The Quantum Simulator Challenge 2024 brought together 46 teams from academia and industry from 13 countries to develop innovative quantum applications. Between July and November last year, they worked on individually defined problems. The teams carried out a total of 2,282 computational tasks with 14,500 operating hours on Fujitsu’s 40-qubit quantum simulator, one of the most powerful quantum computers in the world.
The qubit is the smallest unit of information in a quantum computer. In contrast to conventional bits, qubits, which follow the laws of quantum mechanics, can assume several states simultaneously and therefore hold more information. Quantum computers are therefore able to achieve high computing power with just a few qubits and therefore have the potential to outperform conventional computers when it comes to complex problems.
QuPIV algorithm enables a wide range of applications in signal processing
At the end of the five-month competition phase, the teams submitted their research reports, which were then evaluated by a twelve-member jury, including leading researchers from Fujitsu’s quantum computing department. The Ilmenau team, led by Philipp Pfeffer, impressed the jury with its QuPIV algorithm. This novel quantum algorithm can calculate so-called cross-correlations, i.e. the determination of the spatial offset of two distributions of particles that follow each other in quick succession for flow measurement. The method offers a wide range of potential applications in signal processing: in aerospace, the automotive industry, for the analysis of pedestrian flows in cities or for the characterization of microfluidic systems.2nd place for TU Ilmenau team in the Quantum Simulator Challenge
The team from the Institute of Thermodynamics and Fluid Dynamics at TU Ilmenau, Julia Ingelmann and Philipp Pfeffer from the Fluid Mechanics Group and Theo Käufer from the Engineering Thermodynamics Group , took second place in the Quantum Simulator Challenge. The prize money of 30,000 US dollars, a good 27,700 euros, was accepted by Philipp Pfeffer in Japan on behalf of the team. The prize money will now enable the three doctoral students to take part in scientific conferences where they can present their work internationally.Young team of scientists conducts top-level research in Ilmenau
Ingelmann and Pfeffer conduct research in the Fluid Mechanics Group under Professor Jörg Schumacher, who himself uses supercomputers and quantum computers to calculate and analyze flows, such as those that occur near the surface of the sun, as part of an ERC Advanced Grant, a prestigious grant from the European Union for leading scientists: "This award confirms the innovative strength and excellence of TU Ilmenau in the field of quantum computing! We are particularly strong in the application of quantum algorithms for practically relevant problems." Theo Käufer from Engineering Thermodynamics Group developed pioneering measurement technology for thermally induced flows with the head of the department, Prof. Christian Cierpka. Theo Käufer is now a postdoctoral researcher at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA.First prize in the Quantum Simulator Challenge 2024 went to Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands for a project on optimizing shift schedules in industrial production. Third place behind TU Ilmenau went to the Japanese start-up company QunaSys Inc. with a large-scale simulation of electronic molecular states using the quantum phase estimation algorithm.
