DOE Awards University of Illinois Funds to Develop New Quantum Computing Capabiities

(HPC.Wire) Physics Professors Bryan Clark and Taylor Hughes of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been awarded US Department of Energy (DOE) grants to develop new quantum computing capabilities. The awards are part of a $37-million DOE initiative supporting research that will lay the groundwork for the development of new quantum information systems and that will use current quantum information capabilities to advance research in material and chemical sciences.
Clark’s team received $450,000 to develop new-generation quantum computing algorithms for simulating quantum many-body systems on today’s small error-prone quantum computers as well as hybrid quantum-classical machines. One of the most promising applications for quantum computers is the simulation of quantum systems ranging from molecules to materials. Results of such simulations will have implications for medicine and pharmacology, manufacturing, computing, networking, and sensing.
Hughes is a co-PI on a separate $1.5 million DOE grant supporting research into the design and assembly of atomically-precise quantum materials and devices. The team is led by Harvard Professor Jennifer Hoffman and includes Hughes and Harvard Professors Julia Mundy and Boris Kozinsky.
Hughes and his colleagues will develop a platform of new materials to be used in quantum information devices, integrating theoretical and experimental approaches to materials development.