JUNIQ – Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing
Quantum computing and quantum annealing are new, innovative ways of computing for some of the most complex problems with potential applications in simulation, optimization and machine learning. Although it will still take many years for quantum computing technology to become fully mature, an early entry into the practical use of this new disruptive technology is of great urgency.
Practical application requires the integration of quantum computers into existing HPC infrastructures in the form of quantum-classical hybrid computing models. The “Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing (JUNIQ)”, a quantum computer user facility which is currently being set up at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, meets these needs. Within JUNIQ, user support and training in HPC and quantum computer usage will be provided, software tools, modelling concepts and algorithms will be developed, and it will play an important role in the development of prototype applications.
We discuss some prototype applications in optimization and machine learning. We present results of benchmarking optimization algorithms for quantum computers and quantum annealers and of implementing support vector machines, supervised machine learning algorithms for classification and regression problems, on quantum annealers.
Speaker bio: Kristel Michielsen received her PhD from the University of Groningen, (the Netherlands) for work on the simulation of strongly correlated electron systems in 1993. Since 2009 she is group leader of the research group Quantum Information Processing at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) and is also Professor of Quantum Information Processing at RWTH Aachen University (Germany). Kristel Michielsen and her research group have ample experience in performing large-scale simulations of quantum systems. They have expertise in, on the one hand simulating quantum computers and quantum annealers, and on the other hand in benchmarking and studying prototype applications for this new compute technology by using the various quantum computing and quantum annealing systems that are nowadays available. Together with Prof. Lippert she is building up the JUNIQ infrastructure at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre.
Forschungszentrum Jülich: With some 6,100 employees and a unique research infrastructure, Forschungszentrum Jülich is one of the major interdisciplinary research centres in Europe. We conduct research to provide comprehensive solutions to the grand challenges facing society in the fields of energy and environment, information and brain research. This is achieved by providing scientists access to state-of-the-art instruments and large-scale facilities used by teams of scientists from all over the world, e.g. Forschungszentrum Jülich is a global leader in supercomputing: our high-performance systems and deep industry expertise make it possible for European scientists and academics to build applications for today’s most difficult problems. Forschungszentrum Jülich is now bringing practical quantum computing to its ecosystem by building a lab infrastructure dedicated to quantum computing research – the Helmholtz Quantum Center, which will house the European OpenSuperQ Flagship lab based on superconducting qubit technology. In addition, it has recently launched JUNIQ – the Jülich User Infrastructure for Quantum Computing. JUNIQ which will be the unified portal to a number of different quantum computers
Website: https://www.fz-juelich.de/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/forschungszentrum-julich/