Prof. Dr. Claudia Linnhoff-Popien was appointed to the panel of experts charged with drawing up a national roadmap for quantum computing. This panel was established by decision of Chancellor Angela Merkel and supported by the State Secretaries of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The experts met for the first time on October 6, 2020. Virtually, of course.

D-Wave Systems – a Canadian provider of quantum computing systems, software, and services – announced the availability of free access to its quantum systems for researchers working to combat the COVID-19 crisis. LMU Munich’s QAR-Lab has joined these efforts alongside other partners, including companies and research institutions such as CINECA, DENSO, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Kyocera Corporation, KYOCERA Communication Systems, MDR/Cliffhanger, Menten AI, NEC Solution Innovators Ltd., OTI Lumionics, Sigma-i, Tohoku University, and Volkswagen. The relevant engineering teams are providing support in the form of their expertise in using the quantum computer, formulating problems, and developing solutions.
Hybrid quantum-classical computing could be well-suited for solving a range of complex problems of this nature. Potential areas of focus for COVID-19 include analyzing new methods of diagnosis, modeling the spread of the virus, optimizing hospital logistics, supply distribution, pharmaceutical combinations, and much more.
For more information on resources and support for combating COVID-19, please see www.dwavesys.com

The PlanQK consortium, including LMU Munich, presented the new PlanQK project (Platform and Ecosystem for Quantum-Assisted Artificial Intelligence) to a broad public for the first time at the Digital Summit in Dortmund on October 28 and 29. In addition to numerous visitors, the German Chancellor was also a guest.

The “Digital World Convention” (DIGICON) took place in Munich from November 20-21, 2019:
368 participants from more than 220 companies, visionary and lively presentations, an exciting race for the 4th Munich Digital Innovation Award and forward-looking ideas at the marketplace for innovations – as every year, the guests of the partner event of the association “Digitale Stadt München e.V” were offered a lot. For the fourth time, the major digitization event was hosted – this time under the sign of the core topic “Artificial Intelligence”. Together with the above-mentioned association and DIGITAL WORLD, LMU established DIGICON to offer companies the opportunity to exchange ideas on digitization topics and learn from each other.
International experts from business and science once again presented the latest trends, developments and results of machine learning to the participants. Decision makers talked about opportunities and risks, analysts about the underlying methods.

With the beginning of the new winter semester, the lecture “Quantum Applications” by Prof. Dr. Claudia Linnhoff-Popien and Dr. Sebastian Feld also started. The QAR-Lab staff members present the basics of the current research field Quantum Computing in the lecture and teach the practical application including programming directly on a Quantum Annealer.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) announced the 16 winners of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Competition. Among them is PlanQK, which will now be funded with eleven million euros over three years (from January 2020 to December 2022). As one of the original applicants in the planning phase of PlanQK, LMU Munich’s QAR Lab is particularly excited to be conducting research with our partners on the linking of AI and quantum computing in practice and making these technologies easily accessible for industrial applications as part of the project. The main page of LMU already reported.