Alex Jones Joins Michael Hatridge on ARO-Funded Project to Accelerate Quantum Computing
The promise of of quantum computing is getting a boost from the U.S. Army with a $2.67 million project, led by Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Michael Hatridge and Swanson School of Engineering Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Alex K. Jones, along with Robert Schoelkopf at Yale University. Jones provides computer engineering expertise to the four-year, $2.67 million project to develop the next generation of modular quantum computing systems.
Jones and Hatridge have collaborated on other ongoing projects that aim to accelerate quantum computing capabilities. In this project, Jones will help the team leverage the unique properties from two different methods to link qubits—the basic units of information in quantum computing—over long ranges to overcome some of the biggest roadblocks in quantum computing.
“The promise of quantum computing is from large scale entanglement of qubits to solve intractable problems for classical computers. However, the quantum computers we can build are noisy and have neighborhoods that only connect a few qubits together at a time." explained Jones. "This project will allow us to build modular quantum computers with richer connectivity between qubits using modules suitable for building error correcting circuits. The result will be a big step forward of the state-of-the-art through simultaneously increased entanglement scope and longer effective circuit lifetimes.”
The following was originally published in Pittwire; reposted with permission.
Michael Hatridge earned $5.7 million in research funding from the U.S. Army
Written by: Brandie Jefferson
The U.S. Army has awarded more than $5.7 million for two projects led by Michael Hatridge, associate professor of physics and astronomy in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Both projects bring together a diverse group of researchers to overcome roadblocks in the field of quantum computing.
A four-year, $2.67 million grant is aimed at the next generation of modular quantum computing systems. Hatridge and co-principal investigators Robert Schoelkopf of Yale University have each developed unique methods to link qubits over long ranges.
With the help of Alex Jones, professor in the Swanson School of Engineering and co-principal investigator on the grant, they hope to bring these methods together, operating in tandem, to develop a new kind of quantum computing system. Jones will explore the best ways to leverage the unique properties of each method using the modular quantum computing system developed in Hatridge’s and Schoelkopf’s labs.
Once complete, the team will have developed new hardware approaches to designing superconducting quantum computers with powerful processors that bring the field a step closer to error-detected operations, or the ability to solve problems consistently and accurately.
The Army has also awarded Hatridge’s amplifier a four-year, $3.03 million grant for projects related to both the physics and the fabrication of parametric amplifiers, or “paramps,” which are necessary components of the processors that lie at the heart of quantum computing. The project’s principal investigators include David Pekker, assistant professor of physics in Pitt’s Dietrich School; José Aumentado, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and Hakan Türeci, an engineering professor at Princeton University.
Building paramps that satisfy the needs of these high-tech processors has been a challenge: They need large, instantaneous bandwidths and the ability to process multiple and large signals. Paramps also require must add minimal noise to amplified signals, currently Hatridge’s team’s amplifiers are within a factor of two of the ultimate limit allowed by quantum mechanics.
In the next four years, Hatridge and his team will work to better understand how the rules of physics limit paramps’ performance. The team also aims to develop and produce practical devices to move the field toward the next generation of processors.