JUNIQ Summer School on Quantum Computing - Gate-based and Annealing Systems

26 Aug 2024, 08:10 → 30 Aug 2024, 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Building 16.4, room 301 (Forschungszentrum Jülich)

JUNIQ Team

The Jülich Supercomputing Centre will host the summer school on “Quantum Computing – Applications on Gate-based and Annealing Systems” from August 26-30, 2024. The school focuses on hands-on experiences in developing and implementing algorithms on both gate-based devices and quantum annealers. Therefore the attendees will make use of the cloud-programming platform of the Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing (JUNIQ) to access quantum devices located at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. The hands-on sessions will be accompanied by several lectures covering basic concepts of gate-based and annealing systems, the design and implementation of use-cases, and big-picture lectures, all given by experts from the field. The summer school will be complemented by an introductory pitch followed by a poster session where attendees present their research activities to each other.

Topics: Introduction to Gate-Based Quantum Computing, Introduction to Quantum Annealing, Introduction to Quantum Simulation, Formulating QUBO Problems and Ising Hamiltonians, Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm, Emulation of Quantum Systems, Classical vs Quantum Optimization.

Participants have to prepare a poster, including a two-minute pitch presentation. Please submit an abstract for your poster, the pitch, and a motivation letter stating why attending this summer school will be beneficial for your current and future research. Submit abstract and motivation letter in one pdf file to training-juniq@fz-juelich.de with the header "Abstract Summer School 2024". In the same e-mail, send the pitch as a separate one-page (corresponding to one slide) pdf file. Your application will only be reviewed if abstract, motivation letter, pitch, and application (follow the "apply now" button) are submitted.

Please note that this is the registration page for on-site participation. In case you want to participate remotely register here.

Important info: given the number of questions regarding the pitch, a short explanation is in order. For the pitch, it is sufficient to merely present your research topic to the audience in a couple of sentences or bullet points. It does not need to be a full summary of your poster or your research.

Registrations closed.

Monday, 26 August

08:45 Registration

1 Organization and Who is Who

Speaker: Mr Gabriel Fazito Rezende Fernandes (JSC)

2 Welcome and Introduction to the JSC

Speaker: Prof. Kristel Michielsen

3 Introduction to Gate-based Quantum Computing

Introduction to quantum bits and quantum gates
Programming and Simulating quantum circuits
Applications: QFT, Quantum Adder, QAOA

Speaker: Dr Dennis Willsch

11:30 Lunch break

4 Introduction to Quantum Annealing

This talk is a general introduction to quantum annealing. It covers:
- how does a quantum annealer work in theory and what can it be used for;
- what are the theoretical and practical limitations;
- how to solve problems on quantum annealers, in particular D-Wave quantum annealers as the one hosted by JSC;
- the basic information about the architecture of D-Wave quantum annealers;
- how to formulate an optimization problem as a QUBO or Ising problem;
- different encoding strategies;
- how to incorporate constraints;
- how to embed a (logical) problem onto the given hardware graph (considering physical connectivity);
- how to send a problem to the quantum annealer using D-Wave's Ocean SDK and how to interpret the response;
Finally, some small examples are presented and the talk ends with a short hands-on exercise.

Speaker: Dr Madita Willsch

14:00 Coffee Break, Tour JUNIQ & D-Wave

Students will receive a guided tour to JUNIQ and be presented to the D-Wave system.

5 Introduction to Neutral Atom Quantum Computing

Speaker: Dr Jaka Vodeb

16:00 Tour JSC/HPC & Cryolab

17:00 JUDOOR & Leap

18:00 Finger Food Dinner and Socializing

22:00 Last Bus from FZJ to Jülich

Tuesday, 27 August

6 QUBO Formulation and QAOA: A Tutorial on Encoding and Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems - Part I

In this tutorial, we will dive into combinatorial optimization problems and explore how effectively encode these problems using the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) formulation and how to tackle them using the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA).

Speaker: Dr Jhon Alejandro Montanez-Barrera

7 Introduction of Hands-on Topics

In this session, the topics for the hands-on sessions will be introduced.

8 Hardware & Software Setup

9 Hands-on Session

12:00 Lunch break

10 QUBO Formulation and QAOA: A Tutorial on Encoding and Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems - Part II

In this tutorial, we will dive into combinatorial optimization problems and explore how effectively encode these problems using the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) formulation and how to tackle them using the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA).

Speaker: Dr Jhon Alejandro Montanez-Barrera

11 Hands-on Session

12 Emulating Quantum Systems

Full dynamics of a CLOSED quantum spin-1/2 system: gate-based quantum computer & quantum annealer
Full dynamics of an OPEN quantum spin-1/2 system: gate-based quantum computer & quantum annealer
Solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation numerically
(Part of) our history of emulating quantum computers

Speaker: Prof. Kristel Michielsen

Wednesday, 28 August

13 Quantum Annealing Applications

Optimization Problems: Airline Scheduling, TSP, Garden Optimization
Constraint Problem: 2-SAT
Machine Learning Problem: Quantum Support Vector Machine
Sampling Problem: Quantum Boltzmann Machin

Speaker: Dr Dennis Willsch

14 Quantum Simulation

I will talk about the first experimental signatures of two-dimensional many-body false vacuum decay in a quantum material emerging from microscopic interactions. We used a programmable noisy superconducting quantum simulator with 2008 qubits in order to perform simulations corresponding to our specific experiment on quantum domain reconfiguration in a topical electronic crystal. We carefully chose a simulator with the same measured noise spectrum to ensure the fidelity of the model correspondence between the two systems, thereby presenting a realization of simulating real-world open quantum systems according to the original vision of Feynman.

Speaker: Dr Jaka Vodeb

15 Hands-on Session

12:00 Lunch break

16 Simulating Noise of Quantum Computers

As much as we want to isolate them, we must see quantum machines as open systems. Interactions happen between the quantum machine and its environment leading to decoherence. This effectively give different types of noise at the level of the machine. What are they and how can we take them into account when doing simulation on our classical computer?

Speaker: Dr Kevissen Sellapillay

17 Hands-on Session

14:50 Visiting Aachen: City Tour

Thursday, 29 August

09:00 Introduction to Forschungszentrum Jülich & Campus Tour

18 Building a Superconducting Quantum Computer

Speaker: Prof. Rami Barends (PGI-13)

12:00 Lunch break

19 Hands-on Session

20 Quantum Annealing - A Broader Perspective

Speaker: Prof. Paul Warburton

16:00 Project Pitch

17:00 Poster Session

18:30 Finger Food Dinner and Socializing

22:00 Last Bus from FZJ to Jülich

Friday, 30 August

09:00 Feedback Session

21 Hands-on Session

11:45 Lunch break

13:00 Tour PGI

22 The Future of Quantum Computing

Speaker: Prof. Frank Wilhelm-Mauch

23 Wrap-up and Goodbye

Speaker: Mr Gabriel Fazito Rezende Fernandes (JSC)