In partnership with Teratec, GENCI and Lab Quantique, the Île-de-France region is strengthening its leadership in acquiring the quantum advantage. Indeed, three new initiatives have been boosted to encourage the appropriation and development of quantum computing by economic players, industrialists and startups, in the Paris Region and beyond.
Three major companies in the aeronautics, space and defense (ASD) sectors will benefit from the expertise of Quandela, Pasqal, and Alice & Bob, three startups specializing in the development of quantum computing technologies.
These young innovative companies are receiving funding from the region to explore the potential of their quantum technologies on use cases proposed by industrial companies, today exploiting digital simulation codes that are particularly consuming in terms of computing power.
The use of quantum computing technologies aims in this context to facilitate the design of higher-performance, more robust and more energy-efficient devices.
The first project in this new series of the Quantum Pack is led by start-up Pasqal and ONERA. Proposed by Airbus, it involves an analysis of the behavior of the airflow around the aircraft and the aerodynamic forces acting on its surfaces, and is entitled "Avantage Quantique pour la résolution d'Équations aux Dérivées Partielles" (AQUAEDP). On today's High-Performance Computing (HPC) machines, these calculations take hours or even days. Quantum machines offer an opportunity to drastically reduce these computation times, but imply the adaptation of algorithms and the redesign of computational codes.
Pasqal will propose a hybrid classical-quantum algorithmic approach to significantly improve the accuracy of the results obtained. It will draw on its expertise in the field of quantum neural networks (QNN). This approach will be tested on a 100-qubit analog quantum computer, to be made available to researchers very shortly via the national HQI platform.
According to Marc Morere, Airbus Research & Innovation Manager, "this initiative will enable Airbus to drastically improve the accuracy of its models", while "offering ONERA the opportunity to guarantee the perpetuation of this new know-how in the field of quantum computing", (emphasize Alain Refloch and Julie Amoyel, respectively Chargé de Mission Calcul Haute Performance and Responsable Communication Corporate).
"By combining Airbus' and ONERA's expertise in aeronautics with our own in quantum computing, using our proprietary solvers for differential equations, we collectively have decisive tools for the aerospace and aviation industries," says Benno Broer, Pasqal's Chief Commercial Officer.
The second project in this new series involves Quandela, ONERA and MBDA. It focuses on mastering the physico-chemical phenomena that govern combustion. This control becomes particularly difficult as the number of chemical components involved increases, as do the number of parameters (geometry, for example) to be taken into account. This is one of the keys to improving engine robustness and thermodynamic efficiency, as well as reducing pollutant emissions. MBDA, ONERA and Quandela found the subject promising, and decided to investigate it jointly as part of the "Avantage Quantique pour la Conception de Moteurs dans l'Aéronautique" (AQCMA) project. Thanks to its Perceval simulator, as well as its 6-qubit photonic NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) chip, start-up Quandela will experiment with a global, hybrid classical-quantum approach to improve the accuracy of complex models.
Valérian Giesz, CEO and co-founder of Quandela, said, "Our discussions with ONERA researchers have made us aware of the many obstacles they face in simulating fluids in combustion chambers. To this end, the AQCMA project will enable us to explore the potential benefits that noisy photonic quantum processors could bring to solving concrete problems."
The third project is entitled "Quantum Maching Learning with Cat Qubits" (QML Cat). It explores, on the initiative of Naval Group, Inria and Alice & Bob, the advantage that partially corrected quantum technologies (or "cat qubits") could bring to the field of Machine Learning. The latter makes it possible to leverage the considerable volume of data created by the platforms of Naval Group-designed ships to offer, among other things, predictive maintenance, obstacle classification or trajectory prediction services. Any trick that can increase the efficiency of NISQ calculators will be an asset in demonstrating increasingly realistic use cases.
While for Théau Péronnin, CEO and co-founder of Alice & Bob, "it now seems clear that Machine Learning algorithms will benefit from a quantum advantage", for Romain Kukla, in charge of Naval group's quantum technology research program, the "aim of this project is to enable verification that the associated quantum Machine Learning routines are relevant and can bring algorithmic acceleration to these various use cases". "The particular resistance to certain errors offered by Alice & Bob's quantum processor could enable much greater efficiency," asserts Harold Ollivier, a researcher at Inria's Quantum Tech.
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