Résumé: La recherche académique et quelques compagnies privées travaillent d’arrache-pied à la construction de processeurs quantiques qui surpasseraient nos processeurs classiques dans certaines tâches. Les bases du calcul quantique seront présentées dans une première partie, indépendamment des supports matériels servant à les mettre en oeuvre. Dans une seconde partie, les différentes plateformes matérielles, les architectures envisagées, et les acteurs du domaine seront passés en revue. Des exemples de bits quantiques, portes logiques, méthode de lecture et algorithmes seront donnés dans le cas des circuits à bits quantiques supraconducteurs.

Abstract: Academic researchers as well as several private companies work hard for building quantum processors able to surpass classical processors for certain tasks. In a first talk, basis of quantum computing will be presented at an elementary level , independently of any hardware platforms. In a second talk, the different hardware platforms, the possible architectures, and the main actors involved will be presented. Examples of quantum bits, logic gates, readout methods and algorithms will be presented for the case of superconducting qubits.

Biographie: Denis Vion worked at CERN on the residual resistivity of niobium-coated superconducting cavities for particle acceleration. Then he was post-doc (1993-1996) in the Quantronics group, where he worked on Single Cooper pair boxes and Single Cooper pair transistors. In 2000, he started to develop superconducting quantum bits and demonstrated with his colleagues the first Josephson qubit with long coherence time (~ 1μs) and single-shot readout: the quantronium. He taught Josephson quantum bit physics at several summer schools on Quantum Information Processing.

Abstract: Quantum computers are well known to offer impressive speedups for many computational tasks compared to classical computers. In this talk, I will first review the well-known algorithms for factoring and search due to Shor and Grover. I will then discuss some recent developments yielding exponential speedups for solving specific linear algebra problems and mention their potential applications in the context of machine learning.

Biography: Anthony Leverrier is a researcher in quantum information at Inria Paris since 2012. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and obtained a PhD from Telecom ParisTech in 2009. He then did two postdocs at ICFO Barcelona and ETH Zurich. His main specialty is quantum cryptography where he provided the first full security proof for a quantum key distribution protocol with coherent states. More recently, he started working on quantum error correction techniques with the goal of reducing the overhead required for achieving universal quantum computing with noisy physical hardware.

Abstract: While quantum computing is moving progressively from research to an engineering phase, Atos’s strategy is to provide an immediate solution to enable end-users be Quantum ready when the first generation of GPQPU (General Purpose Quantum Processing Units) will be available. This achievement is possible thanks to the Atos QLM appliance which provides both the performance capability to simulate up to 41 qubits as an embedded and powerful software stack. Come and learn about Atos QLM with us.

Biography: Christelle Piechurski is leading the HPC presales entity at Atos Global level to support North America, India and APAC business units as the Business Innovation entity (former Center for Exploration and Innovation). Part of the HPC & Quantum BU, her activities also cover supporting business development on data management activities (HPSS) and Atos quantum computing solutions. Christelle has a postgraduate degree in Physics. She is part of the HPC world for more than 20 years and started her career in the industry at CGG where she stayed for 11 years before moving to former SGI (HPE), joining former Bull/Atos in 2011 as HPC principal architect/presales.

Abstract: The evolution of classical computing over the last 60 years is an exciting story. However, the newly upcoming quantum computing technologies are expected to significantly extend the capabilities of classical systems. Co-existing quantum-classical systems will allow us to solve some of today’s computational challenges.
This talk will explain the superconducting Qubit technology as we apply it in IBM. Further, some of the recently recognized challenges on Qubit level, regarding system architecture and the overall eco-system will be discussed. We conclude by reporting first routes towards useful applications with potential advantage when running them on small sized quantum computing hardware.

Biography: Peter Mueller joined IBM Research as a research staff member in 1988. His research expertise covers areas such as RF technology, error correction coding, cryptography, nano-technology and device physics. He is a founding member of the Team on Quantum Computing at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory.

Abstract:
A quantum computer (QC) is a device that performs operations according to the rules of quantum theory. There are various types of QCs of which nowadays the two most important ones considered for practical realization are the gate-based QC and the quantum annealer (QA). Practical realizations of gate-based QCs consist of less than 100 qubits while QAs with more than 2000 qubits are commercially available.

In the gate model QC, a universal QC, a computation (or quantum algorithm) consists of a sequence of quantum gate operations (unitary transformations) that changes the internal state of the QC. Quantum annealing is a technique for finding the global minimum of a quadratic function of binary variables by exploiting quantum fluctuations. Its main potential targets are combinatorial optimization problems featuring a discrete search space with many local minima.

Biography: Prof. Dr. Kristel Michielsen received her PhD from the University of Groningen, (the Netherlands) for work on the simulation of strongly correlated electron systems in 1993. Since 2009 she is group leader of the research group Quantum Information Processing at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) and is also Professor of Quantum Information Processing at RWTH Aachen University (Germany).
Her current research interests include quantum computation, quantum annealing, quantum statistical physics, event-based simulation methods of quantum phenomena, logical inference approach to quantum mechanics and computational electrodynamics.

Abstract: Quantum computing has the potential to accelerate innovation and discovery by enabling a new paradigm of scientific computing. However, there is the practical challenge of integrating these novel algorithms, devices, and execution models into state of the at scientific workflows. Following a brief motivation, we discuss how these scientific uses cases are realized by the development of domain-specific algorithms, software infrastructure, and hardware testbeds. We promote the use of metrics and benchmarks that enable comparisons between quantum computing and conventional high-performance computing methods, and we conclude by reporting on our recent demonstrations of these ideas for computational chemistry and nuclear physics.

Biography: Dr. Travis Humble (humblets@ornl.gov) is a Distinguished Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the United States and director of the lab’s Quantum Computing Institute. He received a doctorate in theoretical chemistry from the University of Oregon before joining ORNL in 2005. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious US Department of Energy Early Career Award to research how quantum computing may support high-performance computing applications. He is a senior member of IEEE and SPIE, a member of the American Physical Society, and associate editor for the journal Quantum Information Processing.  Dr. Humble also holds a joint faculty appointment with the University of Tennessee, where he trains the next generation of cross-disciplinary scientists.

Abstract: In this talk, I will present the first steps of the Quantum Technology Flagship, which should support quantum technologies for the next 10 years.

I will start with the preliminary phase which was an Eranet Cofund programme, called QuantERA, launched in 2016. It was supported by 26 countries and 31 research institutions, coordinated by NCN, the Polish research agency, with a contribution of 30% from the EC and it attracted over 200 proposals.

The creation of the Quantum Technology Flagship itself was decided by the European Commission in May 2016. A High Level Steering Committee, composed of 12 academic members and 12 industrial members was put together to propose a Strategic Research Agenda, an Implementation Model and a Governance Model. I will present the ramp-up phase, which started in October 2017 and the perspectives opened by this ambitious programme for the future.

Biography: Elisabeth Giacobino, Em Research Director at CNRS is one of the pioneers of quantum optics and quantum information, with the first experimental demonstration of two-mode squeezing with an optical parametric oscillator in 1987. She also achieved squeezed and entangled light generation and quantum state storage with cold atomic ensembles and demonstrated quantum effects in semiconductor nanostructures. She held important positions in the management of research. She was Director of the Department of Physics and Mathematics of CNRS (2002-2003) and Director General for Research at the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research (2003-2006). She is a member of the High Level Scientific Committee appointed by the European Commission to advise the EC on the Flagship on Quantum Technology.