The 2020 Q2B Quantum Computing Conference in 8 Minutes
The 2020 Q2B Quantum Computing Conference in 8 Minutes
This year’s Q2B came out of the gate strong with a Q&A on the future of quantum computing with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who now runs a company called Schmidt Futures. If you’ve found your way to this blog post, then you already know what Eric knows: the future will be quantum-powered.
With that in mind, quantum computing’s present-day reality was well-represented at the just-wrapped Q2B virtual conference with students, academics, business users, business seekers, hardware vendors, and software vendors. Given that one would probably need a solid 10,000 years to deeply analyze every session on a classical machine (or 200 seconds on a quantum machine), we’ve summed up Zapata’s hot-takes – and those of some other attendees.
Great participation to the #Q2B20 conference,
showing the #QuantumComputing is not limited to a quest of the most powerful computer,
but a efficient tool enabling solving real problematics.
Proud to being part of the #Airbus #QCChallenge— Vincent Galinier (@VincentGalinier) December 11, 2020
Before we get to what’s happening today and what the future bodes, a little perspective:
In 1972, NASA bought a massively parallel computer with 64 64-bit FPUs. “If #quantumcomputing could have a fraction of that impact then we will unleash great opportunities for innovation.” – @NASA‘s Eleanor Rieffel on #quantum‘s potential at #Q2B20
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 10, 2020
Three quotes stand out to sum up Q2B from a high-level – from a hardware vendor, an enterprise user and a research firm.
Honeywell Quantum Solutions’ President, Tony Uttley, may have said it best at the beginning of the “Shaping the Future of Quantum Computing” session: “What a difference a year makes.”
JPMorgan Chase’s Head of the Future Lab for Applied Research, Marco Pistoia, Ph.D, also made clear what many other large corporations are doing today: “We’re getting quantum-ready.”
In addition to going #quantumcomputing–deep during his #Q2B20 session w/ references to Shor’s algorithm, #quantum key distribution (QKD) & MCMR, @JPMorgan’s @marco_pistoia also mentioned a theme that enterprises are embracing w/increased frequency: “We’re getting quantum-ready.”
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 10, 2020
Hyperion Research’s SVP of Research and Chief Analyst for Quantum Computing, Bob Sorensen, surveyed quantum computing buyers/users and told us that, in order to bring quantum into their environment, “They want to be able to demonstrate near-term return on investment for those key use cases, and they want to have a developed, robust software infrastructure.”
Related to Marco’s point above, BBVA is also committed to a quantum mindset when it comes to gaining a quantum advantage:
.@BBVA is building a corporate #quantum mindset early, with a full-time team and a hardware-agnostic focus on software. How is your organization getting ready for the quantum future? #Q2B20
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 10, 2020
…and it appears there are increasingly more enterprises uncovering and pursuing real-world use cases:
Interesting stat from today’s “Production-Ready #Quantum Applications” session at #Q2B20: it’s estimated that ~40% of companies have an existing use case for #quantumcomputing. How does that percentage sync with your POV? Too high? Too low? Just right? Let us know!
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 10, 2020
While there is still a lot of hype when it comes to quantum computing, there are real initiatives happening that are generating real results.
As we say in Boston, we thought this machine learning algorithm on an ion-trap quantum computer generating high-resolution images of handwritten digits was wicked cool:
A first for #quantumcomputing at #Q2B20: an algorithm running on @IonQ_Inc‘s #quantumcomputer generates a high-res image of handwritten digits. QC-AANs like this will one day be useful for fraud detection, drug discovery and more. See the research: https://t.co/xEz1qQj8I6
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 8, 2020
Images generated on an IonQ Quantum Computer, built and executed as a classical-quantum workflow on Zapata’s Orquestra®. From Generation of High Resolution Handwritten Digits with an Ion-Trap Quantum Computer.
Honeywell talked about something we fully support – how “quality matters” in quantum computing:
.@Honeywell‘s Tony Uttley on the H1’s high fidelity and coherence times: “In this early era of #quantumcomputing, quality matters — the ability to get the answer you expect to get.” In a QCBM experiment, Zapata found the H1 performed as well as a noiseless simulation. #Q2B20 pic.twitter.com/dTHSbYXgHj
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 9, 2020
And you can’t have this many super-smart people gathered together – even virtually – without chess breaking out. So, it was cool that Q2B had its own chess tournament. The #result? AWS won.
Congratulations to Aleksander Kubica & the @awscloud team for winning the first ever Quantum Chess Tournament at #Q2B20! Thanks to our participants from @GoogleAI, @IonQ_Inc, @XanaduAI, @honeywell, @zapatacomputing, & @MSFTQuantum. Join us at Q2B next year for more Quantum Chess!
— QC Ware (@QCWare) December 10, 2020
“Workflows are the workhorses of the quantum environment.”
— Yudong Cao, Co-founder and CTO
Timely + relevant quote from today’s “An Application Benchmark for #Quantum Optimization” session at #Q2B20: “Workflows are the workhorses of the quantum environment.” Speaking of workflows…here’s an in-depth look at what they mean in #quantumcomputing: https://t.co/s5VKMLwodh
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 11, 2020
“The outlook on quantum hardware is becoming more and more optimistic! Whether it’s current hardware companies accelerating their roadmap (like IBM and IonQ), or even previous software companies getting into the game (like Amazon), Q2B was full of companies showing great advancements and predicting even greater advancements in the years to come!”
— Ethan Hansen, Product Marketing Specialist (and host of “Quantum Computing Now” podcast!)
“The million dollar question is: would a quadratic speedup be enough to provide quantum advantage given the overhead for quantum error correction? Mattias Troyer, Ryan Babbush, and Scott Aaronson think it may not be, at least with the error correction methods we have now.”
— Max Radin, Lead Quantum Software Engineer
For the U2 fans reading this, a great though relatively unknown song is “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own,” which also doubles as a fitting summary of the quantum computing ecosystem in December 2020. Partnerships always matter in business and academic research, but in quantum they REALLY matter in these early days. Even the biggest players in the space can’t make it on their own.
Energy giant BP said just as much when communicating their “4 Pillars” approach to quantum:
Richard Debney of @BP_plc discusses the 4 pillars of BP’s approach to #QuantumComputing at #Q2B20: building a partnerships ecosystem, delivering proof of value, exploring available platforms, and developing an internal team. How is your team approaching #quantum?
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 10, 2020
And, not surprisingly, IBM has some pillars of its own:
.@IBM‘s vision for scaling quantum technology rests on 3 pillars: Scientific advances in hardware and software, cloud-based access for tools to harness quantum capabilities, and collaboration with industry partners. #Q2B20
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 9, 2020
Quantum hardware vendors need software vendor partners to help users actually run applications and workflows to accomplish things. And software vendors need hardware partners so their software has something to run on. And commercial users and researchers need both so they can do their jobs. As we just witnessed at Q2B, there’s no one universal solution, and the ecosystem is vibrant with many different collaborations.
Related to the importance of partnering and collaborating, it’s critical to not collectively get wrapped up in the hype of quantum computing.
“Hype is our shared enemy” @cjsavoie shows how companies can get real about #quantumcomputing to make better decisions with their data at #Q2B20. See 8 considerations for building your quantum toolset: https://t.co/EEuqEuJtnZ
— Zapata Computing (@ZapataComputing) December 8, 2020
Back to Honeywell’s Tony Uttley to wrap this up. Quantum computing has grown as an industry in 2020, despite our pandemic-ruled reality that continues to this day. There are more companies building hardware and software to take advantage of quantum capabilities, more smart people doing research and expanding our collective knowledge of the space, and more businesses not only taking a look, but actually using quantum’s power and algorithms to tackle real problems and create new opportunities.
Our prediction for Q2B 2021? Tony will make the same statement again, and it will be just as true – maybe even more so! Bring on 2021…
I too was really impressed with the fit and finish of #Q2B20…. definitely the best virtual conference I’ve been to. Great work @YGamvros and team! https://t.co/oMAZsQb2BL
— nick farina 💘 (@nick_farina) December 11, 2020
