Keynote Speaker

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On Bits, Qubits, Cryostats and Commits: An HPC Center’s View on Bringing Quantum into the Supercomputing World

Laura Schulz

Leibniz Supercomputing Centre — Head of Quantum Computing and Technologies

KEY05 — Wednesday, September 20, 2023 @ 8:00-09:30 Mountain Time (MT) — UTC-7

 

Biography

Laura Schulz is head of Quantum Computing and Technologies and leads strategic development and partnership initiatives in supercomputing at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) near Munich, Germany. Before joining LRZ, she was part of the Computation directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as well as LLNL’s High Performance Computing Innovation Center (HPCIC), which connects industry with the lab’s novel technologies in HPC. Laura was the lead author of LRZ’s Strategic Plan for Quantum Computing, the PI for Germany’s EuroHPC Joint Undertaking project Euro-Q-Exa, and co-founder of the monthly Bavarian Quantum Computing eXchange (BQCX). She leads multiple efforts toward integrating emerging quantum accelerators into several layers of the HPC ecosystem: from placement and residency in HPC centers, through hardware and software hybridization to user-centric adoption of HPCQC workflows and applications. Recently, Laura was named an HPCWire 2023 Person to Watch.

Abstract

The unique nature of quantum-based computation opens the possibility for new discovery in important classes of applications. Now on a path towards maturation and scaling, the integration of quantum acceleration into high-performance computing (HPC) comes into focus and reinforces the overall trend towards next-generation heterogeneous supercomputing to tackle highly complex, composite scientific and engineering challenges. In order to achieve quantum-accelerated HPC, integration at all layers must happen, from brick-and-mortar infrastructure through access models to multidisciplinary mindsets. Getting down to the nuts and bolts, the copper wires and Infiniband cables, and the compilers and commits, what do we need to do, and what are we doing, to make this a reality? What hard-won best practices and lessons can we bring from HPC? What must we build a new? How does quantum’s roadmap need to merge towards HPC, and HPC towards quantum?

In this talk, I discuss our efforts at the Quantum Integration Centre (QIC) of Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) as part of the Munich Quantum Valley (MQV) to address these questions and to highlight our progress in recent years.