Unitary Fund

POSE: PHASE II: MITIQ OSE: INCREASING AND SUSTAINING THE OPEN-SOURCE ECOSYSTEM FOR CROSS-PLATFORM QUANTUM ERROR MITIGATION -DR. NATHAN SHAMMAH AND DR. WILLIAM ZENG OF UNITARY FUND ARE SUPPORTED BY AN AWARD FROM THE PATHWAYS TO ENABLE OPEN-SOURCE ECOSYSTEMS (POSE) PROGRAM IN THE DIRECTORATE FOR TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND PARTNERSHIPS (TIP) TO GROW THE OPEN-SOURCE ECOSYSTEM (OSE) AROUND THE QUANTUM ERROR MITIGATION TOOL MITIQ. DRS. SHAMMAH AND ZENG WILL EXPAND ON THEIR RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF QUANTUM ERROR MITIGATION TO DEVELOP A SUSTAINABLE OSE AND INFRASTRUCTURE AROUND THE PYTHON LIBRARY MITIQ, A CROSS-PLATFORM COMPILER THAT ENABLES PROGRAMS TO BE MORE ROBUST TO THE ERRORS PRESENT IN NOISY INTERMEDIATE-SCALE QUANTUM (NISQ) HARDWARE DEVICES. THE GROWTH OF AN OSE AROUND MITIQ WILL IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF CURRENTLY AVAILABLE QUANTUM COMPUTERS FOR USERS EVERYWHERE, AND WILL ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF USE CASES FOR THIS CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY ACROSS ACADEMIA, GOVERNMENT, AND INDUSTRY. DRS. SHAMMAH AND ZENG WILL DEVELOP AN OSE AROUND THE OPEN-SOURCE PYTHON LIBRARY MITIQ, A COMPILER THAT MAKES PROGRAMS MORE ROBUST TO ERRORS IN QUANTUM COMPUTERS. BECAUSE QUANTUM COMPUTERS HAVE HIGH ERROR RATES, COMPILING FOR ERROR ROBUSTNESS IS CRITICAL FOR USEFUL APPLICATIONS. AMONG OTHER APPLICATIONS, MITIQ HAS BEEN USED TO BETTER SIMULATE CORRELATED MATERIALS, TO INCREASE THE RESOLUTION OF THE TIME EVOLUTION OF QUANTUM SYSTEMS OUT OF EQUILIBRIUM, AND TO INCREASE THE EFFECTIVE QUANTUM VOLUME OF QUANTUM PROCESSORS - A KEY BENCHMARK. THE MITIQ OSE WILL ATTRACT AND SUPPORT A LARGE COMMUNITY OF USERS AND CONTRIBUTORS THAT EXTENDS BEYOND TODAY?S CORE DEVELOPERS AND INITIAL USER BASE. THIS EXPANSION WILL INCLUDE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING, COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT, GOVERNANCE, AND USER SUCCESS. SPECIFICALLY, THIS PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON USER-LED DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL INTERFACES AND RESOURCES, ACCELERATED ADVANCEMENT IN QUANTUM ERROR MITIGATION, COMPATIBILITY WITH EMERGING HARDWARE, DEPENDENCIES AND RELATED SOFTWARE PACKAGES, ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS AND BENCHMARKS, AND DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS AND SOFTWARE INTEGRATION. BY BUILDING THE MITIQ OSE, SHAMMAH AND ZENG WILL INCREASE OPEN ACCESS TO SOFTWARE BASED TECHNIQUES THAT REDUCE NOISE SENSITIVITIES OF PROGRAMS AND PROTOCOLS, ACCELERATING THE ADOPTION OF CUTTING EDGE RESEARCH BY QUANTUM COMPUTING USERS AND IMPROVING QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY FOR ALL USERS ACROSS A SIGNIFICANT NEW INDUSTRY. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

TOUGH ERRORS ARE NO MATCH (TEAM): OPTIMIZING THE QUANTUM COMPILER FOR NOISE RESILIENCE

SMART STACK: SCALABLE, MODULAR, ADAPTABLE, RECONFIGURABLE, ERROR-TARGETED APPROACHES TO QUANTUM STACK DESIGN

POSE: PHASE I: UNITARY COMPILER COLLECTION (UCC) - UNIFYING THE QUANTUM-PROGRAMMING STACK THROUGH A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN COMPILER -QUANTUM COMPUTING HAS ADVANCED RAPIDLY, BUT PROGRESS TOWARD PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS IS LIMITED BY FRAGMENTED SOFTWARE TOOLS THAT DO NOT WORK WELL TOGETHER. MUCH OF THE SOFTWARE THAT TRANSLATES QUANTUM ALGORITHMS INTO LOW-LEVEL INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPECIFIC HARDWARE IS SILOED IN INCOMPATIBLE TOOLS DEVELOPED BY DIFFERENT VENDORS AND RESEARCH TEAMS. THIS SITUATION FORCES RESEARCHERS AND DEVELOPERS TO REWRITE WORK WHEN SWITCHING PLATFORMS, SLOWING THE ADOPTION OF NEW IDEAS. THIS PROJECT ADDRESSES THE SITUATION BY BUILDING AN OPEN-SOURCE ECOSYSTEM AROUND THE UNITARY COMPILER COLLECTION (UCC). THE RESULT IS A SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE THAT MAKES QUANTUM COMPILATION MORE INTEROPERABLE AND ACCESSIBLE. BY LOWERING BARRIERS FOR RESEARCHERS, EDUCATORS, AND INDUSTRY DEVELOPERS TO CONTRIBUTE AND REUSE STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPILATION TECHNIQUES, THE PROJECT ADVANCES QUANTUM TECHNOLOGIES, SUPPORTS WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, AND ACCELERATES INNOVATION BY TURNING A SCATTERED SET OF TOOLS INTO A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN PUBLIC RESOURCE. THIS PROJECT PRODUCES A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC PLAN AND VALIDATED ROADMAP FOR A SELF-SUSTAINING OPEN-SOURCE ECOSYSTEM (OSE) CENTERED ON UCC, AN OPEN-SOURCE PYTHON LIBRARY FOR FRONT-END- AND BACK-END-AGNOSTIC COMPILATION OF QUANTUM PROGRAMS. PHASE I ACTIVITIES INCLUDE (1) CONDUCTING STRUCTURED ECOSYSTEM DISCOVERY WITH INTERVIEWS AND ENGAGEMENT ACROSS INDUSTRIAL AND ACADEMIC STAKEHOLDERS TO IDENTIFY HIGH-IMPACT TECHNICAL GAPS AND DEFINE A COMMUNITY-GOVERNED ROADMAP; (2) PLANNING AND EXTENDING SHARED TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE THAT LOWERS THE BARRIER TO CONTRIBUTION, INCLUDING EXPANDED AUTOMATED BENCHMARKING/PROFILING AND CLEARER MODULAR INTERFACES FOR INTEGRATIONS; AND (3) GROWING AND COORDINATING THE CONTRIBUTOR AND PARTNER COMMUNITY THROUGH DOCUMENTATION, ONBOARDING PATHWAYS, COMMUNITY CALLS, EVENTS, AND INTEGRATION PLAYBOOKS FOR HARDWARE PROVIDERS AND RESEARCH GROUPS. THE OUTCOMES ARE EXPECTED TO INCLUDE AN EXECUTION-READY PLAN FOR A SCALABLE, COMMUNITY-DRIVEN COMPILER ECOSYSTEM THAT ENABLES ?WRITE ONCE, RUN ANYWHERE? WORKFLOWS AND SUPPORTS INTEGRATION WITH EMERGING STANDARDS FOR PROGRAM EXCHANGE AND HARDWARE SPECIFICATION. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.