BMW Group announces 4 winners of Quantum Computing Challenge; algorithms for industrial challenges

(GreenCarCongress) BMW Group, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), called on the global quantum computing community to develop innovative quantum algorithms for four specific industrial challenges and to test them on real quantum computing technologies. One winning team has now been selected for each of the four identified areas. In all, around 70 teams from all over the world took part.

These winning teams have been selected for the four challenges:

1. Sensor positions for automated driving functions: Accenture Accenture’s winning team tackled the problem of optimizing the positioning of sensors for highly automated driving functions.

2. Simulation of material deformations: Qu&Co. The jury concluded that the quantum computing start-up Qu&Co stood out with its approach to solving partial differential equations in the field of numerical simulation.

3. Configuration optimization of pre-series vehicles: 1QBit and NTT. The winning team from 1QBit and NTT came out on top with hybrid algorithms for solving satisfiability problems in propositional logic for optimizing equipment configuration.

4. Automated quality analyses: QC Ware. The QC Ware team stood out with its approach, drawn from the field of machine learning, that can be used in image recognition in the area of quality analysis.

The BMW Group worked closely with the Amazon Quantum Solutions Lab Professional Services team throughout the challenge. AWS also provided credits for the use of Amazon Braket, enabling the development and testing of the submitted quantum algorithms. Amazon Braket provides a development environment to explore and create quantum algorithms, test them on quantum circuit simulators and run them on different quantum hardware technologies.
The jury that oversaw the challenge and ultimately decided on the winning teams also included professors from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) as well as representatives of the BMW Group and AWS.
The BMW Group received submissions from all over the world from different areas such as international and national research groups, the start-up scene and established companies. The exceptionally high quality of the submissions enables new perspectives and offers potential for innovative approaches to solutions such as the development and further development of new algorithms. The expert jury took into account criteria such as comprehensibility, feasibility, scalability, innovation and benefit for the BMW Group when evaluating the submitted solutions.