Quantum journey....

The fundamental question one must ask is, given the effort and challenges which needs to be addressed to realize Universal Quantum Computer, why do we need or want to build this?

And the answer is: there are applications or the algorithms which outperform classical counterparts on Quantum Computer, for example SHORs algorithm or Grovers search algorithm to name critical ones.

Catch is that,these algorithms requires universal fault tolerant Quantum computer, which we currently do not have. We need to overcome challenges like Hardware and better error correction code to have one; however, in the last 5 years, the progress has been phenomenally encouraging, particularly around Quantum Error correction (QEC) and Qubit attributes like increased coherence rates or gate fidelities, in the other words ability to process efficiently has significantly improved.

Currently, the key players of QUANTUM industry are focusing on applications like SIMULATIONS, HEURISTICS for OPTIMISATION and Quantum Machine learning (QML).

The early algorithms are not developed for fault tolerant systems; however, with new thinking of “learn to play with the injury”, the adjusted goal is to develop applications that are closely designed for currently available hardware with its limitations.

So, industry is looking to work around hardware limitation by writing algorithms which are closer to hardware we have rather building hardware for cleaner analysis algorithms, also constantly think about errors when we are building these algorithms, so we can have error correction built in.

Automotive, Aerospace, Chemical Science, Life Science and Defense Technologies are some areas where Quantum Computing (QC), is advancing. Also, there could be combinations of these as well, for example accelerating development of electric batteries for cars, currently there are serious issues with technology or materials we use, there are plenty of areas in electrochemistry of battery that Quantum simulation can help better understand and recommend better material so we can find alternatives.

I think it is important to understand the power and promise of quantum computing for the betterment of humanity through science in general. Machine Learning and AI has got all of us going gaga about, as we see the possible impact on our quality of life by harnessing power meaningfully.

Personally, I am hoping to find cases in classical ML where, QC additional power can accelerate the machine learning tasks which produce more accurate and reliable prediction or figures out way to learn with less data or noisy data which is practical.

Another area I am secretly hoping (my logical mind is saying I am crazy to think this) is, quantum state is complicated and ubiquitous in nature, so what if we present quantum state to QC as it is more inclined to take “state of unknown” as input and answer some of questions that classical computer can’t even take on inputs, this can be real breakthrough for QML.

Let’s look at practical use cases where QC can make difference to the world we live in, first one which moved me is, how we can bring down energy required for Industrial nitrogen fixation process (Haber-Bosch process) which revolutionized the food production, this process alone is requires 2-3% of total world energy consumption (580 million terajoules for year 2021), just give an idea how much 2-3% means, during pandemic year 2020 annual consumption went down by 4%, ‘cos we shutdown most of machines.

Through Quantum simulations, we can understand how the microorganisms and bacteria make this process happen in room temperature while Industrial process needs such high pressure, temperature, and the energy to achieve that temperature, with this understanding we can make process less energy guzzler and reduce the burden on planet without compromising the food production.

Another example, which is quite recent, and one in action is, Canadian Central Bank?did a POC, where they simulated cryptocurrency adoption model as payment option by non-financial companies, encoding every possible combination of outcomes in a ten-person network, to do this with classical computer it may not be feasible as possible combination explodes exponentially.

The POC showcased that, the digital assets can be alternate payment options for some of the non-financial industries along with classical payment methods like bank transfers or cash instruments it depends on how deep a company gets adopted to crypto world and cost of crypto trading.

Let us explore more about? what are major types of quantum computers based on different qubit modalities and scratch the surface of possibilities of using QC along with our classical cloud computing until then, let’s stay curious!