Archive for the ‘Quantum Computing’ Category
NIST’s Quantum Security Protocols Near the Finish Line The U.S. standards and technology authority is searching – IoT World Today
Posted: July 2, 2021 at 1:52 am
The U.S. standards and technology authority is searching for a new encryption method to prevent the Internet of Things succumbing to quantum-enabled hackers
As quantum computing moves from academic circles to practical uses, it is expected to become the conduit for cybersecurity breaches.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology aims to nip these malicious attacks preemptively. Its new cybersecurity protocols would help shield networks from quantum computing hacks.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has consulted with cryptography thought leaders on hardware and software options to migrate existing technologies to post-quantum encryption.
The consultation forms part of a wider national contest, which is due to report back with its preliminary shortlist later this year.
IT pros can download and evaluate the options through the open source repository at NISTs Computer Security Resource Center.
[The message] is to educate the market but also to try to get people to start playing around with [quantum computers] and understanding it because, if you wait until its a Y2K problem, then its too late, said Chris Sciacca, IBMs communications manager for research in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America. So the message here is to start adopting some of these schemes.
Businesses need to know how to contend with quantum decryption, which could potentially jeopardize many Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints.
Quantum threatens society because IoT, in effect, binds our digital and physical worlds together. Worryingly, some experts believe hackers could already be recording scrambled IoT transmissions, to be ready when quantum decryption arrives.
Current protocols such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) will be difficult to upgrade, as they are often baked into the devices circuitry or firmware,
Estimates for when a quantum computer capable of running Shors algorithm vary. An optimist in the field would say it may take 10 to 15 years. But then it could be another Y2K scenario, whose predicted problems never came to pass.
But its still worth getting the enterprises IoT network ready, to be on the safe side.
Broadly speaking, all asymmetric encryption thats in common use today will be susceptible to a future quantum computer with adequate quantum volume, said Christopher Sherman, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, Anything that uses prime factorization or discrete log to create separate encryption and decryption keys, those will all be vulnerable to a quantum computer potentially within the next 15 years.
Why Do We Need Quantum Security?
Quantum computers would answer queries existing technologies cannot resolve, by applying quantum mechanics to compute various combinations of data simultaneously.
As the quantum computing field remains largely in the prototyping phase, current models largely perform only narrow scientific or computational objectives.
All asymmetric cryptography systems, however, could one day be overridden by a quantum mechanical algorithm known as Shors algorithm.
Thats because the decryption ciphers rely on mathematical complexities such as factorization, which Shors could hypothetically unravel in no time.
In quantum physics, what you can do is construct a parameter that cancels some of the probabilities out, explained Luca De Feo, a researcher at IBM who is involved with the NIST quantum-security effort, Shors algorithm is such an apparatus. It makes many quantum particles interact in such a way that the probabilities of the things you are not interested in will cancel out.
Will Quantum Decryption Spell Disaster For IoT?
Businesses must have safeguards against quantum decryption, which threatens IoT endpoints secured by asymmetric encryption.
A symmetric encryption technique, Advanced Encrypton Standard, is believed to be immune to Shors algorithm attacks, but is considered computationally expensive for resource-constrained IoT devices.
For businesses looking to quantum-secure IoT in specific verticals, theres a risk assessment model published by University of Waterloos quantum technology specialist Dr. Michele Mosca. The model is designed to predict the risk and outline times for preparing a response,depending on the kind of organization involved.
As well as integrating a new quantum security standard, theres also a need for mechanisms to make legacy systems quantum-secure. Not only can encryption be broken, but theres also potential for quantum forgeries of digital identities, in sectors such as banking.
I see a lot of banks now asking about quantum security, and definitely governments, Sherman said, They are not just focused on replacing RSA which includes https and TLS but also elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), for example blockchain-based systems. ECC-powered digital signatures will need to be replaced as well.
One option, which NIST is considering, is to blend post-quantum security at network level with standard ciphers on legacy nodes. The latter could then be phased out over time.
A hybrid approach published by NIST guidance around using the old protocols that satisfy regulatory requirements at a security level thats been certified for a given purpose, Sherman said, But then having an encapsulation technique that puts a crypto technique on top of that. It wraps up into that overall encryption scheme, so that in the future you can drop one thats vulnerable and just keep the post-quantum encryption.
Governments Must Defend Against Quantum Hacks
For national governments, its becoming an all-out quantum arms race. And the U.S. may well be losing. Russia and China have both already unveiled initial post-quantum security options, Sherman said.
They finished their competitions over the past couple of years. I wouldnt be surprised if the NIST standard also becomes something that Europe uses, he added.
The threats against IoT devices have only grown more pronounced with current trends.
More virtual health and connected devices deployed in COVID-19, for example, will mean more medical practices are now quantum-vulnerable.
According to analyst firm Omdia, there are three major fault lines in defending the IoT ecosystem: endpoint security, network security and public cloud security. With 46 billion things currently in operation globally, IoT already provides an enlarged attack surface for cybercriminals.
The challenge is protecting any IoT device thats using secure communications or symmetric protocols, said Sherman, Considering that by, 2025 theres over a trillion IoT devices expected to be deployed. Thats obviously quite large in terms of potential exposure. Wherever RSA or TLS is being used with IoT, theres a threat.
Weighing Up Post-Quantum And Quantum Cryptography Methods
Post-quantum cryptography differs from methods such as quantum key distribution (QKD), which use quantum mechanics to secure technology against the coming threat.
QKD is already installed on some government and research communications lines, and hypothetically its impenetrable.
But the average business needs technology that can be implemented quickly and affordably. And, as we dont even know how a quantum decryption device would work in practice, its unrealistic to transfer QKD onto every IoT network.
One of the main post-quantum cryptography standards in the frame is lattice-based cryptography, an approach that is thought to be more resilient against Shors algorithm.
While these are still based on mathematics and could be endangered by future quantum decryption algorithms, they might buy scientists enough time to come up with other economically viable techniques.
Another advantage would be in IoT applications that need the point-to-point security channel, such as connected vehicles, De Feo said.
Probably the lattice-based schemes are the best right now to run on IoT devices. Some efforts will be needed in the chip design process to make these even easier to run, he added, But we should probably start thinking about this right now. Because it will probably take around five-to-seven years after the algorithms have been found for the chips to reach peoples homes or industrial systems.
And then potentially [if the optimistic estimates are right,] quantum computers will have arrived.
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#YouthMatters: IBM’s Amira Abbas on quantum computing and AI – Bizcommunity.com
Posted: at 1:52 am
Amira Abbas, research scientist at IBM
Here, Abbas shares more about herself, her achievements, and what made her choose to focus on quantum computing.
Abbas: I feel extremely fortunate because I think I have a super cool role that combines everything I love doing. Im currently a PhD student and my research is directly aligned to the research I do at IBM. In other words, researching for my PhD is my job.
Currently, I spend most of my time trying to figure out how quantum computers can help make artificial intelligence (AI) better. Quantum computers are often viewed as supercomputers that can outperform the computers we use today. But, its actually quite hard to figure out where quantum computers can help us, especially in AI.
I work with the IBM team in Zurich, Switzerland to try and understand this particular problem. I also work with the team in South Africa to teach more people in Africa about quantum computing. I love this balance of research and community work in my role because it requires very different skills and stimulates me in different ways.
Abbas: I grew up in a city called Durban on the east coast of South Africa. I always loved mathematics and used to get really excited as a kid when I saw crazy equations in movies. I would think to myself I wish I could understand those things and do stuff like that. This curiosity and relish to understand mathematics lead me to study actuarial science, which is notoriously heavy on mathematics and statistics.
I then went to work in asset management in Johannesburg for a few years. This was a great learning experience, but I couldnt shake the feeling that something was missing from my life.
Soon after this discovery, I left the financial industry and went back to study a masters in physics specialising in quantum computing. I am now doing my PhD in quantum machine learning and couldnt be happier.
Abbas: I think what excites me most about quantum computing is all the unknowns and things we still have to discover. As a researcher, its a dream to work in a field with so many open questions like how can quantum help AI? How can quantum help Africa and Africa-specific problems? Are quantum techniques even helpful and beneficial to us?
Additionally, there are lots of low-hanging fruit because the field of quantum computing is relatively young and so lots of discoveries are inevitable.
The field itself is also so broad and has attracted a very interesting and diverse community. This makes quantum even more enjoyable - being in a space with cool people and getting to explore fascinating things.
Abbas: I would love to continue to produce high calibre research output in quantum computing.
I want to inspire others to see that it doesnt matter where youre from, what university you are at or what your background is if you believe you can do something meaningful - even in a field as crazy sounding as quantum computing - then you can. It just takes hard work and persistence. So, I just want to keep at it and progress my research career by producing interesting work in the field of quantum computing and AI.
Abbas: In terms of achievements, I think its pretty cool that Im the first African to have received Googles PhD Fellowship award for the category of quantum computing.
I have also placed first at global quantum computing hackathon events, such as the Qiskit Europe Hackathon in 2019 Zurich and the Xanadu Quantum Hackathon in Toronto 2019.
Recently, I was the lead author on a quantum machine learning paper that made the cover of a Nature Research journal.
Otherwise, I have also received multiple scholarship awards and invited speaker requests to numerous quantum and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics events.
Abbas: My life in a nutshell: Coffee, research, reading, eating and somehow managing to sleep.
My family often say that I work a bit more than the average person, but when youre working on something youre passionate about, it never feels like work and it never feels like enough.
But on weekends, I try to get out into nature as much as possible. Living in South Africa, I am privileged to be able to experience such wonderful outdoor activities and I love hiking.
Abbas: I always say that science and technology is a lot more like art than people realise. Its crucial to grasp for critical thinking, but you have to find what works for you, and its important as a young person to keep in mind that science and technology are extremely broad just because you dont understand one thing, doesnt mean you wont understand everything.
Its also important for our youth to think about what the future holds, for any country, industry or profession and just how advancements in science and technology will affect that.
Luckily we live in a time where we can have access to high-quality research and ideas through our phones. This is how I came across quantum computing which, for example, has the potential to speed up computations used across finance, logistics, healthcare, and more.
We need to foster our skills locally so that our research can contribute to cutting-edge work and allow us to be ahead of the curve, instead of mere consumers of advanced tech/science.
Abbas: Its really easy to develop a mental 'block' against science and technology. Sometimes people become afraid of maths for example if they dont understand it in high school. This was similar to my experience with physics, in fact, physics was my lowest mark in school because I never really understood it. Now Im doing a PhD in physics which I would have thought impossible. The key is to view science and technology as art and find your niche in this very broad space.
As for advice, I strongly believe that all it takes to achieve your goals is consistent hard work and a balanced lifestyle. If youre still figuring out what your passion is, or feeling as if something in your life is missing, keep upskilling yourself and try to read more about things you normally wouldnt. Maybe one day you will come across the thing that makes you tick, and then hard work can be pleasurable if youre working on something aligned to your passion.
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#YouthMatters: IBM's Amira Abbas on quantum computing and AI - Bizcommunity.com
CSRWire – Refusing Limits with Liz Ruetsch – CSRwire.com
Posted: at 1:52 am
Published 10 hours ago
Submitted by Keysight Technologies
Keysight Blog
By Brianne McClure | Brand Storyteller
Two years into the electrical engineering program at Rutgers University, Elizabeth (Liz) Ruetsch called her father in tears. She told him that she wanted to quit the program. The problem was, as her father pointed out pragmatically, she didn't have a plan B.
Liz shared this story with me when I invited her to participate in our Refusing Limits interview series to celebrateInternational Women in Engineering Day. Despite her initial feelings that the electrical engineering program was too challenging and she could not see herself working in research and development, Liz would go on to graduate as one of six women in a class of 160 engineers. She has since become an inspiration to many engineers especially women.
On her way to the finish line, Liz saw many of her female peers come to a similar crossroads and drop out. Thats when she realized how important it is for women in engineeringto have beacons. Liz explained that beacons are people in the industry who inspire you and give you a reason to stick with the engineering journey when things get tough. Once she found her own beacons, Liz wanted to help other women do the same, so they would be inspired to complete the engineering program.
When I spoke with Liz, I was eager to learn how she went from almost dropping out of engineering school to forging a fascinating career in the test and measurement industry - spanning twenty-seven years of sales, marketing, and leadership. She has worked in the US and internationally during her career, including a two-year assignment living and working in China. She was also recognized by the Society of Women Engineers with a Global Leadership Award and the North Bay Business Journal with a Women in Business Award. She now leads the quantum engineering team at Keysight.
Liz, how much of your ability to stick with the engineering program came down to sheer determination? And do you think women with grit are more likely to succeed as engineers?
The women in my engineering program were brilliant and had plenty of grit. So, I think it's more likely that they didn't have good enough reasons to keep going. The program is very demanding, and if you can't picture yourself coming out of it and entering a career that excites you, changing course makes a lot of sense. That's especially true at a university like Rutgers, where you can pursue degrees outside of engineering.
During the program, I found myself looking for inspiration. When I was introduced to a broader range of engineering careers, I became more excited about being an engineer. I wanted to inspire that same kind of excitement in my peers, soI got involved with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). As co-president of our local section, I introduced a weekly speaker series where people from different engineering disciplines and roles (sales, marketing, operations) would talk about their work. Those speakers became beacons who showed the women in our sectionthat even if mechanical or electrical engineering wasn't for them, they might enjoy industrial, packaging, or environmental engineering. I'm proud to say that the program made a difference in retaining women in the overall engineering program.
We also started a program where girls in high school spent a weekend at the university getting a feel for studying engineering by working on some projects and meeting women studying in various engineering fields. When I received my leadership award at the SWE conference, I sought out the current president of the Rutgers SWE section. I was thrilled to hear from her that this weekend program is still going today - almost 30 years later.
In hindsight, do you think working through the most challenging parts of the engineering program helped prepare you for the real world?
I learned a lot about myself between the time I called my father - ready to quit - and graduation. Sticking with the program taught me how to navigate a hard situation, that I knew would last at least another two years until completion. Along the way, I realized that I dont have to have all of the answers on day one to keep moving forward. Once I could break the unknown down into smaller, solvable problems, the challenge suddenly became exciting and ultimately rewarding. And Im glad I learned that lesson early on because the most pivotal points in my career came down to taking on big challenges that I did not have a clear path to solving on day one.
Can you describe some of those pivotal points in your career?
When I started my career as a sales representative for Hewlett Packard (HP), my customer was a big defense contractor. At that time, I was twenty-something years old and trying to sell to a bunch of guys who were radar, missile, and satellite engineers. The first time I walked into a meeting, they said, "you know nothing about radar, right?" They said, "sure; maybe you have an engineering degree. And maybe you understand circuits and electromagnetics or digital signal processing from your textbooks. But what do you really know about radar? How can you possibly help me?" That was an intimidating situation. Luckily, I was learning at that time how to be comfortable with not having all the answers. So, I said, "You know what? I know absolutely nothing about radar, but I'd love to hear about it." And thankfully, people love to talk about what they are working on. And the more they talked, the more I listened to their challenges and learned what solutions we could bring to bear. Many of these customers became close friends, and here it is twenty years later, and I'm still in contact with them even though they are well into retirement.
Another significant challenge in my career was living and working in China. I had traveled to China frequentlyand managed people there and in 14 other countries. But living and working in China is far different than staying at the Marriott there for a few days. During my first three months, I struggled with learning the most effective way to lead the local team. But once I solicited some excellent mentors and did some deep reflecting, it turned into a tremendous experience. I learned more in my two years there than in other roles I had held for over five years.
Twenty-seven years later, I'm still doing work that stretches me as a leader. Because as I like to tell my teams - it's good to feel scared every few years. Thats how you know you are pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Before taking on my latest role, I had expressed interest to my management about getting involved with mergers and acquisitions. In late 2019, an opportunity came about where we planned to acquire a company in Boston and set up a research and development team there. My leaders were looking for a general manager to integrate the acquired company with Keysight. It was one of those opportunities that's equal parts thrilling and terrifying. On the one hand, I had an excellent background in many of the areas that touch quantum, including aerospace and defense, markets like China, business models for selling software and services, and providing complete test solutions. On the other hand, I was not a quantum physicist. Since Keysight is a results-oriented company, and I've delivered results consistently in multiple business units, the management team supported me to stretch myself into this new GM role. When they offered me the role, I took on the challenge enthusiastically and started to navigate this new territory.
And youve been in that role for over a year now. Would you make the same decision again?
It was a massive leap for me with a lot of unknowns. But I knew that I would be able to figure things out along the way. Part of the reason I was confident was because of the caliber of the team that I had the opportunity to work with and learn from. And we have since added to that team with some exceptional industry and university talent. Having the opportunity to lead theteam that is enabling our customers to advance quantum computing has been one of the most exhilarating adventures of my career. And were just getting started!
Immediately after we founded our quantum research lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the world went into quarantine due to the pandemic. Like many people, we had to learn how to interview, hire, onboard, and manage a new team remotely. Hiring both quantum physicists and software engineers for research and development was entirely new to me, so we formed a group of managers with experience in this area to assist.
In parallel with this work, we also started the process to acquire another company,Quantum Benchmark. Quantum Benchmark was the first acquisition that I led from beginning to end, which was an even more complex challenge. It takes a lot of preparation to identify and promote an acquisition target to your CEO and board of directors. Once again, I called on a team of people with experience in this area to coach and guide us. And it worked out as Quantum Benchmark became part of Keysight in April.
Youve talked a lot about the importance of taking on challenges that push you out of your comfort zone. How does that belief manifest in your leadership style?
For the first time in my management career, there are more people on my team with Ph.D.'s than not. These individuals are at the leading edge of quantum, and they are very comfortable pushing the boundaries of technology. But I did encourage our team to be intentional about cultivating a diversity of thought across the ecosystem as they hired new team members.
Right now, the physics part of quantum is reasonably known. But the engineering part of actually building a computer is a big challenge. To progress this technology forward, you need very cross-disciplinary teams. You need physicists, software engineers, and FPGA [field programmable gate array] engineers. You also need to balance university experience with start-up experience and corporate experience to ensure that the solutions are innovative, scalable, and supportable.
And it's exciting to see this unique combination of talent working together to challenge what's possible. The most rewarding part about leading this team is seeing them engaging with customers and partners, being excited about their work, and having opportunities to stretch themselves.
And now that youve helped launch the Women in Quantum mentoring program, youre empowering people inside and out of the company to grow. Can you give an update on how thats going?
Sure. We introduced theWomen in Quantum mentoring programearlier this year. The idea behind creating a network of women in quantum goes back to our conversation earlier about setting up beacons to illuminate paths forward when people are feeling stuck or just needing some inspiration. When I learned about theWomen in Quantumorganization led byDenise Ruffner, I saw an opportunity to leverage Keysight's internal mentoring platform to connect mentors and mentees across the industry. I then sought out support from our Director of Diversity and Inclusion,Leslie Camino-Markowitz, and she made it happen. We have had over 400 people sign up for the program to date. It is also exciting that it keeps coming up on my calls with customers who've told me how glad they are that Keysight is sponsoring this effort to help with the talent pipeline in the quantum ecosystem.
The program is open to people of all gender identities who want to be a mentee or mentor. And it's not just mentoring on technical topics. A lot of people have called me out of the blue about career navigation. Or they have great ideas but can't get any buy-in, and they want coaching on how to improve their influencing skills. I'm always amazed when I'm speaking with mentees that sharing the simplest things can help somebody get unstuck and make them feel empowered to move forward.
Youve touched a lot of lives over the years. How do you feel when people call you inspirational?
I was surprised by how many people came up to me and said something along those lines after I received the Global Leadership Award during the Society of Women Engineers conference in Austin, TX. I have never intentionally set out to challenge the status quo or to inspire anyone. I like to challenge myself and try new things and somehow that inspires other women in the process. When that happenswhen I hear their success storiesit is special.
Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS) is a leading technology company that helps enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysight's solutions optimize networks and bring electronic products to market faster and at a lower cost with offerings from design simulation, to prototype validation, to manufacturing test, to optimization in networks and cloud environments.
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Quantum Computing Software Market Analytical Overview, Growth Factors, Demand and Trends Forecast to 2027 The Manomet Current – The Manomet Current
Posted: at 1:52 am
A recent market research report added to repository of Mart Research is an in-depth analysis of Global Quantum Computing Software Market. On the basis of historic growth analysis and current scenario of Quantum Computing Software market place, the report intends to offer actionable insights on global market growth projections. Authenticated data presented in report is based on findings of extensive primary and secondary research. Insights drawn from data serve as excellent tools that facilitate deeper understanding of multiple aspects of global Quantum Computing Software market. This further helps user with their developmental strategy.
This report examines all the key factors influencing growth of global Quantum Computing Software market, including demand-supply scenario, pricing structure, profit margins, production and value chain analysis. Regional assessment of global Quantum Computing Software market unlocks a plethora of untapped opportunities in regional and domestic market places. Detailed company profiling enables users to evaluate company shares analysis, emerging product lines, scope of NPD in new markets, pricing strategies, innovation possibilities and much more.
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Segmented by Category System Software
Application Software
Segmented by End User-Segment Big Data Analysis
Biochemical Manufacturing
Machine Learning
Segmented by Country North America United States Canada Mexico Europe Germany France UK Italy Russia Spain Asia Pacific China Japan Korea Southeast Asia India Australasia Central & South America Brazil Argentina Colombia Middle East & Africa Iran Israel Turkey South Africa Saudi Arabia
Key manufacturers included in this survey Origin Quantum Computing Technology
Microsoft
Ion Q
Intel
IBM
D Wave
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Table of Contents
1 Product Introduction and Overview 2 Global Quantum Computing Software Supply by Company 3 Global and Regional Quantum Computing Software Market Status by Category 4 Global and Regional Quantum Computing Software Market Status by End User/Segment 5 Global Quantum Computing Software Market Status by Region 6 North America Quantum Computing Software Market Status 7 Europe Quantum Computing Software Market Status 8 Asia Pacific Quantum Computing Software Market Status 9 Central & South America Quantum Computing Software Market Status 10 Middle East & Africa Quantum Computing Software Market Status 11 Supply Chain and Manufacturing Cost Analysis 12 Global Quantum Computing Software Market Forecast by Category and by End User/Segment 13 Global Quantum Computing Software Market Forecast by Region/Country 14 Key Participants Company Information 15 Conclusion 16 Methodology
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People of Argonnes history: A look at leaders who made Argonne what it is today – Newswise
Posted: at 1:52 am
Newswise July 1 marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. Since its inception, Argonne has dramatically evolved from a nuclear facility devoted to the peaceful use of atomic power to a multipurpose laboratory whose scientific work seeks to solve critical physical, environmental, economic and social problems.
Looking back at some of the key figures in Argonnes history offers a chance to reflect on some accomplishments that have transformed American science through discoveries in energy, climate, health, computing, cosmology and more, and improved our everyday lives.
Key figures in Argonnes history transformed American science through discoveries in energy, climate, health, computing, cosmology and more.
Argonnes story begins with Enrico Fermi, the labs first director before it was chartered and the architect of the nuclear age. Fermi pioneered the advance of nuclear energy and paved the way for accomplishments that would end World War II and enable 75 years of civilian peacetime nuclear energy.
Fermi won the Nobel Prize in 1938, for his work in radioactivity and for the discovery of elements beyond uranium that were later understood to be previously unknown fission products. That same year, he and his Jewish wife fled Italy where he had been a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rome to escape Nazi persecution. In 1942, Fermi and a team helped build the first self-sustaining, human-created nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. This discovery resulted in the founding of Argonne four years later.
Fermis legacy of work in nuclear physics dramatically revolutionized society. Not only did it pave the way for the atomic bomb, but all nuclear reactors around the world owe their existence to Fermis research.
Work continues to this day in nuclear reactor design and development, but now much of it is done on computers. Scientists from several institutions, including Argonne, are working to build the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), which could allow for a plug-and-play operating model where different parts are tested experimentally. While the VTR will not produce electricity, the experiments conducted through it could help scientists develop ideas for future commercial nuclear reactors that could eventually power homes and businesses with clean, carbon-free energy.
Like Enrico Fermi, Maria Goeppert Mayer was an immigrant, spending her youth in Germany. She worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University before coming to Argonne.
Mayer is most widely known for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus, a theory that garnered her the Nobel Prize in physics in 1963. This model holds that the neutrons and protons inside a nucleus are ordered into spaced shells, much like the electrons outside of the nucleus. Mayer was the second woman to win the physics Nobel Prize, 60 years after Marie Curie, and the first Argonne employee to win the Nobel Prize based on work done at the laboratory.
Mayers discovery opened the door for a new kind of nuclear physics and revolutionized scientists understanding of the inner parts of atoms.
Todays researchers, including those using the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System,a DOE Office of Science User Facility, build upon Mayers pivotal discovery, refining their understanding of the structure of the nucleus, especially the quarks and gluons that compose the protons and neutrons. Also following Mayers legacy, Argonne awards the Maria Goeppert Mayer Fellowship internationally to outstanding doctoral scientists and engineers for a three-year program pursuing the fellows research interests.
Alexei Abrikosovs theory for superconductors materials that conduct electricity with no energy loss at extremely low temperatures led to the development of a previously unknown, second type of superconductor.
Until Abrikosovs discovery, scientists only understood one type of superconductor, which broke down when the magnetic field got too strong. Abrikosovs type-II superconductors held higher currents and thus enabled stronger magnetic fields.
Born in Moscow, Abrikosov worked in the field of theoretical physics until 1991, when he joined Argonne as a distinguished scientist in material science until 2014. In 2003, he won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with superconductors.
Abrikosovs work on superconductivity has had profound implications for particle accelerators, fusion reactors, cell phone towers and wind turbine compact motors. The design of MRI machines is based on type-II superconductors. Today, Abrikosov's work continues to contribute to Argonne research on the properties of metal and superconductors.
Margaret Butler was one of Americas earliest computer scientists. Beginning her career as a government statistician, she quickly joined Argonne as a junior mathematician in 1947. In the early 1950s, Butler worked on the AVIDAC (Argonne Version of the Institute's Digital Automatic Computer), one of the nations first supercomputers. AVIDAC was used to solve mathematical problems for nuclear reactor engineering and theoretical physics research. As time went on and more supercomputers were developed, Butler expanded her portfolio to solve problems in biology, chemistry and physics.
In addition to her work in computer science, Butler was also a key proponent of women in science, becoming the first woman fellow of the American Nuclear Society. She organized the Association for Women in Science in Chicago and worked to hire and promote women during her time at Argonne.
Butlers application of supercomputers to large-scale scientific questions proved that these tools could have a wide variety of uses for solving vital problems of national interest. She was able to show the use of computers across scientific fields, positioning computer science as a real tool for inquiry.
Butlers supercomputing legacy lives on at Argonne today through the Margaret Butler Fellowship in Computational Science, awarded to postdoctoral candidates through the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Her legacy also lives on at Argonne as the laboratory embarks on the exascale era with supercomputers more than a billion times faster than the AVIDAC. Computer science at Argonne touches every scientific discipline, from materials science to metagenomics, and in fields that help develop solutions for fighting climate change and COVID-19.
Leona Woods was the youngest scientist, and the only woman, to work on the Manhattan Project in Chicago. Working alongside Enrico Fermi and 47 other men, Woods created neutron detectors that were critical to confirming the occurrence of the sustained nuclear chain reaction that the team created.
Woods then worked with Fermis team on the Chicago Pile-2 and Chicago Pile-3 reactors at Argonne. In 1944, the Argonne team moved to the Hanford Site in Washington, where a large reactor was producing plutonium for bombs. When the reactor kept shutting down after its initial power-up, Woods helped determine the root of the problem: radioactive poison from the rare isotope xenon-135.
In a time when women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers was rare, Woods stood out as an exemplary scientist, playing a key role in creating the worlds first nuclear reactor. Throughout her lifetime, Woods published more than 200 scientific papers.
Later in her career, Woods worked in ecology and environmental science, devising methods of using isotope ratios for retroactively studying temperature and rainfall patterns from hundreds of years before records existed. Her foundational research opened the door to the study of climate change. Today, Argonne is a leader in research on understanding and mitigating climate change.
Walter Massey was Argonnes sixth director and the first African American to hold the post. Born during the Jim Crow era in Mississippi in 1938, Massey had a determination and intelligence that earned him a scholarship to Morehouse College and later a postdoctoral research position at Argonne, among other faculty positions he held before becoming Argonnes director.
Less than a month after Massey accepted the position as Argonnes director, a nuclear generating station in Pennsylvania, called Three-Mile Island, experienced a partial meltdown. The incident caused a rise in conflicting politics over the importance of nuclear energy research, which was Argonnes historical foundation. To give Argonne a more positive public image, Massey fostered relations with the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., and launched a new campaign for the fast breeder reactor to promote the significance of the work done at Argonne.
As part of the campaign, Massey oversaw the construction of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (later decommissioned), which brought researchers to Argonne and helped them make many scientific discoveries, such as identifying the structure and formation of Alzheimers plaques. Massey also laid the groundwork for what would become the Advanced Photon Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, now considered one of the worlds most productive X-ray light sources.
As Argonnes director in the early 1980s, Massey pushed for the development of the fast breeder reactor, a pioneering new nuclear technology, and was a staunch advocate of renewable energy.
Today, his legacy lives on at Argonne, especially in the community and educational outreach programs that were initiated during his tenure. This year Argonne introduced the Walter Massey Fellowship for exceptional scientists of color to conduct research at Argonne.
Rudy Bouie began his career at Argonne as a janitor in 1963, rising in the ranks to become director of the Plant Facilities and Services (PFS) Division in 1982. He served as chief operations officer in his last year at Argonne, before his death in 2001.
A native Chicagoan, Bouie promoted the success of others and Argonne. He advocated for opportunities for women in STEM and provided employment opportunities for adults with disabilities. In addition, he helped create a high school education program that mentored students in STEM, leading several graduates to assume positions at Argonne.
When he became director of PFS, Bouie inherited a lab with buildings that were nearly 30 years old and in desperate need of upgrades. During that time, the funds for such projects were shrinking while the need grew for new buildings and renovations.
Bouie secured funds by networking in Washington, D.C., and outlining detailed plans extending years into the future. He raised funds to construct new buildings, renovate old ones and finally replace temporary buildings. Many of those new buildings are still important to Argonne today. In honor of all his contributions to the mission of Argonne, Bouie received the University of Chicago Outstanding Service Award in 1993.
In the mid-1960s, Roland Winston produced an important design for collecting solar radiation: a hollow, cone-like structure with reflective walls that concentrated sunlight. However, Winston, then an associate professor of physics at the University of Chicago, wasnt focused on generating electricity. He wanted to use his funnel for light, as he later called it, to collect Cherenkov radiation, a type of light useful for detecting subatomic particles in nuclear and particle physics experiments.
Nearly a decade later, Winstons work drew interest from Argonne Director Robert Sachs. Spurred by the oil crisis, Sachs and others were looking at ways to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient by avoiding the mechanical design complexities that resulted from the need to track the suns movement across the sky. Winston collaborated with Argonne scientists to apply his design for solar radiation collection to the first prototype of a solar collector, called a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC), which could efficiently focus sunlight throughout the day without moving.
With his CPC, Winston unwittingly helped start the field of nonimaging optics, which is essential not just for solar energy, but also for astronomy and illumination. Since collaborating with Argonne, Winston has gone on to win more than 10 awards for his work with solar energy.
Today, researchers continue to explore ways to make CPCs smaller, more efficient and more affordable. They are commonly used in fiber optics, solar energy collection and biomedical and defense research.
While working as a scientist at Argonne, Paul Benioff made a discovery that opened up an entirely new field of computing. Today, Argonne scientists are working on multiple efforts in quantum computing using dual-state quantum bits, or qubits, to solve problems that current supercomputers cannot. But in the 1970s, quantum computers were still only an idea one that many scientists considered impossible.
Benioff changed that. In a groundbreaking paper published in 1980, he demonstrated for the first time that a quantum computer was indeed theoretically possible. He developed his model further in subsequent papers. By proving that quantum computers were not an impossibility, as many had thought, Benioff catalyzed an entire field that is now focused on building quantum systems to relay information and perform dauntingly complex calculations.
Benioff joined Argonne in 1961, working in chemistry and environmental sciences. His quantum explorations werent part of the job he did the research in his spare time. In 2001, he received the University of Chicago Medal for Distinguished Performance and, in 2016, Argonne held a symposium in honor of his quantum computing work, with Benioff attending as a speaker. He continued to publish research on quantum theory well into the last decade.
Christina Nunez also contributed to this story.
About the Advanced Photon Source
The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Sciences Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the worlds most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nations economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.
This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nations first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance Americas scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
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People of Argonnes history: A look at leaders who made Argonne what it is today - Newswise
Clearing the way toward robust quantum computing – MIT News
Posted: June 17, 2021 at 1:48 am
MIT researchers have made a significant advance on the road toward the full realization of quantum computation, demonstrating a technique that eliminates common errors in the most essential operation of quantum algorithms, the two-qubit operation or gate.
Despite tremendous progress toward being able to perform computations with low error rates with superconducting quantum bits (qubits), errors in two-qubit gates, one of the building blocks of quantum computation, persist, says Youngkyu Sung, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science who is the lead author of a paper on this topic published today in Physical Review X. We have demonstrated a way to sharply reduce those errors.
In quantum computers, the processing of information is an extremely delicate process performed by the fragile qubits, which are highly susceptible to decoherence, the loss of their quantum mechanical behavior. In previous research conducted by Sung and the research group he works with, MIT Engineering Quantum Systems, tunable couplers were proposed, allowing researchers to turn two-qubit interactions on and off to control their operations while preserving the fragile qubits. The tunable coupler idea represented a significant advance and was cited, for example, by Google as being key to their recent demonstration of the advantage that quantum computing holds over classical computing.
Still, addressing error mechanisms is like peeling an onion: Peeling one layer reveals the next. In this case, even when using tunable couplers, the two-qubit gates were still prone to errors that resulted from residual unwanted interactions between the two qubits and between the qubits and the coupler. Such unwanted interactions were generally ignored prior to tunable couplers, as they did not stand out but now they do. And, because such residual errors increase with the number of qubits and gates, they stand in the way of building larger-scale quantum processors. The Physical Review X paper provides a new approach to reduce such errors.
We have now taken the tunable coupler concept further and demonstrated near 99.9 percent fidelity for the two major types of two-qubit gates, known as Controlled-Z gates and iSWAP gates, says William D. Oliver, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, MIT Lincoln Laboratory fellow, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, and associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, home of the Engineering Quantum Systems group. Higher-fidelity gates increase the number of operations one can perform, and more operations translates to implementing more sophisticated algorithms at larger scales.
To eliminate the error-provoking qubit-qubit interactions, the researchers harnessed higher energy levels of the coupler to cancel out the problematic interactions. In previous work, such energy levels of the coupler were ignored, although they induced non-negligible two-qubit interactions.
Better control and design of the coupler is a key to tailoring the qubit-qubit interaction as we desire. This can be realized by engineering the multilevel dynamics that exist, Sung says.
The next generation of quantum computers will be error-corrected, meaning that additional qubits will be added to improve the robustness of quantum computation.
Qubit errors can be actively addressed by adding redundancy, says Oliver, pointing out, however, that such a process only works if the gates are sufficiently good above a certain fidelity threshold that depends on the error correction protocol. The most lenient thresholds today are around 99 percent. However, in practice, one seeks gate fidelities that are much higher than this threshold to live with reasonable levels of hardware redundancy.
The devices used in the research, made at MITs Lincoln Laboratory, were fundamental to achieving the demonstrated gains in fidelity in the two-qubit operations, Oliver says.
Fabricating high-coherence devices is step one to implementing high-fidelity control, he says.
Sung says high rates of error in two-qubit gates significantly limit the capability of quantum hardware to run quantum applications that are typically hard to solve with classical computers, such as quantum chemistry simulation and solving optimization problems.
Up to this point, only small molecules have been simulated on quantum computers, simulations that can easily be performed on classical computers.
In this sense, our new approach to reduce the two-qubit gate errors is timely in the field of quantum computation and helps address one of the most critical quantum hardware issues today, he says.
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IBM’s first quantum computer outside of the US has just gone live – ZDNet
Posted: at 1:48 am
Fraunhofer Institute have just unveiled the Quantum System One, the country's first superconducting quantum computer built by IBM.
Five years after IBM made its first five-qubit quantum processor available for users to access over the cloud, the company is now showing off the first quantum computer that it has physically built outside of its New York-based data centers.
All the way across the Atlantic, scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have just unveiled the IBM Quantum System One the country's first superconducting quantum computer that Big Blue was contracted to build especially for the organization.
The device, which contains one of IBM's 27-qubit Falcon processors, came online a few weeks ago and has already been made available to Fraunhofer's scientists and some of the institute's partners. German academics and organizations outside of Fraunhofer will, from now on, be welcome to arrange monthly contracts to use the computer too for research, education and training purposes.
Fraunhofer's partnership with IBM was signed last year, marking the start of a global expansion for Big Blue's quantum hardware. The company released the Quantum System One in 2019, pitching it as the world's first commercial quantum computer; but until now, users have only accessed the device over the cloud, by connecting to IBM's Quantum Computation Center located in Poughkeepsie, New York.
SEE: Building the bionic brain (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Physically bringing the hardware to a new location for the first time was never going to be easy and the global COVID-19 pandemic only added some extra hurdles. Typically, explains Bob Sutor, chief quantum exponent at IBM, the company would've shipped some key parts and a team of in-house specialists to Germany to assemble the quantum computer, but the pandemic meant that this time, everything had to be done remotely.
IBM's engineers had to rely on NASA-inspired methods of remote assembly. "How do you train people that are thousands of miles away, when you can't just run up to them and say: 'Do this'?" Sutor tells ZDNet. "We had to train local teams remotely and work with them remotely to assemble everything and get this machine running. We developed new techniques to actually put these systems around the world without travelling there. And it worked."
To train German engineers from the local IBM development lab, Sutor's team put together a virtual course in quantum assembly. From installing the computer's refrigeration system to manipulating the Falcon processor, no detail was left out and the device successfully launched in line with the original schedule.
For Fraunhofer, this means that the institute and its partners will now have access to a leading-edge quantum computer built exclusively for German organizations, instead of relying on cloud access to US-based systems.
Since the partnership was announced, the institute has been busy investigating potential applications of quantum computing and designing quantum algorithms that might show an advantage over computations carried out with classical computing.
This is because quantum computing is nascent, and despite the huge potential that researchers are anticipating, much of the technology's promise is still theoretical. Existing quantum processors like IBM's Falcon come with too few qubits and too high an error-rate to resolve large-scale problems that are relevant to businesses. The research effort, therefore, consists of spotting the use-cases that might be suited to the technology once the hardware is ready.
"For users, they need to get in now, they need to understand what quantum computers are, what they're useful for and what are viable approaches using quantum computers that will get them an advantage over using classical computing," says Sutor.
At Fraunhofer, researchers have been looking at a variety of applications ranging from portfolio optimization in finance to logistics planning for manufacturers, through error correction protocols that could improve critical infrastructure and molecular simulation to push chemistry and materials discovery.
Working in partnership with the German Aerospace Center, for example, the institute has been conducting research to find out if quantum algorithmscould simulate electro-chemical processes within energy storage system which, in turn, could help design batteries and fuel cells with better performance and more energy density.
For Annkatrin Sommer, research coordinator at Fraunhofer, the choice of IBM as a quantum partner was a no-brainer. "We really wanted to go for cutting-edge technology where you have the ability to start developing algorithms as fast as possible," she tells ZDNet.
IBM's offer in quantum computing has some significant strengths. Since the release of its first cloud-based quantum processor, the company now has made over 20 Quantum System One machines available, which are accessed by more than 145 organizations around the world. Two billion quantum circuits are established daily with the cloud processors, and IBM is on track to break a trillion circuits before the end of the summer.
The Falcon processors used in the Quantum System One are 27 qubits, but the company is working in parallel on a chip called Hummingbird, which has 65 qubits. Big Blue recentlypublished a quantum hardware roadmapin which it pledged to achieve over 1,000 qubits by 2023 enough to start seeing the early results of quantum computing. Ultimately, IBM is aiming to produce a million-qubit quantum system.
"If I were to throw out a toy system and say: 'Here you go, play, I don't know if it'll ever get better' no one would care," says Sutor. "People need confidence that the machines and the software and apps on them will reasonably quickly be able to do work better than just classical computers."
For an institute like Fraunhofer, the rapid scaling of quantum technologies that IBM is promising is appealing. And the German organization is not alone in placing its bets on Big Blue. This year will also see an IBM Quantum System One installed in Japanas part of a partnership with the University of Tokyo; and back in the US, the Cleveland Clinichas just placed a $500 million order for IBM to build quantum hardware on-premises.
But despite IBM's credentials, Fraunhofer's research team is also keen to stress that it is too early to tell which approach or approaches to quantum computing will show results first. The industry is expanding fast, and withnew companies jumping on the quantum bandwagon every so often, it is hard to differentiate between hype and reality.
This is why, in addition to investing in IBM's superconducting qubits, Fraunhofer is also investigating the use of different approaches like ion traps or diamond.
"Currently, it's not clear which technology will be the best," says Sommer, "and we will probably have different technologies working in parallel for different use cases. It makes sense to start projects with different approaches and after some time, measure how far you got and if you reached your goals. Then, you decide with which technology you should proceed."
It remains that Germany's shiny new Quantum System One puts the country in a favorable position to compete in what isincreasingly shaping up to become a global race to lead in quantum computing.
The German government has already launched a 2 billion ($2.4 billion) funding program for the promotion of quantum technologies in the country, which comes in addition to the European Commission's 1 billion ($1.20 billion) quantum flagship.
Meanwhile, in the US, a $1.2 billion budget was allocated to the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018. And China, for its part,has made no secret of its ambition to become a leading quantum superpower.
The UK government has also invested a total 1 billion ($1.37 billion) in a National Quantum Technologies Programme. In the next few years, the country is hoping to follow Germany's lead andlaunch its very first commercial quantum computer, which will be built by California-based company Rigetti Computing.
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IBM's first quantum computer outside of the US has just gone live - ZDNet
Honeywell Does a Quantum Computing Deal. Is This the New Age of Computing? – Barron’s
Posted: at 1:48 am
Illustration by Elias Stein
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Quantum computing is gearing up for prime time. Honeywell International and the U.K.s Cambridge Quantum Computing are merging their fledgling quantum-computing efforts into a company that combines Honeywells hardware expertise with privately held Cambridges software and algorithms. Its as if the two were forming the Apple of quantum computingnot because its about to be a consumer product, but because Apple marries hardware, operating systems, and software.
Honeywell believes quantum computing, which exploits quantum effects to outperform traditional computers in some calculations, can be a trillion-dollar-a-year industry someday. We are at a phase where people are looking to hear more about practical quantum use cases, and investors want to know if this is investible, says Daniel Newman, founder of Futurum, a research and advisory firm focused on digital innovation and market-disrupting technologies.
This deal will speed investor education. [Wed] be disappointed if we were only at a billion [dollars in revenue] in a few years, says Ilyas Khan, Cambridges founder and CEO. Hell be CEO of the new company, which he says will decide by year end whether to go public. He also hopes by then to have products, initially in web security (with unhackable passwords), followed by chemicals and drug development.
The new enterprise will have about 350 employees, including 200 scientists, 120 of them Ph.Ds. Honeywell, which will own 54%, is putting in some $300 million in cash. Honeywell stock didnt react to the news. Quantum computing is still too small to move the needle on a $160 billion conglomeratefor now.
Roche Holding presents data on its spinal muscular atrophy drug, Evrysdi, at the 2021 CureSMA annual meeting.
Activision Blizzard and General Motors hold their annual shareholder meetings.
Oracle announces fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 results.
Humana hosts its biennial investor day virtually.
The National Association of Home Builders releases its Housing Market Index for June. Economists forecast an 83 reading, matching the May figure. Home builders remain very bullish on the housing market but are concerned about the availability and cost of building materials.
The Census Bureau reports retail-sales data for May. Expectations are for a 0.5% month-over-month decline, following a flat April. Excluding autos, spending is seen rising 0.6%, compared with a 0.8% decrease previously.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the producer price index for May. Consensus estimate is for a 0.4% monthly increase, with the core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, expected to rise 0.4% as well. This compares with gains of 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively, in April.
The FOMC announces its monetary-policy decision. With the federal-funds rate all but certain to remain near zero, Wall Street is looking for clues as to when the Federal Reserve might scale back its bond purchases.
Lennar reports quarterly results.
The Census Bureau reports new residential construction data for May. The economists forecast a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.63 million housing starts, slightly higher than Aprils data. Housing starts are just below their post-financial-crisis peak of 1.73 million from March.
Adobe and Kroger hold conference calls to discuss earnings.
DXC Technology and NRG Energy hold their 2021 investor days.
The Conference Board releases its Leading Economic Index for May. The LEI is expected to rise 1.1% month over month to 114.5, after gaining 1.6% in April. The index has now surpassed its pre-Covid peak, set back in January of 2020. The Conference Board now projects 8% to 9% annualized gross-domestic-product growth for the second quarter, and 6.4% for the year.
The Department of Labor reports initial jobless claims for the week ending on June 15. Jobless claims this past week were 376,000, the lowest total since March of 2020.
The Bank of Japan announces its monetary-policy decision. The central bank is widely expected to keep its key interest rate at negative 0.1%. The BOJ recently updated its GDP forecast to 4% growth for fiscal 2021 and 2.4% for fiscal 2022.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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Honeywell Does a Quantum Computing Deal. Is This the New Age of Computing? - Barron's
Hacking bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen but cryptographers are racing to build a workaround – CNBC
Posted: at 1:48 am
Intel's 17-qubit quantum test chip.
Source: Intel
Stefan Thomas really could have used a quantum computer this year.
The German-born programmer and crypto trader forgot the password to unlock his digital wallet, which contains 7,002 bitcoin, now worth $265 million. Quantum computers, which will be several million times faster than traditional computers, could have easily helped him crack the code.
Though quantum computing is still very much in its infancy, governments and private-sector companies such as Microsoft and Google are working to make it a reality. Within a decade, quantum computers could be powerful enough to break the cryptographic security that protects cell phones, bank accounts, email addresses and yes bitcoin wallets.
"If you had a quantum computer today, and you were a state sponsor China, for example most probably in about eight years, you could crack wallets on the blockchain," said Fred Thiel, CEO of cryptocurrency mining specialist Marathon Digital Holdings.
This is precisely why cryptographers around the world are racing to build a quantum-resistant encryption protocol.
Right now, much of the world runs on something called asymmetric cryptography, in which individuals use a private and public key pair to access things such as email and crypto wallets.
"Every single financial institution, every login on your phone it is all based on asymmetric cryptography, which is susceptible to hacking with a quantum computer," Thiel said. Thiel is a former director of Utimaco, one of the largest cryptography companies in Europe, which has worked with Microsoft, Google and others on post-quantum encryption.
The public-private key pair lets users produce a digital signature, using their private key, which can be verified by anyone who has the corresponding public key.
In the case of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, this digital signature is called the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, and it ensures that bitcoin can only be spent by the rightful owner.
Theoretically, someone using quantum computing could reverse-engineer your private key, forge your digital signature, and subsequently empty your bitcoin wallet.
"If I was dealing in fear-mongering ... I'd tell you that among the first types of digital signatures that will be broken by quantum computers are elliptic curves, as we use them today, for bitcoin wallets," said Thorsten Groetker, former Utimaco CTO and one of the top experts in the field of quantum computing.
"But that would happen if we do nothing," he said.
Crypto experts told CNBC they aren't all that worried about quantum hacking of bitcoin wallets for a couple of different reasons.
Castle Island Ventures founding partner Nic Carter pointed out that quantum breaks would be gradual rather than sudden.
"We would have plenty of forewarning if quantum computing was reaching the stage of maturity and sophistication at which it started to threaten our core cryptographic primitives," he said. "It wouldn't be something that happens overnight."
There is also the fact that the community knows that it is coming, and researchers are already in the process of building quantum-safe cryptography.
"The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has been working on a new standard for encryption for the future that's quantum-proof," said Thiel.
NIST is running that selection process now, picking the best candidates and standardizing them.
"It's a technical problem, and there's a technical solution for it," said Groetker. "There are new and secure algorithms for digital signatures. ... You will have years of time to migrate your funds from one account to another."
Groetker said he expects the first standard quantum-safe crypto algorithm by 2024, which is still, as he put it, well before we'd see a quantum computer capable of breaking bitcoin's cryptography.
Once a newly standardized post-quantum secure cryptography is built, Groetker said, the process of mass migration will begin. "Everyone who owns bitcoin or ethereum will transfer [their] funds from the digital identity that is secured with the old type of key, to a new wallet, or new account, that's secured with a new type of key, which is going to be secure," he said.
However, this kind of upgrade in security requires users to be proactive. In some scenarios, where fiat money accounts are centralized through a bank, this process may be easier than requiring a decentralized network of crypto holders to update their systems individually.
"Not everybody, regardless of how long it takes, will move their funds in time," said Groetker. Inevitably, there will be users who forget their password or perhaps passed away without sharing their key.
"There will be a number of wallets ... that become increasingly insecure, because they're using weaker keys."
But there are ways to deal with this kind of failing in security upgrade. For example, an organization could lock down all accounts still using the old type of cryptography and give owners some way to access it. The trade-off here would be the loss of anonymity when users go to reclaim their balance.
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Honeywell joins hands with Cambridge Quantum Computing to form a new company – The Hindu
Posted: at 1:48 am
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Multinational conglomerate Honeywell said it will combine with Cambridge Quantum Computing in a bid to form the largest standalone quantum computing company in the world.
According to Honeywell, the merger will be completed in the third quarter of 2021 and will set the pace for what is projected to become a $1 trillion quantum computing industry over the next three decades.
In the yet to be named company, Honeywell will invest between $270 million and $300 million, and will own a major stake. It will also engage in an agreement for manufacturing critical ion traps needed to power quantum hardware.
The new company will be led by Ilyas Khan, the CEO and founder of CQC, a company that focuses on building software for quantum computing. Honeywell Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darius Adamczyk will serve as chairman of the new company while Tony Uttley, currently the president of HQS, will serve as the new company's president.
"Joining together into an exciting newly combined enterprise, HQS and CQC will become a global powerhouse that will develop and commercialize quantum solutions that address some of humanity's greatest challenges, while driving the development of what will become a $1 trillion industry," Khan said in a statement.
With this new company, both firms plan to use Honeywells hardware expertise and Cambridges software platforms to build the worlds highest-performing computer.
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Honeywell joins hands with Cambridge Quantum Computing to form a new company - The Hindu