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Quantum computers don’t look like the machines most of us know, and their capabilities go far beyond the laptops and desktops we use every day. But with that capability comes a challenge: how will fields outside of computing use them when they are so complex?
Researchers Weiwen Jiang from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Lei Yang from the Department of Information Sciences and Technology are seeking to address this challenge by building automation tools that connect quantum computing’s raw power to real-world scientific problems, opening the door for breakthroughs in fields like healthcare and geophysics.
Over the summer, Jiang, Yang, and fellow researchers at institutions like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute earned three National Science Foundation (NSF) awards totaling more than $1 million. Each award has its own focus, but all share the same vision to make quantum computing accessible, reliable, and useful for scientists outside the computing field.
One grant totaling $15,000, entitled Conference: The Quantum System Stability and Reproducibility Workshop, supports the StableQ Workshop, an international gathering that addresses one of quantum computing’s biggest challenges—stability. Unlike classical computers, quantum machines can give different results on different days due to noise from other technology, including things like changes in cosmic rays and fluctuations in ambient temperature.
By bringing together experts and students from across the world, the workshop creates a community determined to solve this problem. With an NSF conference award for its third year, the event is now able to expand its reach, providing travel support for students from universities across the United States and beyond. “Our hope for this conference is that we can create a collaborative environment where people gather and bring their ideas they’ve been working on, so we can make quantum computers more reliable,” said Jiang.
Another NSF award totaling $599,933, with $380,000 for George Mason specifically, called Collaborative Research: Elements: QuAIM: A Quantum Cyberinfrastructure with Automated Implementation Toolkits for Scientific Discovery, centers on the development of open-source software that bridges the gap between scientific data and quantum computers.
Working with collaborators at Kent State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jiang and Yang are creating tools that allow scientists and leaders in other fields to run their complex problems on quantum computers without needing to gain deep computer science knowledge. “Quantum computers are very complex, but they need to be accessible so that they can help make a difference,” said Jiang.
Currently, they are focusing their efforts on geophysics and ultrasound imaging for healthcare applications. “Quantum computing can more quickly and efficiently find solutions in these areas, creating new possibilities for advancement,” said Yang.
By streamlining the way imaging data from things like ultrasounds is converted and optimized for quantum systems, the project is making it possible for breakthroughs to occur in fields that the power of traditional computing has long limited.
The most recent award in August that Jiang was awarded, entitled Collaborative Research: SPV: Synthesis, Profiling, and Verification of Quantum Circuits, totals $498,242, with $250,000 for George Mason, and builds directly on this foundation. In collaboration with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Jiang and his fellow researchers are designing automated methods for creating and verifying quantum functions. In practical terms, this means that scientists will be able to describe the problems they want to solve in their own language, and the tools under development will translate those problems into circuits a quantum computer can understand. The project also provides methods to check accuracy and performance, ensuring that results are both correct and efficient.
Quantum computing is still an emerging technology, but the stakes are high. By building bridges between quantum hardware and other scientific fields, George Mason researchers are ensuring that when the technology matures, the world will be ready to use it.
And for the researchers, the work is as much about people as it is about code. “We’re not only doing research in-house, but we’re also building a community,” said Jiang. And Yang echoes this, “There are many applications where quantum computing can be used, and we want to bring them together.” And together, Jiang, Yang, and their collaborators are at the forefront of charting a new frontier for computing.