Industry engagement prepares UK for quantum transformation

04 Nov 2021 Sponsored by National Quantum Computing Centre

The UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre aims to make connections between academics, start-ups and industrial end users to identify and develop innovative applications for quantum computing

Ready, set, go: The NQCC will bring together academics, start-ups and industry experts to ensure that the UK is ready to exploit the transformative power of future quantum computers. Start-ups such as OQC will play a crucial role in making quantum technologies available to the wider user community. (Image copyright: OQC)

The promise of quantum computers is starting to turn into reality. Research groups in academia and industry have built early demonstrators with a few tens of qubits, and within the next few years it seems likely that practical quantum computers will for the first time be able to surpass the performance of classical silicon-based processors. Based on current roadmaps, quantum devices will be powerful and reliable enough in 10 to 15 years’ time to tackle complex problems across science, technology and industry that cannot be solved with conventional supercomputers.

If a quantum computer were available tomorrow, however, very few people would know how to use it – or even what it could be used for. “A quantum computer is a new paradigm that depends on the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics,” says Chiara Decaroli, the outreach and engagement officer for the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) – which will be based in a new facility that is now being built on the Harwell campus in Oxfordshire. “Imagining how a quantum computer might be used to solve a particular problem requires a different mind-set and specialist training.”

For that reason, one of the key goals for the NQCC is to develop the skills and knowledge needed for different industry sectors to understand and exploit the future potential of quantum computers – something that the NQCC calls “quantum readiness”. One of its first priorities, says Decaroli, will be to create a user community that will be able to explore the power of quantum computing for different applications. “We need to help end users understand what quantum computing can offer them, and support them in developing the skill sets they need to integrate quantum computing into their businesses,” she adds.

One way the NQCC plans to foster this user community is through a series of workshops and hackathons aimed at specific industry sectors. These will enable scientists and engineers from different backgrounds to explore possible use-cases for quantum computers, and will enable future end users to gain access to emerging quantum computing resources. Bringing these diverse stakeholders together will also help the NQCC to develop a high-level view of the UK’s quantum ecosystem, and to identify any gaps in understanding or resources that will need to be addressed for each industry sector to boost its quantum readiness.

“Although quantum computers are still small-scale, now is the time for expert end-users to engage with the technology to get a head-start on understanding its potential,” comments Ashley Montanaro, a professor of quantum computation at the University of Bristol in the UK. “The NQCC can help by providing a central point of contact to enable collaboration and joint development.”

The NQCC has already started to commission a series of collaborative R&D projects, even though its physical facility is not due to open until 2023. Some are focused on essential hardware development to support the NQCC’s headline objective of building a quantum computer with 100 qubits within the next five years. But others aim to make quantum computing more accessible to end users in research and industry, and to develop novel applications for the modest-scale machines that are available today.

One of those near-term applications will be to simulate the behaviour of a simple quantum system, such as a small molecule or the interactions between molecules – which some researchers think could be achieved with around 1000 qubits. “Quantum computers will be able to model quantum systems natively, which will allow us to develop and understand novel materials for batteries, solar cells and other key applications in sustainable energy,” comments Montanaro.Chiara Decaroli, a quantum scientist who is now the NQCC’s outreach and engagement officer, says that it’s important to provide a realistic view of the current and future capabilities of quantum computers. (Courtesy: NQCC)

This ability to simulate quantum systems will also open up applications in the pharmaceutical sector, as well as in chemicals and materials engineering. All of these industries already invest heavily in R&D, and they also rely on high-performance computing to model and predict the behaviour of novel compounds and materials. “The core of their work is to simulate, but certain problems are so complex that they can’t be fully solved using existing computers,” says Decaroli.

In drug design, for example, the limitations of current simulations means that hundreds of candidate molecules must be fabricated and tested to create a single formulation that is both safe and effective. A quantum computer with a modest number of qubits would be able to precisely simulate the behaviour and effects of different molecules, speeding up the development of more effective pharmaceuticals.

While these research-intensive industries are constantly pushing the boundaries of classical computation, individual companies may not yet have the resources to start developing their own capability in quantum computing. Having access to a strong ecosystem of academic researchers, as well as the UK’s vibrant start-up sector, will be crucial for them to identify and realize some of these near-term applications. “For a whole economy to undertake a transformation as enormous as ‘becoming quantum ready’, large institutions need the reassurance of a government-backed organization like the NQCC to mediate between them and the quantum computing ecosystem,” says Carmen Palacios–Berraquero of Nu Quantum, a start-up developing single-photon components for quantum systems. “This ecosystem is still nascent and potentially hard to engage with.”

Decaroli points outs that it will be start-up companies like Nu Quantum that are likely to come up with the most innovative solutions, and to have the skills and motivation to translate novel technologies into commercial applications. “Large industrial players will want to have access to this knowledge, either through acquisition or co-development, and part of our role will be to facilitate those connections,” she says.

Even more disruptive applications beckon for the quantum computers of the future. The performance of today’s machines are limited by errors that arise from the noisiness of the qubits, and eliminating those errors will require machines with millions of qubits – just to create a small subset that can operate without errors. “Stopping the decoherence of qubits of every type, which would unlock the development of quantum processors with large numbers of qubits, is the single biggest barrier to quantum readiness,” comments Steve Brierley of quantum start-up Riverlane. “For that reason our main focus at Riverlane is error correction.”

It will take this type of fault-tolerant quantum computer to address complex problems across a broad range of industry sectors. One example that has come into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic is logistics, ensuring that goods and healthcare products reach the right destinations at the right time. The climate crisis is also demanding urgent responses from both industry and the public sector, ranging from improved weather forecasting and careful management of energy supply and storage, through to the development of more sustainable manufacturing processes.

“We know that quantum computing will impact nearly every industry, from pharma to finance,” comments Ilana Wisby of OQC, a start-up that in July 2021 introduced Europe’s first quantum computing-as-a-service (QCaaS) platform. “Our objective with QCaaS is to enable our customers to experiment with quantum computing, and we are working with the NQCC to bolster the UK’s quantum community by giving its members access to our systems.”

Decaroli believes that organizations that rely on high-performance computing, such as financial services companies that constantly need to optimize their risk profile, already appreciate that quantum machines have the potential to outperform their current systems. “They will be preparing to upskill and learn about quantum computing,” she says. “The NQCC can support them by providing information, organizing workshops, and developing training material for their personnel.”

In the longer term, however, quantum computing has the potential to disrupt industries that are not so familiar with the technology. “Industry experts in those sectors might not know very much about quantum computing, while quantum specialists might lack the domain knowledge to translate the technology into a specific application,” comments NQCC director Michael Cuthbert. “We need to bridge that gap to identify the key applications that will deliver real value for those industry sectors.”

But the NQCC is also keenly aware that it’s important to manage expectations of what the technology will be able to achieve and on what timescale. After all, building and operating even a modest-scale quantum computer remains the focus of intense research effort, and scaling the technology to incorporate millions of qubits presents significant technical challenges. “The innovation that’s needed to scale up the technology and develop future applications may come from unconventional sources and multidisciplinary collaborations,” comments Decaroli, “That makes it even more important to properly communicate what the challenges are and where the technology is.”

The NQCC hopes to avoid the risk of hype by establishing itself as an independent, trusted voice that provides a realistic view of the current capabilities of quantum computers – as well as what they will be able to achieve in the future. “Even though the technology is still at an early stage, there is no doubt that a fully fault-tolerant quantum computer will be transformative for many industries,” concludes Decaroli. “Now is the right time to put more effort into building awareness and skills so that different businesses are ready for that transformation.”

FROM PHYSICSWORLD.COM   4/11/2021