From an idea to working quantum computing - the PISQ vision

World Congress on Quantum Physics - November 24-25, 2022 | Webinar

November 24-25, 2022 | Webinar

Koen Bertels

QBee and University of Gent, Belgium

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Laser Opt Photonics

Abstract :

After spending 11 years in Quantum Computing, I was involved as a computer engineer on the development of the different layers of quantum computer using semi- and superconducting qubits. Given the impeding timeline of developing good quality quantum processing units, it is the moment to rethink the approach to advance quantum computing research. Rather than waiting for quantum hardware technologies to mature, we need to start assessing in tandem the impact of the occurrence of quantum computing in various scientific fields. However, to this purpose, we need to use a complementary but quite different approach than proposed by the NISQ-vision, which is heavily focused on and burdened by the engineering challenges. That is why we propose and advocate the PISQ-approach: Perfect Intermediate-Scale Quantum computing based on the already known concept of perfect qubits. An additional reason is the fact that very powerful supercomputers are at the limit of how much compute-power they can bring as the size of the CMOS-transistor is at the 2nm-level. When looking at problems in e.g. the chemical, bio-medical or financial domain, we are close to the end of what can be researched. So the move to quantum logic is becoming quite urgent. The PISQ-approach will allow researchers from any scientific field to focus much more on the development of new applications by defining the algorithms in terms of perfect qubits and evaluate them on quantum computing simulators that are executed on supercomputers. It is not the long-term solution, but it will allow universities to currently develop research on quantum logic and algorithms and companies can already start developing their internal know-how on quantum solutions.

Biography :

Koen Bertels’ scientific research focuses on quantum computing and more specifically on the definition and implementation of a scalable quantum computer system for any scientific and operational field. He is currently building a new team to continue working on all layers of the full stack which has been his work from the first day working on quantum computing. The last 3 years working on quantum computing, he has moved almost exclusively to the use of perfect qubits, which has no decoherence and no errors in the quantum gates performed on the qubits.