Published on 14 Dec 2022

Quantum Industry Day 2022

Wan Shi Yu | SPMS

The Quantum Industry Day event was held on 2 Dec 2022 at the newly renovated Collaborative Learning Lab in the Experimental Medicine Building in NTU.  It was co-organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Institute for Pedological Innovation, Research and Excellence (InsPIRE) as well as the Global Alliance of Industries (GAIN).  The event was attended by more than a hundred enthusiastic students, researchers and faculty staff.


The morning session started with an opening address by Prof Gu Mile (NTU) introducing us to our first industry speaker, Dr Joe Fitzsimons – CEO of Horizon Quantum Computing, who gave us an abstract on quantum computation, using the tools that the company uses as examples. Dr Joe introduced us to the quantum computers in a comprehensive way, and shared with us about error mitigation. He also demonstrated the adaptation of current codes for classical computer to run seamlessly on a quantum computer. The complier stack developed by the company also allows ease of entrance for programmers to interact with quantum computer via codes written in Mathlab or C. He also mentioned the prowess of quantum computer and algorithm to solve problems at a reduced complexity time.

The second industry talk is by Dr Tommaso Demarie – CEO of Entropica Labs. We were introduced to the Open Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (OpenQAOA), a software development kit spearheaded by Entropica Labs. It can be used to create, customise, and execute QAOA to solve combinatorial optimisation problems on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. We were also given some insights into the challenges faced by Dr Tommaso and his team in starting up a company. 

The third industry talk is by Dr Tennin Yan – CEO of QunaSys Japan,  who shared with us the application of quantum programming in the chemical industry. The online talk focused on the field of quantum computer aided chemistry simulation. He shared many exciting examples of the application of quantum computing in chemistry simulation within Japan chemical industries, for instance, in area of reaction route search. His talk showed us the impact that academia research has on industries, which leads to multiple collaborations.

Dr Joe Fitzsimons, CEO of Horizon Quantum Computing 

Dr Tommaso Demarie, CEO of Entropica Labs

Dr Tennin Yan, CEO of QunaSys Inc. Japan 

 

The afternoon session featured the IBM Quantum Workshop, which began with a basic overview of quantum computational principles and quantum algorithms. We were also introduced to Qiskit tools developed by IBM such as quantum composer, quantum lab and runtime. Following the introduction, we proceeded with a practical where we tried out some basic programming using the quantum composer and quantum lab, with close guidance by the speakers from IBM. The workshop ended on a pleasant note with the speakers giving us an overview of four Qiskit Application Modules, and we hands-on experience in applying those modules in the fields of machine learning, optimization, nature, and finance. 

Overall, the event was an excellent platform to promote open discussion. In the Q&A sessions after each talk, the speakers candidly shared about the potential and limitations of quantum computers with the present quantum technology.  The lunch session also provided opportunity for participants to discuss ideas about areas or topics outside of what was presented during their talk. I felt fortunate to be able to have the chance to attend an event such as this, that introduced to us the applications of quantum computing and how quantum algorithms can be coded.

Attentive and engaged audience during the Q&A session and after the talks/ IBM workshop.

 

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