SEQUOIA

Quantum computing offers great potential to advance classical computation running on current high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures to a new level. Although quantum computing is still in its infancy, the arrival of the first quantum computers, such as the IBM Q System One, now enable academia and industry to begin developing exciting solutions that are not feasible on current computer systems.

The project SEQUOIA will enable researchers and industry stakeholders to evaluate the opportunities that quantum computing offers, and together to test them on real-world scenarios from a multitude of application domains, such as manufacturing, robotics, energy, mobility and the health sector, to name but a few.

SEQUOIA will focus on three key activities: (1) designing and developing applications and algorithms to demonstrate the effectiveness of solutions based on quantum computing; (2) implementing a software library to ease access to quantum systems by introducing standards for data formats and interfaces; (3) defining an engineering model that describes best practices when developing applications for quantum computing. The outcomes of SEQUOIA should demonstrate interesting and pioneering applications of quantum computing that will have a direct impact for both research and industry.

HLRS's contributions to SEQUOIA will focus on evaluating quantum algorithms for linear systems and artificial intelligence. These two research fields are already highly important for HPC, and so improving the performance of specific programming methods and demonstrating their effectiveness in the context of real-world applications is of utmost interest. Furthermore, HLRS aims to pave the way for hybrid solutions that benefit from the integration of HPC, AI, and quantum computing.