Quantum computing based software and the customer needs

What do customer need?

• Quantum Computing (QC) has been a theoretical promise since the beginning of 1990`s. A lot of research effort has been invested, especially in two areas. First, on the mathematics, logics and algorithms area. Second, quantum physicist and materials experts have been working on how to implement such a machine.
• Now, there are a few quantum computers available online through different providers. Although present machines still have low computing power, the industry is very optimistic about increasing it in a sustained rate during the following years. So, the promise of real software applications solving daily problems are close to come. That is why the field now is attractive for software companies and startups.
• There is a lot of public activities, either academic, commercial and governmental, concerning QC, and the field is gaining much interest and investments.
• Quantum Supremacy is defined as the moment when a universal quantum computer performs a computational task that is beyond the capability of any classical computer. Very recently quantum supremacy was achieved by Google with a real computer and a real application. The experience involved a processor with programmable superconducting qubits to create quantum states on 53 qubits, corresponding to a computational state-space of dimension 2⁵³ (about 10¹⁶). Authors performed a task with their quantum processor in 200 seconds, which they estimate that the equivalent task for a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer would take approximately 10,000 years. However, IBM has raised a doubt on the merit of the achievement, arguing that an ideal simulation of the same task can be performed on a classical system in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity.
• QC is applicable to many complex problems such as:
  • Machine Learning
  • Computational Chemistry (leading to new materials)
  • Financial Portfolio Optimization
  • Logistics and Scheduling
  • Drug Design
  • Cyber Security
  • Code Breaking

• The competitive landscape in the logistics business requires companies to innovate and implement new solutions to be more efficient, increase revenues and reduce costs. The optimization of how to load a cargo ship or airplane has leveraged new software solutions with algorithms from research operations problems of NP completeness nature. These problems are complex and are typically addressed with dynamic programming and artificial intelligence/machine learning techniques providing a good solution with current computational resources. The emergence of the quantum computing technology brings an opportunity to address these problems and get improved solutions that will benefit the companies in two ways: 
  • current solutions imply simplifications in order to be computed, and thus are not optimal. 
  • current solutions imply long time consuming computations, which may be incompatible with some logistic operations.

On the other hand, QC can explore the whole space of possible states and get the solution in few steps, improving time and efficiency.

• Quantum-South is a pioneer player in this field.
• Some algorithms used in the cargo optimization could be applied with some variants in the financial services space. This encourages Quantum-South to explore this market as well and with new algorithms for other financial services problems.
• We are developing core algorithms which need to be tested in scale as real quantum computers become available and assess the speed of processing and extent of further optimization compared to current solutions.
• The quantum computing technology is entering a hype phase but there are many companies in the logistics and financial services business showing strong interest in the field. In fact Quantum-South emerged by addressing an air cargo optimization problem for a leading aerospace manufacturer.
• The quantum computing emergence is a new opportunity for companies and in general they are not aware what challenges and opportunities the technology could bring. Quantum-South aims to provide consultancy services for companies to prepare themselves for the quantum computing era.

Our Offer

• Cargo optimization: a software product integrated to legacy systems that based on cargo to be dispatched in an aircraft or ship with limited capacity, will provide as outcome the best allocation based on cost and revenue restrictions. The core optimization algorithms are based on quantum computing technologies.
• Financial services: a software product leveraging quantum computing technologies for problems like portfolio asset allocation optimization, optimal trading, best arbitrage opportunity, credit scoring feature selection, credit scoring deep neural, financial crash prediction, pricing of financial derivatives, quantum risk analysis and fraud detection.