This week, the quantum computing community’s best and brightest are headed to Santa Clara, CA for the 2021 edition of Q2B Practical Quantum Computing Conference, the world's largest and longest-running conference in quantum computing, focused on sharing knowledge, assessing technologies, and creating business value with quantum computing.
IonQ is proud to be sponsoring the event for the fourth year in a row, and in addition to a booth on the show floor where staff can answer questions and discuss your quantum computing needs, three IonQ leaders will be speaking on critical aspects of IonQ's continued path to commercial quantum success.
First, you'll hear from Mark Solomon, Director of Quantum Sales, at 5:30 pm PT on Tuesday, December 7th, who will be discussing the present and future of value creation via quantum computing.
You may have already heard about some of the expected high-impact applications for quantum computing: chemistry, machine learning, financial analysis, materials science, and more. Mark will examine the early progress in several of these fields, and discuss just how close we are to exceeding the performance of classical computers in these areas, creating major competitive advantages for organizations already well-versed in quantum tools.
As Mark will explain, quantum advantage is no longer a faraway dream, and current-generation hardware has already been used to demonstrate applications that only need modest numbers of high-quality qubits to provide real business value. Exciting promise and progress has already been demonstrated, and as we continue to deliver on our hardware roadmap, we expect this progress to continue.
Right now is the time to start preparing. Being a fast follower could mean being too late—advances are occurring rapidly, and it will take time to build the software, algorithms and expertise your organization will need in order to harness quantum power. Will your competitors be deploying their tools while you are still figuring out how to make them?
Next, Dr. Sonika Johri, Lead Quantum Applications Research Scientist, will report on our recent research on the exponential advantage of quantum machine learning at 2 pm PT on Thursday, December 9th.
Working with a team of researchers from both IonQ and a major financial services provider, Sonika improved on traditional methods to model probabilities for analyzing and predicting the performance of correlated variables such as stock prices. She will describe how her team used IonQ’s latest-generation quantum computer to train a quantum machine learning (QML) algorithm to generate simulated data that can be used to create more accurate risk assessment and other predictive models than equivalent classical methods.
They found that the quantum machine learning algorithm outperformed equivalently-powered classical methods in generating data, including better representation of rare “black swan” events, successful convergence (100% versus 40% convergence rate), and training iterations required (20–1000x higher learning rate). Assuming these advantages hold at larger scales, this could be an area for some of the first quantum advantages over classical computers. This type of analysis could provide significant value to investors, actuaries, and climate researchers.
Finally, Peter Chapman, President and CEO, will deliver his keynote speech on Wednesday, December 8th at 11:30am PT, where he will discuss our vision for the future, and how customers, developers, and investors can validate claims in the quantum industry, even as the number of hardware and software solutions increases.
He will explain Algorithmic Qubits (AQ), IonQ’s preferred method for understanding “useful” qubits. AQ, defined as the minimum of either the qubit count or the square root of gates possible given the qubits’ fidelity, helps normalize outsized qubit claims and focus the conversation on qubits that are useful for problem-solving. He’ll also review the utility and limitations of volumetric benchmarks (including AQ), and highlight the recent work being done by the Quantum Economic Development Consortium’s Standards Technical Advisory Committee (QED-C Standards TAC) to create a more robust, application-focused series of benchmarks.
He will then cover how IonQ plans to continue to stand out in this increasingly noisy landscape, sharing details of our near-term hardware roadmap and explaining how we plan to bring scalable, enterprise-grade quantum hardware to market with three overlapping phases of R&D focus, starting with error reduction, then emphasizing error correction and finally using modular scaling to create large-scale networked quantum computers.
IonQ will also be present in other ways throughout the week, including sponsorship in the Women In Quantum career fair on December 7th, and the networking happy hour on the main show floor on December 8th. Q2B is an ideal moment share IonQ’s recent successes and vision for the future in terms of commercial outlook, applications research, and technical roadmap, and we’re excited to see everyone at the event.
Register now to catch up with IonQ at Q2B 2021 and follow the team on Twitter to share your thoughts about the sessions.