International Catalyst on Computer-Aided Design Algorithms for Quantum Annealing

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The objective of this Catalyst grant is to build a collaboration between our group at UBC and a group led by Wayne Luk at Imperial College (IC) London, and through this, to initiate fundamental computer-aided design (CAD) and application investigation for quantum computers. We will focus on Quantum Annealing Processors (QAPs) such as those produced by Canadian company D-Wave. The collaboration will combine IC's expertise in identifying, building, optimizing, and evaluating applications (including finance, and machine learning) which are suitable for solving on a QAP, with UBC's expertise in CAD for QAPs and Quantum-assisted Machine Learning (QAML). Specific technical goals will include (a) adapting qubit-mapping algorithms to target applications in finance, such as portfolio optimization, and factor investing, (b) to design and implement a new qubit-mapping algorithm that uses established machine-learning models such as reinforcement-learning to optimize the initial stage of qubit global placement, and (c) to develop a performance debugging infrastructure for quantum annealing optimization through the use of model-based fault analysis.Significant value added in training will come from the interaction of the UBC and IC team. The benefits of this collaboration are two-fold: (1) Application domains of QAPs are still emerging, meaning researchers doing embedding CAD work need to have access to state-of-the-art thinking on the types of problems suitable for these devices, and access to a deep understanding of the requirements of application experts in areas related to these domains. This level of expertise is rare in the world, however, the IC team is well-positioned to have significant impact here. Meanwhile, today, domain experts may have little exposure to QAPs and the nature of quantum computation, so pairing experts with those with QAP knowledge will ensure that they are able to understand the limitations and promises of quantum computing and use that in designing new applications.