Sponsored by the French National Quantum Initiative
Executive Summary
French companies and organizations continued to develop the tools and technology to not just make quantum more effective and more robust, but also more accessible. News from French quantum organizations included news that one of those companies – Quandela – is now offering Cloud access to its photonic processors. This will allow scientists and experts across the industrial and commercial landscape to use those processors for calculations up to five photonic qubits. And the company is rapidly building that qubit number, according to projections. French companies and organizations also presented internationally – at, for example, Supercomputing 2022 – while also building connections across the country and with fellow European colleagues and researchers.
Policy
U.S., France Sign Joint Statement to Enhance Cooperation on Quantum
The United States and France signed a Joint Statement on Cooperation in Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) in Washington, DC on Nov. 30. The signing took place during a broader visit between French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington—the first State Visit of the Biden-Harris Administration.
Business
Quandela Launches Commercial Cloud Offering
Quandela launched its commercial Cloud offering, providing scientists, industry players and companies access to several photonic processors for calculations of up to 5 photonic qubits. The company is also offering access to Perceval, its quantum software. In 2023, the company expects to offer 12 qubits.
Collaboration Investigates Hybrid HPC and QC Uses
PASQAL and ENI, an Italian oil & gas company, announced a collaboration on the use of a hybrid HPC+quantum computing system.
Dario Pagani, Eni’s Head of Digital & High Performance Computing said: “Digital and High Performance Computing is the driver to make us faster, more efficient and more responsible. Our HPC system is a vital tool to explore the energy of the future. PASQAL’s quantum computers will allow us to complement our conventional HPC workflows in areas such as optimization and machine learning and accelerate our research to create new solutions to the most pressing issues in the energy industry.”
First-Ever Centre of Excellence for Open Algorithms
EDF, a French energy company, Exaion, a French Cloud company, Pasqal and the Quantum Innovation Zone in Canada are joining forces to create the first centre of excellence for open algorithms. These algorithms will be designed to develop solutions for the energy industry using the combined capabilities of high performance computing and quantum computing.
CNRS signing an agreement with UChicago
The CNRS has just opened its fourth International Research Centre (IRC), this time with the University of Chicago, one of its leading partners in the United States. The agreement to create the International Research Centre for Fundamental Scientific Discovery (IRC Discovery) was signed on 30 November in Washington DC, by the CNRS Chairman and CEO Antoine Petit and UChicago President Paul Alivisatos, during the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron.
PASQAL, a leader in neutral atoms quantum computing research headquartered in Paris, today announced a collaboration agreement with Professor Hannes Bernien at the University of Chicago. The collaboration aims to advance neutral atom quantum computing. PASQAL and Bernien will accomplish this by developing new techniques for enabling high-fidelity qubit control.
Sigma Reply Becomes Quandela’s First Official Certified Partner.
With expertise in Quantum Computing developed since 2018 and after having reviewed Quandela full stack offering, Sigma Reply chose to become a Certified Consulting Partner of Quandela, the leading European photonic quantum computer company. Sigma Reply will train and certify its application engineers to Quandela’s simulator Perceval and photonic processors MosaiQ, and will have a preview access to Quandela’s Cloud QPU service.
Strong French Delegation to Quantum World Congress
French Quantum Leaders supported by Business France: Alice & Bob, CryptoNext Security, Multiverse Computing, PASQAL, Quandela, Quantonation, QuRISK – Quantum Risk Advisory, Thales & Siquance.
Qubit Pharmaceuticals, a deeptech company specializing in molecular simulation and modeling using quantum physics, has announced the creation of a platform to accelerate drug discovery using hybrid classical and quantum computing built on NVIDIA Quantum Optimized Device Architecture (QODA). QUBIT has one of the largest GPU supercomputers for drug discovery in France, with the goal of building a portfolio of drug candidates in the fields of oncology, inflammatory diseases and antivirals. By 2023, the first drug candidates resulting from this collaboration should be tested by pharmaceutical companies.
Siquance, a Start-up Dedicated to Quantum Computing, Launches
Siquance, a start-up from the CEA and the CNRS, launched on November 29, 2022 in Grenoble. Co-founded and directed by Maud Vinet, Siquance aims to develop and eventually market a quantum computer based on microelectronics technologies and by exploiting the capacities of European semiconductor producers.
Research: Academic & Technological Advances
Launch of the EQSI–European Quantum Software Institute in Paris
EQSI is an initiative backed by six founding members, including Harry Buhrman, of QSoft; Matthias Christandl, of QuMATH–Denmark; Yasser Omar, of PQI–Portugal; Robert Koenig, of TU Munich; Andris Ambainis of University of Latvia and Lordanis Kerenidis, of PCQC–France. The initiative aims to further align development processes and jointly achieve responsible innovation in Europe for quantum software and quantum algorithms, through co-creation with industry and quantum hardware partners.
New PoC from the PAQ from Paris Region
A recent PAQ – PAck Quantique – proposed by Thales, Quandela and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saclay will focus on the optimisation of drones fleets using quantum computing applied on photonic based QC solutions.
Paris Region, along with the support of GENCI, Teratec and Lab Quantique, supports PAQ, a quantum enabling programme, which was established in 2020. It aims to fund concrete proof-of-concept projects that bridge end users, quantum startups and experts. Since its inception 9 projects have been funded – with an average 45% of funding of a 400k€ project over 2 or 3 years – in many domains including quantum chemistry, optimisation, machine learning and CFD. In the field of HQI, the French quantum initiative will be extended to more regions and eventually across Europe.
Events
French Companies Present as Supercomputing 2022
Supercomputing 2022 (Dallas, USA): HQI the French HPC Quantum hybrid initiative attended Supercomputing 2022, the HPC international conference held in Dallas (14-18 November) and was present at the CEA booth. It was an opportunity to present HQI, establish international collaborations and take part in a session on “Advances in Hybrid Quantum-Classical HPC’ with Partec, Quantum Machines and FZJ (Forschungszentrum Jülich, HPCQS coordinator).
LOQCathon Attracts 61 Participants from 10+ Countries
The LOQCathon, organized by Quandela and Quantum Information Center Sorbonne in Jussieu, was held November 7-9 gathered 61 participants from more than 10 countries. Most of them were students, but there were also researchers and professionals. They investigated six use cases using Quandela’s Perceval linear optical quantum computing environment and inaugurated the use of the online chip MosaiQ on the Quandela Cloud. The initiative was sponsored by HQI France, OVHcloud, LIP6, CNRS and Paris-Region who presented their offers on the first day of the hackathon. The winning team worked on a use case called “Ground state estimation using Variational Quantum Eigensolver.” The following two teams had been investigating use cases related to Natural Language Processing and Reinforcement Learning.
Franco-German Meeting in Munich
Organized together with Wissenschaft Frankreich, BayFrance, and Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, this event welcomes experts from French and Bavarian-based research institutions and industry to discuss quantum science and quantum technology as well as possibilities for collaboration. HQI French national initiative as well as the Paris-Region PAQ (quantum pack) for quantum enabling end users using joint proof-of-concepts with quantum startups and experts were among the presentations.
EPITA engineering School Launching a Major Education Program in Quantum Information Science
By launching its new “Quantum” major, EPITA is deploying the most ambitious and successful training in French higher education. For several years, the School has been offering a Quantum minor, providing 39 hours of lessons, and led by one of the most renowned specialists in the field, Olivier Ezratty.
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