The Department of Energy’s Office of Science recently awarded $4.5M over three years to a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary team led by Dr. Ojas Parekh (1464) to explore the abilities of quantum computers in three interrelated areas: quantum simulation, optimization, and machine learning, each highly relevant to the DOE mission. The QOALAS (Quantum Optimization and Learning and Simulation) project brings together some the world’s top experts in quantum algorithms, quantum simulation, theoretical physics, applied mathematics, and discrete optimization from Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and University of Maryland. The QOALAS team will leverage and unearth connections between simulation, optimization, and machine learning to fuel new applications of quantum information processing to science and technology as well as further investigate the potential of quantum computers to solve certain problems dramatically faster or with better fidelity than possible with classical computers.
