Robust and Reliable Quantum Computing


Robust and Reliable Quantum Computing

Schrodinger's Lion

Funded by a £3m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, RoaRQ has established a vibrant and cross-disciplinary community of researchers in quantum computing and computer science who are collaborating to address the global challenge of delivering quantum computing that is robust, reliable, and trustworthy.

With substantial recent progress internationally in building ever-larger quantum computers, verifying that they do indeed perform the tasks they were designed for has become a central unsolved problem in the field.

This programme brings quantum computation research into close contact with the scientific tools, methods and mindsets of the computer science research community. Together, they define the beginnings of a general framework and advance specific solutions for robust and reliable quantum computation, at key layers across the principal quantum computing stacks needed to achieve trustworthy quantum computing systems.

The programme directors have solicited engagement from across the UK's scientific community to co-create a portfolio of funded, cross-disciplinary investigations that address this ambitious goal.

Nine investigations and three explorations have been funded.

Investigations

001 Robust & Reliable Quantum Circuit Synthesis for Multicore Quantum Processors - Browne (UCL), McAllister (Belfast)

002 Feasibility of robust and reliable quantum computation for quantum field theories on NISQ devices - Backens (Birmingham), Chakraborty (Southampton), Koczor (Oxford), Malik (UCL), Zhenyu (Oxford)

004 Verified compiling in the presence of error - Browne (UCL), Kissinger (Oxford), Linden (Bristol), Melham (Oxford)

005 Structure and symmetry in quantum verification - Dawar (Cambridge), Gur (Warwick), Melham (Oxford), Strelchuk (Cambridge)

006 Scalable simulation of noisy quantum computers on heterogenous computing clusters - Barbalace (Edinburgh), Brown (Edinburgh), Mai (Edinburgh), Marina (Edinburgh), O'Boyle (Edinburgh), Sanchez (Edinburgh), Shaikha (Edinburgh)

008 QUENCH: Quantum emulation with cloud heterogeneity - Benjamin (Oxford), Kelly (Imperial), Luk (Imperial)

009 Model-based monitoring and calibration of quantum computations (ModeMCQ) - Bhaseen (KCL), Booth (KCL), Mousavi (KCL), Yoshida (Oxford)

011 Quantum computing and communications in the face of decoherence - Browne (UCL), Hanzo (Southampton), Koczor (Oxford), Zhenyu (Oxford)

015 A Unified Noise-Aware Compiler Stack for NISQ - Grosser (Edinburgh), Heunen (Edinburgh)

Explorations

007 Formal Verification of Machine-Learned Quantum Protocols and Algorithms (ForMLQ) - Gay (Glasgow), Norman (Glasgow), Nagarajan (Middlesex), Windridge (Middlesex), Parker (Oxford)

012 Automated Synthesis of Robust Quantum Programs on Limited Resource Hardware - Clark (Sheffield), Hierons (Sheffield), McMinn (Sheffield)

014 Testing of Code Quantum Computer Code - Jones (Plymouth), Linden (Bristol), Melham (Oxford), Zwolinski (Southampton)

*Explorations are pilot studies with the aim of developing them into full investigations.

Founding investigators

Prof Simon Benjamin Professor of Quantum Technologies, University of Oxford

Prof Dan Browne Professor of Physics, University College London

Prof Paul Kelly Professor of Software Technology, Imperial College London

Dr Balint Koczor Glasstone Research Fellow, University of Oxford

Prof Noah Linden Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford

Prof Tom Melham (PI) Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford

Dr Zhenyu Cai Junior Research Fellow in Physics, University of Oxford

Co-Investigators

Dr Miriam Backens Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Birmingham

Dr Antonio Barbalace Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Dr Joe Bhaseen Reader in Theoretical Physics at King's College London

Dr George Booth Reader in Theoretical Physics, King's College London

Dr Oliver Thomson Brown Architect, Quantum Applications Group Leader, EPCC, University of Edinburgh

Dr Bipasha Chakraborty Lecturer, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton

Professor John A Clark Professor of Computer and Information Security, University of Sheffield

Professor Anuj Dawar Professor of Logic and Algorithms, University of Cambridge

Dr Raul Garcia-Patron Sanchez Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Professor Simon Gay Professor and Head of Computing Science, University of Glasgow

Dr Tobias Grosser Reader in Compiler and Runtime Systems, University of Edinburgh

Dr Tom Gur Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick

Professor Lajos Hanzo Professor of Communication, University of Southampton

Dr Chris Heunen Reader in Quantum Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Professor Rob Hierons Professor of Testing at the University of Sheffield

Dr Aleks Kissinger Associate Professor of Quantum Computing, University of Oxford

Professor Wayne Luk Professor of Computer Engineering, Imperial College London

Dr Luo Mai Lecturer (Assistant Professor), School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Dr Sarah Malik Senior Research Fellow, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London

Professor Mahesh Marina Professor of Computer Science, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Dr John McAllister Deputy Head of School, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Institute of Electronics, Communications & Information Technology, Queen's University Belfast

Professor Phil McMinn Professor of Software Engineering, University of Sheffield

Professor Mohammad Reza Mousavi Professor of Software Engineering at King's College London

Professor Rajagopal Nagarajan Professor of Foundations of Computing, Middlesex University London

Dr Gethin Norman Senior Lecturer in Computing Science, University of Glasgow and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford

Professor Michael O'Boyle Professor of Computer Science, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Professor David Parker Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford

Dr Amir Shaikhha Lecturer (Assistant Professor), School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Dr Sergii Strelchuk Royal Society University Research Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge

Professor David Windridge Professor of Data Science and Machine Learning, Department of Computer Science, Middlesex University London

Professor Nobuko Yoshida Christopher Strachey Chair of Computing, a Statutory Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford

Professor Mark Zwolinski Professor, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton

Scientific Advisory Board

Dr Sergio Boixo Chief Scientist Quantum Computer Theory, Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, Google

Dr Gordon Brebner Senior Fellow, AMD

Prof Harry Buhrman Director, QuSoft; Quantum Computing Group Leader, Centre for Mathematics & Computer Science, CWI; Professor of algorithms, complexity theory, and quantum computing, University of Amsterdam

Dr Ziyad Hanna Corporate Vice-President, Cadence Design Systems; Visiting Professor, Oxford University

Prof David May Emeritus Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol

Dr Naomi Nickerson Vice-President, Quantum Architecture, PsiQuantum

Prof Simone Severini Director of Quantum Computing, Amazon Web Services; Professor of Physics of Information, University College London

Dr Krysta Svore Distinguished Scientist and Vice President of Quantum Software, Microsoft