Quantum Computing Projects Kick-Off

Quantum hardware suffers from much higher error rates than classical devices. As a result, extensive error correction is necessary to execute a large scale quantum algorithm. Quantum LDPC codes are promising to reduce the cost of quantum error correction but they need better decoders. In this work, I will discuss the potential of the Union-Find decoder to decoder quantum LDPC codes.

Nicolas Delfosse is a senior researcher at Microsoft Quantum. He is broadly interested in quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computation. Currently, his main focus in on designing low-overhead quantum error correction schemes.

Quantum computing will revolutionize how we compute in the coming years by dramatically increasing computing power. To support the development of quantum computers and the progress towards the several thousand entangled qubits required for this technological leap, Inria teams are already developing what are known as quantum algorithms which will make it possible to program these new types of machines. In the post-quantum digital world, new computing capacity will allow for the statistical processing of huge amounts of data, leading to a huge increase in analysis speed for artificial intelligence. Quantum applications open up a vast array of new possibilities, such as complex simulations to help develop new materials or new molecules with unprecedented properties; drastic optimization of infrastructures whether for road traffic, energy transport or financial predictions or ultra-high-precision measuring devices. Resolutely committed to building technological sovereignty, Inria has put quantum at the heart of its priorities.

Anthony Leverrier holds a PhD from Telecom ParisTech (2009) and an HDR from Sorbonne Université (2017). After postdocs at ICFO Barcelona and ETH Zurich, he joined Inria in 2011. He coordinates since 2021 the Inria quantum initiative EQIP that gathers all quantum activities at Inria. His main research activities go from quantum cryptography, especially quantum key distribution with continuous variables, to quantum error correction and notably quantum LDPC codes.

The aim of this project is to accurately evaluate the resources required for implementing quantum speedup based on the “quantum fast forwarding” (QFF) algorithm for Markov chains. The QFF routine indeed operates at an intermediate level between a graph-based quantum oracle, and an output to be extracted from the generated Markov chain distribution. We will consider concrete applications to specify these oracle and output layers, evaluate the complexity and opportunities for implementing them in a quantum computer, and thereby propose a full-chain quantum computation with graph oracles.

Alain Sarlette holds a Master in applied physics and a PhD thesis in dynamical systems and control theory from Liege University, and an HDR in applied maths from Sorbonne University. He has held visiting positions at Ecole des Mines de Paris, IIT Mumbai, and Princeton University. His rather interdisciplinary interest in the study of dynamical systems, has brought him towards quantum technology during his postdoc, before definitely joining the field and the QUANTIC team in 2014. Alain is now a Senior Researcher (CR) at Inria Paris in the QUANTIC team and an associate professor at Ghent University.

Pioneering the next revolution requires scientific, technological, and community development. It requires discovery and innovation, partnership and collaboration. We’re on a revolutionary journey together to accelerate the world’s computer with quantum computing. And to achieve the breakthroughs promised by quantum computing, we need to scale, across the algorithms, the software, and the hardware, to a million qubits and beyond. I’ll describe how we are defining a new era of computing, what we need to do to reach the full potential of quantum computing, and the challenges we need to continue to tackle, together, as a community to realize practical quantum advantage.

Dr. Krysta Svore is General Manager of Quantum Systems at Microsoft. She believes empowering people with the power of quantum computing, today and tomorrow, will be one of the greatest revolutionary steps in our history. She leads a team dedicated to realizing a commercial-scale quantum computing system and ecosystem to solve today’s unsolvable problems. She spent her early years at Microsoft developing machine-learning methods for web applications, including ranking, classification, and summarization algorithms. In 2018, Dr. Svore was named one of the 39 Most Powerful Women Engineers according to Business Insider. Dr. Svore serves as a member of the Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee of the Department of Energy and as a member of the ISAT Committee of DARPA.  She is an appointee of the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee.  She has received an ACM Best of 2013 Notable Article award and was a member of the winning team of the Yahoo! Learning to Rank Challenge in 2010. She chaired the 2017 Quantum Information Processing Conference. Dr. Svore is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a representative for the Academic Alliance of the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), and a member of the American Physical Society (APS). Dr. Svore has authored over 70 papers and has filed over 25 patents. She received her PhD in computer science with highest distinction from Columbia University and her BA from Princeton University in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science and French.