QuantAlgo

Summary of the project: During the 20th century, the development of information technologies had a huge impact not only on science but also on society as a whole. This unprecedented revolution revealed a need to improve the speed and efficiency of data processing, as well as to strive for better security and privacy. One ultimate limitation of current information processing models is that they assume a simplified representation of physics, relying on classical mechanics. Quantum information technologies promise to break this barrier by achieving the highest security and efficiency allowed by the laws of physics, hence leading to a new revolution in information technologies, in the form of a large-scale network of classical and quantum computing devices able to communicate and process massive amounts of data both efficiently and securely using quantum resources. Despite steady experimental progress, we are still far from this long-term vision, not only due to technological limitations but also to the still-narrow range of applications of current quantum algorithms. The vision of this project is to combine research on the fundamentals of quantum algorithms with the development of new applications targeted at areas of extreme practical importance and timeliness such as big data and machine learning. The project will complement ongoing experimental efforts in quantum technologies by providing new software tools in order to help lead to a revolution in information technologies, harnessing the power of quantum resources to go well beyond today’s capabilities, while maintaining a secure digital society. Relevance to the topic addressed in the call: The QuantAlgo project directly addresses several target outcomes explicitly mentioned in the call. First, in the field of quantum computation, the main general objective of the project is the development of novel quantum algorithms (WP1) and the demonstration of quantum speed-ups for various applications, including big data (WP2) and machine learning (WP3). Second, in the field of quantum communication, the project will study the efficiency, robustness and security in quantum communication, as well as novel protocols for multipartite quantum communication (WP4). Finally, at the edge between quantum communication and quantum computation, the project will also study interfaces between quantum computers and communication systems (WP1-4).