Quantum Computing

Quantum

Sustainability

Subheadline

“Technology is always changing the threat landscape. And quantum computing, which is becoming more feasible and practical, is a powerful tool that will make our classical defences obsolete”

A researcher from the University of Toronto is leading a multidisciplinary research group that aims develop quantum-based technology solutions to defend power utilities against future cyberattacks.

With the support of a first-of-its-kind NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate grant worth $1.45 million, the group is working at the intersection of quantum, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.

“We have to stay ahead of the game,” says group lead Deepa Kundur, professor and chair of U of T’s Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“Technology is always changing the threat landscape. And quantum computing, which is becoming more feasible and practical, is a powerful tool that will make our classical defences obsolete.”

Kundur’s project is a collaboration between academia, Hydro-Québec and Xanadu, one of Canada’s most successful quantum computer startups. A second team – headed by Associate Professor Atefeh Mashatan of Toronto Metropolitan University and involving quantum solution leaders Crypto4A and evolutionQ – will build a road map for the classical-to-quantum migration for power grids in preparation for a future transition.

Quantum enhancement is the next stage in the evolution of today’s smart grids, so-named because they incorporate information-communication technology (ICT) into their operations. ICT has allowed smart grids to adapt to changing conditions and electricity load, as well respond more efficiently to natural disasters in order to meet society’s increasing power needs in an intelligent, sustainable way.

“ICT and its advanced sensors generate more data than before,” says Kundur. “We transport this data to different parts of the grid to start co-ordinating information to make decisions based on synchronized information and enhanced situational awareness.”

One potential downside of a data-driven smart grid, however, is the introduction of new vulnerabilities since attackers can now target not just the physical infrastructure, but the information that flows through it.

That’s because a smart grid’s connectivity increases opportunities for access. Also, ICT adds a level of complexity that results in emergent properties that are difficult to predict and can be challenging to safeguard. And the standards and policies put in place to mitigate operational variations mean there’s a level of interoperability between working grids that hackers can use to their advantage.

While cybersecurity experts have so far incorporated layers of defences into our smart grids, Kundur warns that those safeguards are not ready for quantum technologies.

“Algorithms and cryptography that are incredibly difficult for classical computers to crack become solvable with a quantum computer,” she says. “And then other questions arise. For example, when the power utilities themselves start to use quantum sensors, is this quantum-enhanced information better for attack detection or does it give attackers an ability to hide themselves?”

The question is tough to answer when you consider that quantum sensors of this nature – and the quantum data they would generate – don’t exist yet.

“We’ll take classical data, use models to predict what quantum versions of the information would appear to be, and then perform anomaly and attack detection on it,” says Kundur.

“We’ll be experimenting with quantum machine learning for better pattern recognition to detect a cyberattack. This is a highly exploratory project.”

Even if it’s decades before manufacturers integrate quantum attack-detection algorithms in their devices, Kundur says foundational research that she and her team will carry out in the next few years is a valuable endeavour.

“Security is a process. It’s very much a dynamic interaction,” she says. “And though we can never get to 100-per-cent protection, it’s something we have to continually try to achieve.”

Making waves: U of T entrepreneur uses quantum chemistry, AI to purify drinking water

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:51:46 +0000

Making waves: U of T entrepreneur uses quantum chemistry, AI to purify drinking water

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 04/23/2024 - 15:51

Cutline

U of T's Diana Virgovicova, the founder and CEO of XAtoms, is using quantum computing and AI to discover water-purifying molecules in a bid to improve access to clean drinking water around the globe (photo courtesy of Diana Virgovicova)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Entrepreneurship Week

U of T Entrepreneurship

Artificial Intelligence

Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship

Subheadline

At age 17, Diana Virgovicova discovered a molecule that can eliminate pollutants from water when exposed to sunlight

It’s not a bullet point that appears many resumes, let alone one belonging to a teenager: “Utilized quantum computing to discover a molecule that could revolutionize water treatment.”

But that’s exactly what Diana Virgovicova accomplished at age 17 when she modelled a molecule that can eliminate pollutants from water when exposed to sunlight.

Originally from Slovakia, Virgovicova later made her way to the University of Toronto to study computer engineering on a Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship and founded Xatoms, a startup using quantum computing and AI to discover water-purifying molecules in an effort to solve a long-standing global health problem.

“We want to be the leading water purification company in the world, offering affordable and efficient solutions and reaching some of the most vulnerable communities in the world,” says Virgovicova.

The young company is already making waves.

In March, Xatoms took home the top prizes for early-stage startups at the Desjardins Startup Prize and Pitch With a Twist competitions at U of T’s annual Entrepreneurship Week. A few days later, it was selected for the inaugural Compute for Climate Fellowship awarded by the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence, an organization backed by Amazon Web Services and UNESCO.

Virgovicova’s growing list of accolades also includes being selected for the NEXT 36 entrepreneurship program, the 776 Climate Fellowship (backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian) and a Stockholm Junior Water Prize, which she received from Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria.

She says she first recognized the urgency of the global water crisis when she was 14. She and her mother travelled to India, where she was confronted with a heavily polluted beach in Mumbai. “It really made me think about how we can solve this problem,” she says. “I decided to make cleaning polluted water my life’s mission.”

Upon returning home, Virgovicova contacted the University of Slovakia to enquire about water treatment research. A professor told her how quantum chemistry could be used to identify photocatalysts – materials that use sunlight to kickstart a chemical reaction that degrades pollutants.

Virgovicova says she began teaching herself to use quantum chemistry software and, within three years, used it to model a novel photocatalytic molecule.

How does it work? Most existing photocatalytic substances required ultraviolet (UV) radiation, but the structure that Virgovicova modelled works when exposed to simple visible light. “What I did was to remove this necessity of having an expensive UV reactor by modelling structures which would work when exposed to radiation from the sun,” she says.

The next step was to explore creating a company based around the discovery, which Virgovicova says influenced her decision to come to U of T. “I knew I wanted to build a company in the water space, so I chose U of T because it’s one of the best research-based universities in the world when it comes to entrepreneurship,” she says.

Xatoms, which was part of The Bridge accelerator program at U of T Scarborough, builds on Virgovicova’s photocatalyst discovery by incorporating AI to discover more – and more efficient – materials and molecules. “It’s now much more advanced and it’s not just about one material – it’s about multiple [materials] because different types of environments will need different types of materials to clean the water,” she says.

Xatoms now comprises a three-person team that includes co-founder and chief technology officer Kerem Topal Ismail Oglou, a computer engineering student at U of T, and chief operations officer Shirley Zhong, a Western University student.

The goal is to create two product lines: an industrial water-treatment powder that can eliminate viruses, pesticides and bacteria, and a portable water filter for consumer use. To that end, the company is collaborating with Alexandra Tavasoli, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia, to synthesize photocatalytic molecules in the lab – a process that Virgovicova estimates will take several months.

Xatoms is also pursuing partnerships with water treatment organizations in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and India, and working with foundations in the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Virgovicova says access to safe drinking water isn't just a health issue but one of gender equality since women and girls often shoulder the burden of securing water for their households in many parts of the world.

“We want to see the number of people who lack access to clean drinking water to be reduced, and to see fewer women and girls investing their time – up to eight hours [a day] in some cases – to bring home a single container of water,” Virgovicova says. “Our goal is to have a big impact and introduce more and more solutions to reach as many people as possible.”

U of T-supported startup Xanadu aims to lead quantum computing sector

siddiq22 — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 18:14:23 +0000

U of T-supported startup Xanadu aims to lead quantum computing sector

siddiq22 Thu, 03/09/2023 - 13:14

Cutline

Toronto-based Xanadu is racing to build the world’s first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer – a machine that could have applications in everything from drug discovery to climate change mitigation (photo courtesy of Xanadu)

Tabassum Siddiqui

Topic

Entrepreneurship Week

Entrepreneurship

Quantum computing is one of the fastest-growing tech sectors in the world – and Toronto startup Xanadu Quantum Technologies is among the companies leading the way.

Founded by former University of Toronto post-doctoral physics researcher Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu is working on building the world’s first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Quantum computers harness the unique properties of subatomic particles to deliver an exponential increase in computational power. Unlike systems that require temperatures colder than those found in deep space, Xanadu’s method involves firing lasers at room temperature, enabling light particles to generate quantum effects on computer chips (Xanadu's architecture still requires cryogenics, but the demands are lower than for rival systems).

While that may sound complex, what it boils down to is an end goal of making quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere, says Ilan Tzitrin, a lead quantum architecture scientist at Xanadu.

“We’re trying to build a photonic, scalable full-tolerant quantum computer – those might sound like buzzwords, but basically all it means is that we’re trying to build a device that’s capable of solving certain things faster in principle than the world’s fastest supercomputer, something that’s not attainable using the rules of classical physics,” says Tzitrin, a U of T PhD graduate who got his start at Xanadu by doing an internship at the company while still a student.

Xanadu, an alumnus of the Creative Destruction Lab seed-stage accelerator at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, recently received $40 million in federal funding to support its leading quantum computing technology, lauded by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “cutting-edge not just in Canada, but around the world.”

The company announced last year that its system, called Borealis, had achieved a key milestone by demonstrating “quantum advantage” – the ability of a quantum computer to outperform any supercomputer in the world at a specific task.

“We were working on near-term experiments that are designed to solve a specific problem provably faster than our current best algorithm run on the world's fastest supercomputer,” Tzitrin says. “Borealis was one such demonstration, and we were very excited about that – there was a lot of hard work leading up to it.

“We were able to essentially build a quantum computer – not fault-tolerant just yet, but some quantum device that was able to solve a particular math problem designed to demonstrate quantum advantage, orders of magnitude faster than any other computer. I’m talking doing something in microseconds versus 9,000 years.”

Ilan Tzitrin, a lead quantum architecture scientist at Xanadu, says the company is trying to make quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Some of the practical applications of Xanadu’s work include the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs, financial risk modelling and climate change mitigation. The company also leverages its quantum expertise through corporate and research partnerships, including recent work with automotive giants BMW Group, Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen as well as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

In his role, Tzitrin helps support both the software and hardware teams, iterating toward the ultimate goal – or the “Holy Grail,” as he calls it – of improving every component until they build the device they hope to ultimately achieve.

He credits his education at U of T – where he studied math and physics in undergrad under a National Scholarship and went straight into a PhD in physics – for his path toward joining an innovative startup like Xanadu.

“The field I was in, quantum information, was directly relevant to the work we do at Xanadu. U of T is very strong on the quantum optics front, so my knowledge from taking quantum optics courses and from doing research on photonic quantum repeaters was directly transferable and related to my current role with the company,” Tzitrin says.

He notes that his supervisor Hoi-Kwong Lo – a professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who is cross-appointed with the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – also advised Xanadu CEO Weedbrook during his time at U of T.

“We continue to have a lot of nice collaborations with U of T through the Mitacs program – tangible research assistance to further Xanadu’s goals – which has been a big help,” Tzitrin says. “We've also received support from talented faculty at U of T from professors such as John Sipe and Hoi Kwong-Lo.”

As one of Xanadu’s earliest employees, Tzitrin has had a front-row seat to the company’s rapid growth – when he joined, the startup only had 30 staffers, but now has more than 160. The recent federal funding will go toward hiring new people and purchasing hardware as the company pursues its mission to build a cloud-based universal quantum computer.

Xanadu, which has historically been open about its research, will continue to publish the results of its ongoing experiments in a bid to remain transparent and also help advance the growing sector – recently bolstered by a new $360-million national strategy to advance quantum technologies.

Tzitrin, who considered a career path in academia before joining Xanadu, has some straightforward advice for those taking part in U of T’s Entrepreneurship Week and exploring a potential startup journey: stay open to possibility – and take advantage of the exceptional expertise the university and its partners have to offer.

“Do your own research and see what’s out there, but it’s very helpful to have a mentor to guide you – in my case, somebody in academia who knows about industry; or it could be somebody from industry that you seek out,” he says. “Programs like Mitacs are also an excellent way to get your foot in the door – they really give you a sense of what it’s going to be like working in the area you’re interested in.”

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship Week

Quantum computing startup Xanadu receives $40 million in federal funding: Globe and Mail

bresgead — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 18:17:57 +0000

Quantum computing startup Xanadu receives $40 million in federal funding: Globe and Mail

bresgead Thu, 01/26/2023 - 13:17

Cutline

From left to right: Xanadu CEO and former U of T post-doctoral researcher Christian Weedbrook, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne (photo by Alex Tetreault)

Topic

Entrepreneurship

Quantum

Xanadu Quantum Technologies, founded by former University of Toronto post-doctoral physics researcher Christian Weedbrook, has received $40 million in federal funding to support its leading quantum computing technology, the Globe and Mail reports.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently visited the Toronto startup’s headquarters to announce the investment through the federal Strategic Investment Fund, to allow Xanadu to build and commercialize the world’s first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

“What’s happening here is cutting edge not just in Canada, but around the world,” said Trudeau, whose government has pledged to spend $360 million in a national strategy to advance quantum technologies.

Xanadu, an alumnus of the Creative Destruction Lab seed-stage accelerator at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, revealed last year that its system, called Borealis, had achieved “quantum advantage” by solving in 36 millionths of a second a specific math problem that would take some 9,000 years for the world’s most powerful supercomputers to complete.

Using quantum-inspired computing, U of T Engineering and Fujitsu discover improved catalyst for clean hydrogen

lanthierj — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 19:26:58 +0000

Using quantum-inspired computing, U of T Engineering and Fujitsu discover improved catalyst for clean hydrogen

lanthierj Fri, 12/16/2022 - 14:26

Cutline

U of T Engineering PhD candidates Jehad Abed (left) and Hitarth Choubisa with a vial of the newly synthesized catalyst for hydrogen production, which was discovered with the help of a new quantum-inspired computing technique (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Collaboration

Materials Science

Sustainability

Researchers from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Fujitsu have developed a new way of searching through ‘chemical space’ for materials with desirable properties.

The technique has resulted in a promising new catalyst material that could help lower the cost of producing clean hydrogen.

The discovery represents an important step toward more sustainable ways of storing energy, including from renewable but intermittent sources, such as solar and wind power.

“Scaling up the production of what we call green hydrogen is a priority for researchers around the world because it offers a carbon-free way to store electricity from any source,” says Ted Sargent, a professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering and senior author on a new paper published in Matter.

“This work provides proof-of-concept for a new approach to overcoming one of the key remaining challenges, which is the lack of highly active catalyst materials to speed up the critical reactions.”

Today, nearly all commercial hydrogen is produced from natural gas. The process produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct: if the CO2 is vented to the atmosphere, the product is known as ‘grey hydrogen,’ but if the CO2 is captured and stored, it is called ‘blue hydrogen.’

By contrast, ‘green hydrogen’ is a carbon-free method that uses a device known as an electrolyzer to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The hydrogen can later be burned or reacted in a fuel cell to regenerate the electricity. However, the low efficiency of available electrolyzers means that most of the energy in the water-splitting step is wasted as heat, rather than being captured in the hydrogen.

U of T Engineering PhD candidates Jehad Abed (left) and Hitarth Choubisa with an electrolyzer capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The newly discovered catalyst could increase the efficiency of this reaction (photo by Tyler Irving)

Researchers around the world are racing to find better catalyst materials that can improve this efficiency. But because each potential catalyst material can be made of several different chemical elements, combined in a variety of ways, the number of possible permutations quickly becomes overwhelming.

“One way to do it is by human intuition, by researching what materials other groups have made and trying something similar, but that’s pretty slow,” says department of materials science and engineering PhD candidate Jehad Abed, one of two co-lead authors on the new paper.

“Another way is to use a computer model to simulate the chemical properties of all the potential materials we might try, starting from first principles. But in this case, the calculations get really complex, and the computational power needed to run the model becomes enormous.”

To find a way through, the team turned to the emerging field of quantum-inspired computing. They made use of the Digital Annealer, a tool that was created as the result of a long-standing collaboration between U of T Engineering and Fujitsu Research. This collaboration has also resulted in the creation of the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory at the University of Toronto.

“The Digital Annealer is a hybrid of unique hardware and software designed to be highly efficient at solving combinatorial optimization problems,” says Hidetoshi Matsumura, senior researcher at Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) Inc.

“These problems include finding the most efficient route between multiple locations across a transportation network, or selecting a set of stocks to make up a balanced portfolio. Searching through different combinations of chemical elements to a find a catalyst with desired properties is another example, and it was a perfect challenge for our Digital Annealer to address.”

In the paper, the researchers used a technique called cluster expansion to analyze a truly enormous number of potential catalyst material designs – they estimate the total as a number on the order of hundreds of quadrillions. For perspective, one quadrillion is approximately the number of seconds that would pass by in 32 million years.

The results pointed toward a promising family of materials composed of ruthenium, chromium, manganese, antimony and oxygen, which had not been previously explored by other research groups.

The team synthesized several of these compounds and found that the best of them demonstrated a mass activity – a measure of the number of reactions that can be catalyzed per mass of the catalyst – that was approximately eight times higher than some of the best catalysts currently available.

The new catalyst has other advantages too: it operates well in acidic conditions, which is a requirement of state-of-the-art electrolyzer designs. Currently, these electrolyzers depend on catalysts made largely of iridium, which is a rare element that is costly to obtain. In comparison, ruthenium, the main component of the new catalyst, is more abundant and has a lower market price.

There is more work ahead for the team: for example, they aim to further optimize the stability of the new catalyst before it can be tested in an electrolyzer. Still, the latest work serves as a demonstration of the effectiveness of the new approach to searching chemical space.

“I think what’s exciting about this project is that it shows how you can solve really complex and important problems by combining expertise from different fields,” says electrical and computer engineering PhD candidate Hitarth Choubisa, the other co-lead author of the paper.

“For a long time, materials scientists have been looking for these more efficient catalysts, and computational scientists have been designing more efficient algorithms, but the two efforts have been disconnected. When we brought them together, we were able to find a promising solution very quickly. I think there are a lot more useful discoveries to be made this way.”

Global experts in quantum technologies, research gather at U of T to discuss 'growing and maturing field'

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 14:39:24 +0000

Global experts in quantum technologies, research gather at U of T to discuss 'growing and maturing field'

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 09/29/2022 - 10:39

Cutline

Daniela Angulo Murcillo, a graduate student in the quantum optics group in U of T's department of physics, poses for a photo during a poster session at the Centre for Quantum Information & Quantum Control conference (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Chris Sasaki

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

More than 100 leading experts, post-doctoral researchers and students from around the world recently descended upon the University of Toronto to share their quantum research.

The ninth biennial Centre for Quantum Information & Quantum Control (CQIQC) conference, a week-long gathering that wrapped up earlier this month, was held at the Fields Institute on the St. George campus and was organized by the Faculty of Arts & Science’s CQIQC research nexus.

“The conference has always been a wonderful opportunity to bring together leaders and young researchers from all sorts of different sub-areas in the field for a week in Toronto,” says University Professor Aephraim Steinberg of U of T’s department of physics and lead organizer of the conference.

“It's very exciting for us because we get to talk to people in our own specialty or in different specialties. It’s a chance to get a broad view of what's exciting and what's going on in the field.”

CQIQC – pronounced “see-quick” – is the interdisciplinary umbrella organization for quantum research at U of T. It promotes research collaborations in theoretical and experimental activities; educates and trains students; runs a variety of programs such as post-doctoral fellowships, summer internships for undergrads, visiting professorships and awards; and runs a successful seminar series.

More than a hundred leading experts, post-doctoral researchers and students from around the world met at the ninth biennial Centre for Quantum Information & Quantum Control (CQIQC) conference (photo by Diana Tyszko)

“Our members are from science and engineering departments and are working on both fundamental and applied aspects of quantum science and technology,” says Dvira Segal, the centre’s interim director and a professor in the department of chemistry.

“The centre’s ambition is to advance quantum research and education in Canada and establish U of T as a world-class research institute in the quantum field. We foster and facilitate interactions and collaborations between various research groups within the university and internationally, as well as promote partnerships with industry.”

The interdisciplinary conference featured five days of invited and contributed talks exploring all topics quantum – which are available on the conference website.

Experts from Stanford University, MIT, Harvard University, Duke University and other institutions, as well as scientists and entrepreneurs from startup companies, shared advances they’ve made in quantum computing and quantum supremacy – a term used to describe when a quantum computer solves a problem that can’t be solved by a classical computer in a reasonable amount of time.

Some talked about the ramifications of quantum advances on the cryptography that protects our digital and network transactions. Some discussed the practical challenges in building quantum computers and the quantum algorithms they run. Others explored more fundamental topics in quantum physics, including the nature of quantum phenomena and what makes them quantum.

Alejandro Perdomo-Ortiz, research director, Quantum AI, at Zapata Computing gives a presentation at the conference (photo by Diana Tyszko)

The conference provided students from around the world with an opportunity to share their research with attendees in discussions and poster sessions, and a chance to network with leading researchers in the field.

Daniela Angulo Murcillo, a graduate student in the quantum optics group in U of T’s department of physics, presented a poster, “Measuring the Atomic Excitation Time due to Narrowband Resonant Photons that are Transmitted,” that described work she and her collaborators are conducting under the supervision of Steinberg.

“I truly enjoyed this conference because of the variety of subjects involved – from foundational topics like contextuality to technological applications like quantum computing,” says Murcillo.

“I was inspired to explore new subjects by passionate scientists telling us about their work; reading about boson sampling is my new hobby! I was also able to discuss my work with other students and professors, and their questions tested me to find different strategies to explain my research.”

Frank Corapi, a graduate student in the quantum optics group in the department of physics, participated in the conference poster session (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Frank Corapi is another graduate student in the quantum optics group. He presented a poster, “Towards Quantum Simulation with p-Wave Interacting Fermions,” describing research he and collaborators conducted under the supervision of Joseph Thywissen, a professor in the department of physics.

“I greatly enjoyed my time at the conference,” says Corapi. “Discussing my research with some of the other attendees provided me with new perspectives on concepts I'd been thinking about for a long time. The various talks and posters were also quite interesting, and the entire experience left me with many ideas to bring back to the lab.”

For Steinberg and others at CQIQC, the conference continues to be one of the ways the centre is fulfilling its mission.

“CQIQC has been around for more than 20 years, and we’ve been running this conference for almost the entire time,” says Steinberg.

“We're undergoing continued growth and are always bringing in more students and faculty who are pushing the boundaries of this area – and we’re proud the conference has become one of the international mainstays of the quantum information meeting circuit.”

Anna Dyring, CQIQC’s quantum strategic initiative lead and one of the conference organizers, says the interest from students and young people, including undergraduate students, was “striking,” as was the large presence of industry representatives and startups.

“These outcomes are hopefully a sign of a growing and maturing field, and feels very encouraging for the future.”

Toronto startup Xanadu achieves quantum computing feat: The Globe and Mail

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 15:38:10 +0000

Toronto startup Xanadu achieves quantum computing feat: The Globe and Mail

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 06/02/2022 - 11:38

Cutline

(Photo courtesy of Xanadu)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Physics

Xanadu, a quantum computing startup founded by former University of Toronto post-doctoral physics researcher Christian Weedbrook, has achieved a coveted milestone by demonstrating “quantum advantage” – the ability of a quantum computer to outperform any supercomputer in the world at a specific task.

The company’s machine, called Borealis, was able to execute in 36 seconds a specific math problem that would take the world’s most powerful supercomputers some 9,000 years to carry out, the Globe and Mail reported. The achievement represents a significant step towards being able to one day harness the power of quantum computing for practical use in areas as diverse as drug discovery, financial risk modeling and climate change mitigation, according to the Globe.

Xanadu detailed how Borealis was able to achieve the feat in a landmark paper published in the journal Nature. The startup, an alumnus of the Creative Destruction Lab seed-stage accelerator at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, said Borealis will be made available on the cloud to researchers and developers interested in testing its capabilities and evaluating potential computing applications. “We are thrilled to have deployed quantum computational advantage on the cloud publicly for the very first time for users around the world,” Weedbrook, the company’s CEO, said in a press release. “This is another big milestone for quantum computing. And it shows the exceptional talent we have here at Xanadu as well as the ability for photonic quantum computers to scale up.”

Read story in the Globe and Mail

Read Xanadu’s research paper in Nature

Read the University of Toronto Magazine profile of Xanadu

Researchers use quantum-inspired tech to reduce radiosurgery planning time

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 19:24:23 +0000

Researchers use quantum-inspired tech to reduce radiosurgery planning time

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 04/21/2021 - 15:24

Cutline

U of T researchers Ali Sheikholeslami and Mojgan Hodaie helped dramatically reduce the preparation time needed for Gamma Knife radiosurgery by using Fujitsu Laboratories' quantum-inspired technology.

Matthew Tierney

Topic

Global Lens

Insulin 100

Global

Researchers at the University of Toronto have helped reduce the preparation time needed for Gamma Knife radiosurgery – a process that typically takes hours – to around one minute by using a quantum-inspired technology called the Digital Annealer.

The DA technology was developed through a collaboration between U of T researchers and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. It was applied to the Gamma Knife treatment plan by a team led by Ali Sheikholeslami, a professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, and Mojgan Hodaie, a professor in the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“We were able to translate the treatment planning into a combinatorial optimization problem,” says Sheikholeslami. “By changing the types of variables under certain constraints, by breaking it down into smaller pieces, it could be handled by the DA solver. Before delivery of the dose, the DA treatment plan can be imported into clinical software for verification.”

He says that the plans developed by the Digital Annealer method have proven to be as accurate as those produced through conventional methods.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery, which requires no incision and can be performed without general anesthetic, delivers beams or “blades” of radiation doses aggregated from 192 gamma sources that are aimed at different targets in the patient’s brain. As a stereotactic surgical procedure, it uses medical imaging to locate the positions in advance in order to maximize the area for dosing and minimize damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

Determining the size and shape of the target areas is a labour-intensive procedure. Doctors and radiologists must evaluate the vast number of possible plans by manually inputting parameters and recording the results, using experience as a guide.

This process can take up to several hours, which lengthens a patient’s time in clinical care and limits the number of patients that can be treated in a single day. It also ties up medical personnel that are needed to provide assistance.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery, which delivers beams of radiation doses aimed at different targets in the patient’s brain, requres medical imaging to locate the best positions in advance in order to minimize damage to surrounding healthy tissue – a process that typically takes several hours.

How does the Digital Annealer overcome the hurdle? Its unique architecture emulates quantum behaviour on conventional computer hardware by following a similar process of progressive approximation to arrive at a final result. That, in turn, enables it to make real-time optimization calculations far more quickly than conventional software.

“The Gamma Knife treatment plan is a great example of the DA’s difference-making ability in health care,” says Sheikholeslami. “We envision the DA technology to have a wealth of future applications. As of now, use cases are being pursued in finance, materials discovery, operations research and neural network training.”

Masaya Kibune, director of Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) Inc., says tackling such problems is exactly why the Digital Annealer was developed.

“At present, true quantum computing is still in its infancy,” he says. “There are stability issues, for example, and quantum computers require extreme cold to operate, near zero Kelvin, which demands infrastructure with massive energy costs. The DA takes advantage of similar principles of connectivity and simultaneity at room temperature, and a unit can be easily miniaturized to fit in data centres.”

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. launched its collaboration with U of T Engineering in 2018, leading to the establishment of the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory at U of T’s Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Last November, the partnership with Fujitsu was formally extended for three years.

“The Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Lab is a hive of activity for principal investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and associates,” says Professor Deepa Kundur, chair of the electrical and computer engineering department. “The U of T-Fujitsu collaboration has produced dozens of publications on research topics from memory design to high-speed signaling to optimization. It continues to be a shining example of the benefits of collaboration.”

Sheikholeslami’s connection with Fujitsu goes back to the beginning of his career, when he interned for six weeks at its head office in Kawasaki, Japan.

“For me, it’s been a fruitful relationship for over twenty years now,” he says. “And there’s plenty more to come.”

U of T and Fujitsu extend agreement to collaborate on cutting-edge computing research

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 16:45:48 +0000

U of T and Fujitsu extend agreement to collaborate on cutting-edge computing research

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 11/06/2020 - 11:45

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(image via Zoom)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Industry Partnerships

The University of Toronto and Japan’s Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. have agreed to renew, for three years, a partnership that seeks to advance innovative computing research projects with wide-scale applications.

The partnership extension was marked this week by a transglobal videoconference that included Fujitsu CEO Hirotaka Hara and U of T President Meric Gertler, as well as other senior leaders and researchers.

The group discussed the progress of the partnership – which launched in 2018 and involved the establishment of the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory at U of T’s Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship – and what can be achieved in the future.

“Fujitsu is one of the world’s most admired companies and Fujitsu Laboratories is a major engine of research and development in leading innovation clusters around the world including Beijing, Silicon Valley, London and now, of course, Toronto,” President Gertler said during the videoconference.

“The University of Toronto and our department of electrical and computer engineering both enjoy very high rankings globally, and we are the academic anchor of an impressive innovation ecosystem here in the Toronto region.”

Since its launch, the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory has been credited with such major advancements as the advent of the Digital Annealer, a computing architecture that is inspired by quantum principles and can carry out operations beyond the scope of conventional computers, opening up potential applications in health care, drug discovery, finance, logistics, transportation and more.

Fujitsu also launched an R&D centre in Toronto in 2017 as part of its partnership with the university.

President Gertler said the collaboration between U of T and Fujitsu is testament to the richness of Toronto’s technology and innovation ecosystem.

“Toronto is increasingly recognized as a global investment destination,” he said. “The University of Toronto is a major factor in shaping that status and making Toronto so attractive, and the presence of Fujitsu Laboratories has helped raise this attractiveness even further”

Hara, who was appointed the CEO of Fujitsu Laboratories in 2019, said the company is excited about its ongoing association with U of T and the potential research outcomes of the partnership.

“As a global brand, Fujitsu is always looking for innovative solutions to real-world problems,” he said. “Through this partnership, we have the opportunity to work with world-class researchers to contribute to social impact.”

He added that the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory was responsible for important developments.

“The Digital Annealer is a great example of the exciting technology we have been developing together. Therefore, we would like to engage in future research of the Digital Annealer with U of T with greater outcomes.”

The partnership between U of T and Fujitsu Labs can be traced back more than two decades to 1998, when Professor Ali Sheikholeslami, then a PhD student in electrical engineering at U of T, did a six-week internship at Fujitsu Labs.

Following the internship, Sheikholeslami continued to work with Fujitsu Lab researchers, and a formal collaboration was established after Sheikholeslami was hired as a faculty member at the Edward S. Rogers. Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

Today, Sheikholeslami is the head of the Fujitsu Co-Creation Research Laboratory, which has engaged more than 10 faculty members and 25 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers from fields ranging from electrical, computer, mechanical and industrial engineering to medicine, finance and statistics.

In collaboration with Fujitsu, Sheikholeslami said the researchers aim to improve the speed, accuracy and flexibility of the Digital Annealer technology. He added quantum computing is another promising avenue.

“We would like to collaborate with Fujitsu and expand our collaboration into the area of quantum computing,” Sheikholeslami said. “As you know, a quantum computer is a natural extension of the Digital Annealer.

“What we would like to do is build quantum computing systems in the near future. We have a lot of expertise at U of T – all the expertise that it takes to build this quantum processing unit. We have expertise in physics, hardware, algorithm and in software. We will be discussing the possible collaboration.”

Sheikholeslami said U of T and Fujitsu have applied for – or are in the process of applying for – patents on a range of inventions. “More inventions are in the making, and there’s a possibility now of U of T and Fujitsu co-creating startups for the first time,” he said.

In his closing remarks, President Gertler lauded the progress achieved by the partnership and highlighted that the best is yet to come.

“As the platform expands now to include even more disciplines, no doubt it will enable even greater accomplishments in the years to come,” he said. “I, for one, will be truly delighted to follow its progress.”

Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T

U of T's Peter Wittek, who will be remembered at Feb. 3 event, on why the future is quantum

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 20:59:07 +0000

U of T's Peter Wittek, who will be remembered at Feb. 3 event, on why the future is quantum

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 01/16/2020 - 15:59

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(photo via Rotman Management Magazine)

Karen Christensen

Topic

Artificial Intelligence

Entrepreneurship