Early Quantum Computing Use Cases - Detail

Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Verification and Validation
Lockheed Martin w/ University of Southern California, D-Wave, & QRA

Lockheed Martin is working on reducing the time and cost of verification and validation of complex software and hardware systems (roughly half the total cost of the system).  "Verification and validation is work done to assure the quality and reliability of the system, including the elimination of errors from both the computing layers and physical layers of an integrated system."
  • Lockheed Martin was D-Wave's first customer in 2010.​
  • QRA Corp will develop and market application software for the D-Wave computers to address the multi-billion dollar worldwide need for verification and validation software and services. (www.qracorp.com)
Source: Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing website.
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Airbus with D-Wave Systems

Validation & Verification
Optimizing air traffic routes
Airbus quantum challenge:
​Five problems in aerospace to solve with quantum algorithms.  
Air Traffic Route Optimization:
“With quantum computing, you can optimize air traffic routes, not just one route at a time, but all routes in one go,” says Vittadini. “Potentially, we could coordinate 100 planes in parallel, each flying to five different locations a day, arriving in time, as scheduled, with minimum time on the ground; this is a typical quantum type of problem statement,” she explains.
Verification & Validation Testing:
​Using D-Wave computers, Airbus has seen positive results for investigating all possible routes of failure in very large and complex systems, including safety-critical failures in aircraft and spacecraft. 

Airbus Chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini stated: “To do this, we must investigate every single possible anomaly to get to the problem root, and today these types of simulations typically run over several days.” Working with QC Ware, it was 400% faster to do the failure analysis.  Probabilities of each failure are calculated separately.  
The winner of the quantum challenge gets to keep working...with Airbus providing access to powerful quantum computers.

Airbus is working in Verification and Validation of large complex systems.
Source:  https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/04/how-quantum-computers-are-transforming-travel/
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Volkswagen.  DATA:LAB Munich, powered by Volkswagen Group, with D-Wave and Google.) 
1.  Volkswagen Traffic Management System: A business opportunity
2.  Configurator of vehicles (for customer ordering) 

Real-time Traffic Management
Use location data in a city, then determine taxi and public transport dispatch to minimize wait time and empty trips.  First stop Beijing traffic between downtown and the airport.  Previous stop: Barcelona Spain.  Next stop (Nov 2019) is Lisbon, Portugal
"In the field of quantum computing, the Volkswagen Group is cooperating with technology partners Google and D-Wave, who provide the Volkswagen experts with access to their systems."

Click on picture below for news release

Volkswagon and D-Wave pilot a public bus routing system in Lisbon, Portugal in November 2019:
https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/volkswagen-optimizes-traffic-flow-with-quantum-computers-5507
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Volkswagen new: Google collaboration, Nov 7, 2017:

Another D-Wave source with data and details Sept 27, 2017, Page 34
#2 - Configurator use case:  Recommend additional options for a vehicle that the customer 'missed' or might appreciate.  Improves vehicle customer satisfaction!

Thank you Andrea Skolik, "A hybrid quantum-classical recommender system"


Denso Corp (working with Toyota & D-Wave)
​Practical uses for quantum computing in traffic management factory robot optimization

1) Transport-related service optimization (e.g., taxi dispatch) in real-time (proof of concept taxi dispatch in Bangkok, Thailand) working with Toyota (and will establish best practices for quantum applications) 
​2) Improve operation ratio of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in factories to reduce wait time and WIP (New, better routing model would reduce wait time of 20%+ to 5%)

Denso & Toyota: Thailand Traffic Analysis Video

Denso Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV) Optimization Video 

Fujitsu IT Products Ltd: Factory picking optimization & Automotive Paint Line optimization

Fujitsu IT Products Limited (Japan), using the Fujitsu Digital Annealer (quantum inspired) reduced monthly travel time to collect IT factory parts by 20% by optimally ordering the pick lists.  If they rearrange the factory shelves (stock placement), total reduction would be 45%.
This optimization problem runs within 1 second.  

Saving 20% on picking labor in the IT factory

Increasing Automotive Paint Line capacity by 30%

According to Fujitsu executive Johan Carstens, EMEA, Fujitsu is using its digital annealer to calculate how an automotive manufacturer could add 30% to its paint line capacity of 1,000 cars per day.  The calculation took 3 seconds.  The investment deferred was $1 Billion.  Good work Fujitsu team!

Mitsubishi Estate and Groovenauts demonstrate experimental waste collection routes (trucks collecting waste types from buildings) using Magellan Blocks (TM) on a D-Wave Systems quantum annealer.

To imagine the size and scale of the problem...picture yourself in the Marunouchi area of Tokyo (near the Imperial Palace).  123 hectacres, 4,300 offices, 30 buildings, ~20 waste types, and numerous trucks and routing options.  This complex optimization problem would be run on classical systems, then portions on a D-Wave System (remotely) to create a routing solution.

If this moves from experiment to production, and provides a better routing solution than classical systems can reasonably provide, it would improve efficiency of the collection work, shorten vehicle mileage, reduce labor shortage for waste work, and reduce CO2 emissions in Tokyo.

Groovenauts Company, Ltd. created a cloud service named Magellan Blocks (TM) which makes the use of AI, ML and quantum computing more available to mankind.  

Ocado (online retailer) with Hartree Centre (STFC) & D-Wave
Multi-robot routing to pick orders, in real time.  Successful experiment with up to 200 robots.
Better, faster solution for avoiding collisions and efficient operation (minimize robot travel, and product drop off times).

Source: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3293333.  HPC Asia 2019 Proceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing in Asia-Pacific Region
Pages 111-119 ​

Supporting the mission...mission services

General Dynamics is describing how we use quantum technologies for mission support

Actual quotes:
"What’s the next generation of space communications?There is a considerable amount of work being done as to how to apply quantum techniques to both offensive and defensive battle situations. By using some of these techniques you could create rays of elemental particles that are capable of a wide variety of computing functions, memory functions, and sensing the physical world at a far more efficient pace than anything that’s ever been done electronically before."

"So you are talking terrestrial communications from space.That’s where we will see more of it first. There’s been a lot of attention given to a Chinese satellite emitting a quantum particle to two different parties that allow an end-to-end, terrestrial communication path to then exist with encryption. The reason you need a satellite to do that is in order to make sure the particle itself can be transmitted uninterrupted in both directions. That particle can’t be transmitted through traditional fiber optics and amplifiers. That’s why you have to put it up into space. What it will enable is the ability to have far more secure communications that really cannot be compromised or exploited the way some encrypted communications could be exploited today."

"Other uses? You can take frozen arrays of photons – little pieces of light – and use these things for a variety of functions, such as computing or very high-capacity memory, or even just to detect gravitational fields. In absence of any kind of GPS, if I have a terrain map, I can figure out where I am as I navigate. They can be used to enhance the effectiveness of radars, particularly against stealth aircraft and other stealth vehicles."

Navigation, communications and sensing

Recruit Communications (Japan), D-Wave, and 1QBit & Fujitsu Ltd.

Ordering items for sale on a website (order counts)

Source:  https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.12478.pdf
Recruit is using a D-Wave Systems D2000Q processor to determine the order in which to show items for sale by converting the problem into a Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) which is NP-hard and cannot be solved in polynomial time.  Once we figure this out, and do creative things to get it to run better, it worked better than today's solution

Online digital advertisement recommendations - almost same click through rate (CTR) with 30% lower variation.
​Avoids unplanned overspending.
​Research / experimental phase only.

Sources:  https://www.dwavesys.com/sites/default/files/RCO_0_0.pdf
https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2018/0129-01.html
Source: 

Biogen: Molecule Comparison / Molecule Similarity
A molecule comparison application that enabled faster (in seconds) and qualitatively better answers (graph based vs. fingerprinting).  The chemist enters molecules to compare and weights features.  The results are visualizations, shared traits.  Proof of Concept completed.

The Client:  Biotechnology innovator & leader in pharmaceutical R&D

Front end of drug discovery process - can we compare large-scale molecules faster and better to identify potential cures? 

The Systems Integrator and Consultant

Accenture Labs helped select the business process and adapt 1QBit's algorithm/APIs to Biogen's requirements

Quantum software platform and APIs

Quantum software platform provider and software (algorithm) developer.  Raised CAD $45M in Series B Round funding.
Source:  Accenture reference 2017: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/success-biogen-quantum-computing-advance-drug-discovery

DowDupont & 1QBit: Material Science
Quantum computing approaches (and application tools) to speed up the discovery of new functional molecules and materials.
Accelerate Structure - Function Discovery Research.  Feeding the business innovation pipeline for Organics, Polymers & Organometallics.
"We want to make sure we're doing the best experiments and quantum will help us to understand a material - why it works - so we can start the do loop over again," explains Jamie L Cohen, Global R&D Director Europe, Middle East, Africa and Director Core R&D Europe

https://www.fujitsu.com/us/Images/Panel3_Jamie_Cohen.pdf. Dow Materials Science presentation. Oct 11, 2017
Source: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/big-business-computing/3008903.article, May 2, 2018 by Angeli Mehta: Big business computing.

1QBIT & Microsoft on May 31 2019, collaborate on materials simulation.  

1QBit has been developing a materials simulation platform called QEMIST, which stands for Quantum-Enabled Molecular ab Initio Simulation Toolkit. QEMIST is designed to enable the accurate calculation of molecular properties by leveraging the power of quantum computing in conjunction with advanced problem decomposition (PD) techniques.  This is integrated with the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit (chemistry industry package) running in Python.
Source:  https://1qbit.com/news/microsoft-1qbit-collaborate-disrupt-materials-innovation-1qbit-openqemist-platform-microsoft-quantum-development-kit/
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JSR Corporation (Japan) with Cambridge Quantum Computing (t|ket>) and IBM Q, calculate excited states of molecules that take into account multi-reference characteristics.  This helps build simulation of more complex quantum chemistry applications.  

"Successfully implementing quantum algorithms that account for multi-reference states represents, for the first time, a new advance in building a solid foundation for the simulation of more complex quantum chemistry applications, and move from merely experimental and theoretical use cases for quantum computing to actual real-world applications" ​
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Source: https://cambridgequantum.com/cqc-and-jsr-corp-issue-statement-on-their-quantum-computing-project/
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OTI Lumionics - Microsoft
​quantum inspired for chemistry and materials discovery

Source:  https://otilumionics.com/quantum-computing/
"Our team of theoreticians, quantum chemists, computer scientists and software engineers are building powerful quantum and quantum-inspired software to solve the most complex problems in materials science and chemistry."

German Aerospace Center (DLR) and D-Wave
Airport Flight Gate Assignment, to minimize total passenger transit time through optimized airport management. 
​Experiment successful with small problem sizes.

Source: https://www.dwavesys.com/sites/default/files/handout_lobe.pdf
Source: Quantum Technology and Optimizatio nProblems, First International Workshop, QTOP 2019, Munich Germany.  March 18, 2019 Proceedings.  LNCS 11413.

NatWest Bank and Fujitsu: Optimize High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) while achieving regulatory risk compliance.
NatWest Bank parent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and 1Qbit, working with D-Wave Systems to combat information asymmetry.

This process ran 300 times faster than on the cloud and avoids human error. Comparison based on optimizing an HQLA portfolio using both traditional techniques on a conventional cloud service and the Fujitsu Digital Annealer
In 2017, RBS joined a funding round for 1QBit.  "​A host of financial services firms, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, have joined a C$45 million Series B funding round for Vancouver-based quantum computing startup 1QBit Information Technologies.
Led by Fujitsu, the round, comprising equity and revenue contracts, was also joined by insurance giant Allianz, CME Group's venture arm, and Accenture."
Picture
Proof of Concept: Optimize High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) while achieving full regulatory risk compliance

Nomura Holdings (Japan) experiments with Tohoku University and D-Wave Systems to create optimal equities portfolios (stocks), and stock price prediction.

Take advantage of increases in computing capabilities to ingest and assess new types of information, including social media.

Here is what their Feb 27, 2018 press release said: "As part of its business experiments, Nomura will take advantage of the computing speed of the D-Wave machine to select an optimal mix of stocks to enhance the performance of clients’ investment portfolios. It will also be used to make predictions on future stock prices. The firm’s aim is to test the extent to which the machine increases the efficiency and accuracy of calculations."

They are collaborating with Associate Professor Masayuki Ozeki, of Tokyo University, "to see if quantum computing can be applied in the process of optimization of the asset management space, in an effort to improve efficiency and ultimately profitability."
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STANDARD CHARTERED BANK AND USRA:  Portfolio optimization 'beyond Markowitz' using Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), and QUBO, to create a minimum variance portfolio and expected return.

Quantum computing hardware in 2018 did not provide material speedup nor improvement.  
They evaluated a 60 investment portfolio using reverse annealing on a D-Wave Systems computer. 
Reading the paper we learn how to better run this analysis on the 2000Q (knobs and dials), and look forward to the 5000Q!

Alexei Kondratyev, MD Standard Chartered, stated about 18:40 into the recorded chat, found here.  
https://www.risk.net/cutting-edge/views/6688801/podcast-venturelli-and-kondratyev-on-quantum-annealing
​"Davide Venturelli and Alexei Kondratyev discuss the results of their ground-breaking research on quantum computing. Venturelli is quantum computing science lead at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and a research scientist at NASA. Kondratyev is managing director and head of data analytics, electronic market solutions at Standard Chartered Bank in London."

A Genetic Algorithm approach is the typical approach, or 'brute force' using classical servers in parallel to pick a portfolio.  

One of the outcomes was to pause and reflect on better ways to optimize a portfolio that could run on a quantum computer.

Barclays Bank & IBM Q
Identifying optimization or natural simulation problems for quantum algorithms. Experiment phases.

Discussion of 2 potential types:  Optimization (e.g., large-batch, trade clearing and settlement optimization) or Natural 'organic' quantum simulation (e.g., model portfolio volatility)

Barclays published a three-step experimental process: 1) convert optimization problems into  underlying algorithm / math, 2) search for existing algorithms, and 3) construct simplified version of each problem to run on available hardware (e.g., IBM's 16 Qubit system).

Barclays published an academic paper in October 2019 discussing their progress at Trade Clearing and Settlement.  Paper is titled: Quantum Algorithms for Mixed Binary Optimization applied to Transaction Settlement, lead author Lee Braine.
Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1910.05788v1.pdf

Efforts led by Dr. Lee Braine, of the investment bank CTO office, and a bank working group. 
"We are keen to explore quantum computing by running experiments on actual quantum processors, rather than just using quantum simulators running on a classical processor," said Lee Braine of the Investment Bank CTO Office.
GitHub shows experiments predicting basketball stadium attendance or sport score predictions.

Source for quote:  https://searchcio.techtarget.com/feature/Barclays-Bank-takes-a-crack-at-IBMs-quantum-computer
Source for 'toy solutions' comment:  https://www.ft.com/content/154a1cf4-ad07-11e8-94bd-cba20d67390c

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According to the American Banker article, the challenge is that typical investment banking problems may require millions of qubits to create a practical capability, but the existing IBM Q platform they use only has 16 (as of 2018 article).  These are considered 'toy solutions' that will help Barclays Bank learn.

More context on trade settlement (Wired Magazine article above):  "Ideally, says Braine, the transaction – the sale of a security like a share certificate and the cash payment – need to happen at exactly the same time. In quantum terms, this can be represented as a problem where “each transaction in a batch can be considered to be either settled or not settled – and the goal is to find the combination that results in the highest total number of transactions settled,” he says."

JPMC and IBM: price options better using quantum monte carlo
(proof of concept, early stage experiment on 3 qubits)
(too small to be commercially useful)

Source:  https://www.wired.com/story/why-big-banks-could-soon-jump-on-the-quantum-bandwagon-financial-modeling/

Simulate financial derivative pricing speedups; quantum monte carlo
Xanadu (photonics), BMO & Scotiabank - proof of concept

"As part of the proof-of-concept project with BMO and Scotiabank, Xanadu built a software suite to simulate quantum Monte Carlo on a variety of trading products. This allows for benchmarking of the quantum speedup using conventional high-performance computers. "
"... the BMO, Scotiabank and Xanadu project predicted speedups of hundreds to thousands of times faster — a glimpse into the new era of high technology derivatives trading."
Source:  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bmo-financial-group-and-scotiabank-partner-with-xanadu-on-quantum-computing-speedups-for-trading-products-300904106.html
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Goldman Sachs has a team dedicated to quantum computing research.

Goldman Sachs posted a VP/Executive Director role titled: "Lead Quantum Researcher - Research & Development Engineering"
Job ID 2019-55713 -- in New York.  Responsibilities include:
​"HOW YOU WILL FULFILL YOUR POTENTIAL
  • Leader of new quantum computing research team in R&D Engineering
  • Identify and develop applications of quantum computing in the bank 
  • Work with business teams across the firm, and with commercial and academic partners in this effort
  • Talk to clients of the firm about their quantum computing questions"​
Source:  Goldman Sachs careers website.

Additional Early Efforts in Automotive

Daimler Logo
Daimler CIO Jan Brecht "quantum computers hold the prospect of being particularly useful at problems in which Daimler is interested, such as simulating chemical structures and reactions inside batteries", and the automaker also hopes quantum computers could optimize routes for delivery vehicles, or the movement of parts through factories. "

BMW Group: PVC Application Robotic Process (2019 up to 5 seams)

Scheduling robots to optimal sequencing (faster and collision free).  Digital Annealing found the optimal solution (with 5 seams) as compared to classical methods (high requirements and high complexity). 
If BMW and D-Wave can scale the system and schedule more steps, this will drive efficiency.

Today: "QA Hardware is still in a development phase and requires further development for bringing concrete business value."

Bosch Research discusses Quantum Technologies

Engineering Tomorrow:
"Quantum technologies unlock a world of engineering possibilities. These transformational technologies are poised to contend with the world’s most pressing trends such as urbanization, climate change and demography."

"Quantum sensors will significantly improve future sensors and will be key to maintaining Bosch’s world-market leadership in miniaturized sensor products."

"Quantum computers and algorithms will enable Bosch to create completely new products and services and open up totally new possibilities in engineering."

"Quantum cryptography, and in particular quantum random number generators, will transform security in the Internet of Things."
Sounds like a great quantum algorithm development job in Dearborn, Michigan!  Working with the D-Wave Systems D2000Q system owned by NASA on fleet routing and UAV problems.
Ford LogoFord will work with NASA to share use of its D-Wave Systems 2000Q quantum annealing computer. Joydip Ghosh, Ford’s technical specialist for quantum computing research, told Spectrum that the company would initially be working on a generalization of the classic traveling salesman problem—how to plot the most efficient route around a territory consisting of multiple cities. “Route management for fleet vehicles is a problem that we face in a real-world scenario,” he says, referring to Ford’s Chariot microtransit service. This includes UAV fleet deployment models. Specifically, Ford will convert 2 or 3 optimization cases into QUBO, NASA will run them, provide feedback, and train a Ford researcher, and provide regular access to the D-Wave 2000Q system owned by NASA. This was restated by Dr. Ken Washington, Ford VP, who said “Our scenario entails finding the optimal route for a single delivery vehicle making stops at multiple locations carrying out a specific task, then applying that to all vehicles in the fleet,” This will allow commercial fleet owners to more efficiently manage fuel usage.

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Bosch exploring Q.C. use cases

QuSoft has assigned one postdoc for 2 years to help Thomas Strohm at Bosch Corporate Research to look at potential quantum computing use cases.  Thomas says: “Quantum computing will be very important for us at Bosch. Due to our broad technology portfolio, we see many potential use cases, ranging from optimization via machine learning to logistics. Optimization is particularly relevant in engineering, where we seek designs leading to products that are both more cost-efficient and reliable, as well as in production and scheduling.  Powerful quantum computers are still a few years away, but we feel it is essential to start investigating use cases now so we are ready when suitable hardware exists.”
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Robert Bosch Venture Capital on April 17, 2019, subsequently announced investing in Zapata Computing (a quantum computing consultancy and software tool maker).

In a now expired job posting for a Research Engineer, BOSCH's first job description point reads: 
"Create something new: You develop new hybrid models for fluid- and thermodynamic challenges using mathematical modeling in combination with artificial intelligence. You implement them on high performance computing architectures ranging from conventional HPC-Clusters including GPUs to quantum computers."

GE Research, with D-Wave Systems, schedules a repair shop

According to a LinkedIn post, we learned that GE Research - Forge is: "Exploring use of Quantum Computing to solving large asset sustainment/logistics problems. Among the work the team has done is the creation of an interactive demonstration allowing the audience to create relevant repair shop floor scenarios, formulated the mathematical problem for the adiabatic quantum computer, apply it in real-time to the computer to get a set of solutions and visualize the results. This allows the audience to see and run a realistic problem on a real quantum computer in an uncanned way. This has been shown to various business, academia and government audiences. (DARPA, AFRL, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, IARPA)"

This is a clever example of a combinatorial optimization problem that quickly scales beyond exact solutions with real-world applications.  This was done as an experiment to visualize the way a quantum application would work.  A quantum annealing solution provides a job shop schedule which can be compared to current models.  If better, it could be used to drive throughput (or reduce wait time) for orders through repair shops.  Once we do this, we could choose to optimize for revenue, orders completed, or asset utilization.
A large problem at enterprise commercial scale that massively outstrips today's D-Wave Systems technology (Chimera).  Pegasus has > 2x the qubits and more connectivity, but still likely not sufficient.  Chain strength or embedding challenges are a result of squeezing and fitting a problem into a physical qubit and connector topography.

Ericsson, with the Department of Microtechnolgy and Nanoscience at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden).
Ericsson is funding a PhD position to work at Ericsson and focus on Radio Access Network (RAN)

Ericsson is funding a PhD position to work at Ericsson and focus on "“Distributed quantum computing with focus on quantum algorithms and software” because they will use the quantum hardware at Chalmers.

According to the job description posted May 15, 2019: at Ericsson we have identified two use cases: i) Signal processing at the data-user plane radio access network (RAN) and ii) machine learning for fault/traffic prediction at the RAN control and management plane.

In my simplified language, the PhD candidate will write and run the use cases, establish remote networking between distributed quantum systems (teleportation) resulting from the simultaneous execution of the 3-qubit Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) algorithm, and make a recommendation for a quantum software ecosystem to use as the Chalmers quantum computer further develops.
Industrial PhD in Distributed Quantum Computing, click here to apply:  

British Telecom (BT) and the Quantum Communications Hub, supported by UK's National Quantum Technologies Programme, along with ID Quantique and ADVA Optical, build an ultra-secure network link with QKD capabilities.  "Essentially Unhackable" 

​Live March 26, 2019, reflecting 26 years of BT innovation and effort.

The link will carry both quantum and non-quantum traffic; the QKD technique shares data encryption keys via an ultra-secure quantum channel over the same fibre that carries the encrypted data itself.  "Over 125km of standard BT optical fibre between Cambridge and Adastral Park, with BT Exchanges along the way."  This is part of the UK Quantum Network (UKQN).  For more details, click the 3rd button below (BT 2018 research presentation).

​Tim Spiller, Director, Quantum Communications Hub, said: "This new network represents a major step forward for the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, providing a direct link between research and industry, and an opportunity to develop new applications and services."
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This is not new, in 1993 BT sent a coded message through an optical fibre 10km long...quantum cryptography.
BT Office Building with tower
Adastral Park in Martlesham, Ipswich. BT Research, Technology and IT Operations. Image: VisMedia (thank you)
Another lightly mentioned example from British Telecom (UK) is cell phone network and other NP-Hard optimizations.  However, we need to see the performance continue onto larger processors.
https://www.dwavesys.com/sites/default/files/8.5_Qubits_Tues_PM_BT_Telecommunications%20.pdf


BT works with Toshiba, which is demonstrating years of world-leading QKD technology.  Source Tim Whitley, BT:  https://www.quantumcommshub.net/wp-content/src/Tim-WHITLEY_Quantum-Hub-Launch.pdf
and IEEE:  https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/security/quantum-mechanicsbased-technology-promises-practical-quantum-cryptographic-communications-with-unbreakable-keys
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Navigation without GPS (or augmenting it), thanks to Lockheed Martin

Magnetometer about the size of a suitcase. Metal and shiny with wires.
Source: LMT (thank you) Magnetometer, 31 centimeters now, aiming for a hockey puck size.
According to the Lockheed Martin website:  "Current GPS users get navigational assistance from a GPS receiver that triangulates their location through a series of radio frequency signals beamed from the GPS satellite constellation. Our Dark Ice technology in development uses magnetic sensing as an alternative means of determining your location without the use of satellite signals.​"

​In essence, this reads the electromagnetic vector space of the earth, and compares it to the U.S. NOAA earth maps (you know, the U.S. NOAA team that gives us great weather information).
Source:  https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2019-features/tech-thats-cool-as-dark-ice.html
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According to an article in GPS World (https://www.gpsworld.com/quantum-magnetometer-senses-its-place/)
Mike Demario, LMT, indicates that this can be used to communicate (via the earth's magnetic field), can track moving vehicles (like ships and cars), and is unjammable and passive.  Lockheed calls it: DARK ICE (TM).
Stylized image of the earth
Thank you again LMT.

China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CISC) & University of Science and Technology of China
Submarine Navigation, Quantum Communication and Detection
(joint support for military and civilian industrial development)

National Defense Science and Technology Industry Bureau website, Nov 28, 2017
All quotes from the article (translated by Google Translate August 19, 2019)

China Shipbuilding Heavy Industry – China Branch Large Joint Laboratory set up by CSIC and the University of Science and Technology of China in Wuhan. 

Focus on "sub-navigation, quantum communication and quantum detection" for "marine equipment to enhance combat capability and equipment development, support scientific research, promote the application of results engineering and industrialization." 

"The joint laboratory will give full play to the complementary advantages of the military industry group and colleges and universities, face the national key strategic needs, adhere to the military-civilian integration, basic research and applied research, closely follow the autonomy and high precision of quantum inertial navigation, unconditional security of quantum communication."


Not sure if CSIC or academia

Miniature atomic magnetometers @ room temperature can enable small drones to gather information on movements (far away), or can examine medical / brain activity (close up).

Miniature atomic magnetometers can detect extremely weak magnetic fields (e.g., 20 femtotesla, or 1/5 the strength of the magnetic field generated by the human brain).  The sensor, an atomic magnetometer developed by Professor Gu Sihong and his colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, can fit into a capsule the size of a bean and operate at room temperature, according to research published in the journal Physical Review Applied.

​Xu Xinye, professor of physics at the State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy Atomic‚ Molecular and Optical Physics in Shanghai, said the chip-sized magnetic sensor’s potential applications were attracting a lot of attention from researchers and government. “But it will still take a long time for the technology to get out of the laboratory,” he said.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3027502/could-tiny-chinese-magnetic-sensor-be-huge-task-tracking
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UK National Savings & Investments Bank picks 3 million prize winners out of 79 billion choices in 0.2 hours vs. 9 hours w/ QRNG upgrade (ERNIE v5) 
March 2019

"The UK’s National Savings & Investments (NS&I) bank, which provides savers with cash returns via the popular “premium bonds” monthly prize scheme, is now using quantum photonics to select winners."  March 2019
"NS&I says that the new technology took only 12 minutes to produce enough random numbers for its March monthly prize draw - compared with nine hours with the previous incarnation of ERNIE."
​Every month NS&I has to select more than 3 million prize winners from some 79 billion individual bonds, held by around 21 million savers. "

There are more gaming use cases using quantum random number generation by ID Quantique (whom we represent)

 BASF: Supercomputing and quantum computing research into areas of molecular quantum chemistry is the study and prediction of chemical reactivity

BASF Joint Ventures took an equity stake in Zapata Corporation (quantum software developer), and one press release discussed BASF having quantum ambitions for chemical development.  BASF uses a classical supercomputer they purchased, called Quriosity, to do computational work, along with quantum chemistry calculations, and chemical experiments.  There is a Quantum Chemistry & Molecular Modeling group at BASF that works with CARLA, Catalysis Research Laboratory, in the University of Heidelberg.

"Computational resources are provided by BASF, where the new supercomputer “QURIOSITY”, benchmarked at 1.75 Petaflops provides opportunities for large-scale ligand searches or MD simulations, besides the regular quantum chemical calculations."

BASF Corporation had posted a Scientist III - Quantum Chemistry Materials Modeling job in Tarrytown, NY which expired in November 2018.  This requires a knowledge of quantum chemistry, not quantum computing used to support chemistry.

BASF was able to calculate molecular energies and to study and predict chemical reactivity of some simple, well known molecules, on a quantum simulator (20 qubits).  BASF and their researchers published their results on August 12, 2019, here:  https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jctc.9b00236.  

At the beginning of the abstract, the goal statement: "One of the most important application areas of molecular quantum chemistry is the study and prediction of chemical reactivity. Large-scale, fully error-tolerant quantum computers could provide exact or near-exact solutions to the underlying electronic structure problem with exponentially less effort than a classical computer thus enabling highly accurate predictions for comparably large molecular systems. " 

At the end of the abstract: "Finally, we roughly estimate the required quantum hardware resources to obtain “useful” results for practical purposes."  The extrapolated answer is 300 to 400 qubits (gate based). NH3 is tough, needs max 500 qubits for required energy accuracy.

BASF and their researchers published their results on August 12, 2019, here.  Our qubit data came from the supporting information, which is freely available at this link:  https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jctc.9b00236.  


Willis Towers Watson (WLTW) and Microsoft Azure
​One more...quantum inspired algorithms, running on Microsoft QDK and Azure Cloud, can accelerate client performance.

This is what we think too!

Paraphrased from the Microsoft website:
Willis Towers Watson joined Microsoft Quantum Network to explore ways that quantum-inspired algorithms might assist the firm with risk management, financial services, and investing.  Quantum-inspired algorithms harness the power of quantum physics to solve hard computational problems in new ways. Using these techniques, Microsoft is already able to gain orders of magnitude of performance acceleration in Azure.  Once quantum computers become available at scale, even greater acceleration is possible.

Quoted from the Microsoft website:
“Current modeling techniques to quantify risk require a huge amount of computing power, using thousands of computers over many hours,” says Willis Towers Watson CEO John Haley. “Quantum computing offers us the chance to look at our clients’ problems in a different way. By focusing on how we would model the problems on quantum computers when they become available at scale, we are able to work with Microsoft to redefine the problems and speed up our solutions on existing hardware.”
https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2019/05/22/microsoft-quantum-collaborates-with-willis-towers-watson-to-transform-risk-management-solutions/

We seek more 'real and public' examples of clients use of quantum computing to solve real business problems.  

​We will share when have more verifiable stories.

Jeffrey Cohen, July 16, 2019

Situations not yet considered quantum use-cases:

1.  Citibank posted a quantum algorithm developer job to work at translating front office algorithms into the IBM Q Platform in January 2019.

2.  JP Morgan Chase has established a partnership with IBM around quantum, and "has tasked senior engineer Constantin Gonciulea with building a “quantum culture.” Gonciulea is the unofficial leader of the company’s foray into discovering how quantum computing can change the financial industry. Every two weeks he gathers a select group of 25 computer scientists to pour through the latest research and breakthroughs in quantum computing."  Possible use cases include investment portfolio combinations optimized for risk appetite, with real-time risk adjustments.  Another is automated fraudulent payment detection.

Dr. Gonciulea has spoken at Scale by the Bay 2018, (great discussion, very helpful, link below), and is actively publishing on LinkedIn abut the math and computational side of quantum computing.  There has been no public disclosure of use cases by the bank.

3.  EDF Youtube video of a lecture given by Stephane Tanguy, CIO; CTO at EDF Labs.  Explore the EDF quantum journey.  Building a team and checking things out.  Looking at QAOA.  Creating research and training, motivation for new employees, and attract academic attention.  "Be able to think quantum and code quantum."   That is just an experiment, everyone knows it is not production ready - my paraphrase (13 minutes into the 16 minute video)
  
4.  EU Research on brain and heart imaging using quantum sensors.  Dr. Jacques Haesler from the Swiss Centre of Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), project coordinator for macQsimal.  Replace Magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanners with a helmet (with hundreds of small sensors).  Smaller equipment means better imaging and detection.  From the brain...to the heart.  They 'hope' that this can be commercialized in 5 years. 

5.  This same EU CORDIS effort is looking at hyperpolarisation at room temperature to make MRI scanners a factor of 10,000 more sensitive, says Dr. Christoph Nebel from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics in Germany (MetaboliQS project coordinator).  "And if successful, MRI imaging could be one of the first health areas to benefit from quantum techniques as early as 2020. ‘Hyperpolarisation is definitely something which may be the first real (medical) application of quantum technology,’ said Dr Nebel."
​
https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/how-quantum-technology-could-revolutionise-detection-and-treatment-diseases.html.  Replace  
6. (Goes with #6), Case Western Reserve University is working with Microsoft on 'quantum inspired' algorithms to either speed up or improve accuracy of the MRI.  "They’ve enabled the Case Western Reserve team to produce scans that are up to three times faster than prior state-of-the-art approaches, as well as scans that are almost 30 percent more precise in measuring a key identifier of disease."  If more accurate, we get better, earlier diagnostics.  If faster, then patient comfort increases.
https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/quantum-computing-mri-cancer-treatment/?ocid=FY20_soc_omc_br_tw_cwruquantum
​
7) ABN AMRO and QuSoft and possibly others looking for quantum use cases, code named DisQover.  Just looking at identifying future applications for quantum computing for the bank...we met with their project manager, heard them speak at a conference, and read this press release.  http://www.qusoft.org/abn-amro-and-qusoft-partnership-to-explore-the-power-of-quantum-software/
Quantum optical lattice atomic clocks.  Perfect Timing :-)
European Union:  Another new mention, but maybe not a 'corporate use case' is the quantum optical clock.  It would be accurate to within one second over the age of the universe.  The European Union founded the Quantum Flagship iqClock consortium to be a nucleus for an European optical clock ecosystem.    https://www.iqclock.eu/
​https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1464-4266/5/2/373/meta

USA NIST:  also making advances in atomic clocks...placing them on a chip at 275 milliwatts.  "The chip-based heart of the new clock requires very little power (just 275 milliwatts) and, with additional technology advances, could potentially be made small enough to be handheld." 
NIST Team Demonstrates Heart Of Next-Generation Chip-Scale Atomic Clock.  May 17, 2019.    http://bit.ly/2WiANSy


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