTC-6

Application developers for quantum computers are being pulled in at least two directions – to delve into lower-level programming details in order to deliver quantum advantage as soon as practical and to hew to higher-level programming models to scale up quantum application development once quantum advantage is proven. In this panel, we focus on pulse-level programming, whereby an app developer provides not only the gates to accomplish a given quantum algorithm but also guides the lowering of those gates into the pulses sent to control a specific quantum processor (QPU). With our panel of experts in developing apps for early quantum processors, we will explore the use of pulse-level methods.

• Will pulse-level programming be necessary for applications needing to deliver quantum advantage in the NISQ era?
• Will direct control of each pulse be necessary, or will libraries or templates emerge that capture the structure of a calculation even if details need to be tweaked for a particular problem, similar to QAOA and VQE?
• What infrastructure will be necessary to make pulse-level programming effective in delivering the best practical performance from a given QPU?
• How can classical processing best contribute to effective pulse-level programming?
• Seeing that pulse-level programming will limit the audience of potential developers, what software approaches are most likely to make pulse-level programming unnecessary for quantum-app developers?

 

Panel: Controlling 1000+ Qubits: Overcoming Challenges Towards Practical Quantum Computing 

Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 15:15 – 16:45 Mountain Time (MDT) — UTC-6

The many proposed applications of a practical quantum computer require scaling up the number of useful qubits, among other metrics. Although quantum processors have already exceeded the hundred-qubit mark, the community anticipates the need for QPUs with thousands of qubits for practical NISQ applications and even millions of qubits for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Such ambitious plans pose an immediate question: how do we build a quantum controller capable of handling 1000 or more qubits?

This panel will discuss the key challenges of a scalable quantum control system aiming at a practical quantum computer – from the low-level requirements of, e.g., latency and channel density to the more high-level considerations of the necessary capabilities of a quantum controller.

Join our panelists, including Mark Saffman from Cold Quanta, Chris Monroe from IonQ, Evan Jeffrey from Google, and Carmen Almudever from TU Delft, as they freely examine ideas and ponder over the ideal controller architecture and the requirements for scaling it up.

During this discussion, we will cover today’s needs in state-of-art quantum labs and the vision for the future of quantum control. This future may include a multi-instruments approach, application-specific chips, or a more generic and compact architecture. During the session, the top minds in the quantum field will share their visions of what control architectures will look like in the future and what they believe is critical to getting there.