Build on Quantum simulators today to help realise the UK's strategy for Quantum computing
It’s the demand pull we need from customers to complement the Government’s early investment and accelerate the commercialisation of Quantum Computing across the UK in line with the National Quantum Strategy. It’s up to us, the companies with teams of talented engineers and research institutions across the country, to develop applications which demonstrate real Quantum Advantage. Better put, it’s showing real business value so end-users can have confidence that it’s worthwhile make their own investments in the technology, now.
Quantum advantage, today
The most significant, production ready, advantage we've seen so far is within Financial Services. The ‘Quantum Kernel Method’ proves excellent at completing classification tasks; in the case of fraud prevention, it’s even outperformed the current best-in-class classical machine learning methods. The small improvement in AUC (Area Under Curve – an important metric used to assess classification task performance) resulted in a 15-17% reduction in total losses for one financial institution.
Getting us there – Quantum Simulators
What we know now is the development of powerful-enough Quantum Computers with a low-enough shot cost isn’t a precondition for us be successful: we can use specially designed Quantum Simulators, powered by top-of-the-line GPUs as part of our overall development strategy. This has helped our engineers to build and experiment quickly and enables the demonstration of real business value for customers in a production environment. These Quantum Simulators work by simulating the quantum operations of a real Quantum Computer, enabling engineers to do the same mathematical operations they would want to do on the real thing.
For us, this has helped our team bridge both the capability and cost gap in the short term, while Quantum Computing companies around the world work tirelessly to build and scale their systems. In the future their work will unlock larger and even more complex applications, significantly increasing the number of opportunities for end-users to realise Quantum Advantage across their businesses.
Building the right system for the job
The High Performance Compute (HPC) specialists from our System Integration partner Boston Limited worked closely with us to build an optimised Quantum Simulator hardware stack using top of the line NVIDIA GPUs. They jumped at the opportunity to engage with SECQAI’s Software Engineers to ensure the simulation software stack was also optimised for the system to supercharge our work on developing Quantum algorithms and Quantum Machine Learning applications.
The business case
For us it’s been simple: enabling our development teams to work fast, cheaply. Using Boston’s kit, they’ve been able to iteratively build, test and train at a pace comparable to classical algorithm development on a traditional HPC stack, while doing so at a fraction of the cost of everyday usage of a Quantum Computer. It’s proven to be the perfect bridge between our day-to-day development work and deployment on the different Quantum Compute architectures we’re building for.
For all of us at the moment, the cost of accessing Quantum Computing resource is significant. We’ve seen a 10x reduction in cost for running the same compute tasks on a Quantum Simulator compared with a commercial Quantum Computer. We can fine tune this with the noise we expect to see on each of the Quantum platforms we’ll be deploying on, helping us operate under conditions that are as realistic as possible.
What's next?
We should all take advantage of the technology that’s at our fingertips in the HPC world to bridge the compute gap. This is while Quantum Computing leaders continue to build the critical hardware for scaling Quantum in the near future, all at a price point that works for our businesses. In the meantime, we can build more, faster, and have a greater impact for end-users. We believe that doing so, today, will convince customers that now is the right time to invest in their Quantum programmes. Such a demand pull in our market economy will help supercharge the critical investments already made by the UK Government across the Quantum industry. Not only will we accelerate the industry’s growth but deliver significant business value across the economy where these new tools are deployed.
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techUK – Unleashing UK Tech and Innovation
The UK is home to emerging technologies that have the power to revolutionise entire industries. From quantum to semiconductors; from gaming to the New Space Economy, they all have the unique opportunity to help prepare for what comes next.
techUK members lead the development of these technologies. Together we are working with Government and other stakeholders to address tech innovation priorities and build an innovation ecosystem that will benefit people, society, economy and the planet - and unleash the UK as a global leader in tech and innovation.
For more information, or to get in touch, please visit our Innovation Hub and click ‘contact us’.
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Learn more about our Unleashing Innovation campaign:
Sprint Campaigns
techUK's sprint campaigns explore how emerging and transformative technologies are developed, applied and commercialised across the UK's innovation ecosystem.
Activity includes workshops, roundtables, panel discussions, networking sessions, Summits, and flagship reports (setting out recommendations for Government and industry).
Each campaign runs for 4-6 months and features regular collaborations with programmes across techUK.
This campaign explored how the UK can lead on the development, application and commercialisation of space technologies and ultimately realise the benefits of the New Space Economy.
These technologies include AI, quantum, lasers, robotics & automation, advanced propulsion and materials, and semiconductors.
Activity has taken the form of roundtables, panel discussions, networking sessions, Summits, thought leadership pieces, policy recommendations, and a report.
Get in touch below to find out more about techUK's ongoing work in this area.
Event round-ups
Report
Insights
Get in touch
Rory Daniels
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorydaniels28/
This campaign has explored how the UK can lead on the development, application and commercialisation of the technologies set to underpin the Gaming & Esports sector of the future.
These include AI, augmented / virtual / mixed / extended reality, haptics, cloud & edge computing, semiconductors, and advanced connectivity (5/6G).
Activity has taken the form of roundtables, panel discussions, networking sessions, Summits, and thought leadership pieces. A report featuring member case studies and policy recommendations is currently being produced (to be launched in September 2024).
Get in touch below to find out more about contributing to or collaborating on this campaign.
Report
Event round-ups
Insights
Get in touch
Rory Daniels
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorydaniels28/
Running from July to December 2024, this campaign will explore how the UK can lead on the development, application and commercialisation of web3 and immersive technologies.
These include blockchain, smart contracts, digital assets, augmented / virtual / mixed / extended reality, spatial computing, haptics and holograms.
Activity will take the form of roundtables, workshops, panel discussions, networking sessions, tech demos, Summits, thought leadership pieces, policy recommendations, and reports.
Get in touch below to find out more about contributing to or collaborating on this campaign.
Event round-ups
Guest insights
Get in touch
Rory Daniels
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorydaniels28/
Campaign Weeks
Our annual Campaign Weeks enable techUK members to explore how the UK can lead on the development and application of emerging and transformative technologies.
Members do this by contributing blogs or vlogs, speaking at events, and highlighting examples of best practice within the UK's tech sector.
Summits
Tech and Innovation Summit 2023
Tech and Innovation Summit 2024
Laura Foster
Laura Foster
Laura is techUK’s Associate Director for Technology and Innovation.
She supports the application and expansion of emerging technologies, including Quantum Computing, High-Performance Computing, AR/VR/XR and Edge technologies, across the UK. As part of this, she works alongside techUK members and UK Government to champion long-term and sustainable innovation policy that will ensure the UK is a pioneer in science and technology
Before joining techUK, Laura worked internationally as a conference researcher and producer covering enterprise adoption of emerging technologies. This included being part of the strategic team at London Tech Week.
Laura has a degree in History (BA Hons) from Durham University, focussing on regional social history. Outside of work she loves reading, travelling and supporting rugby team St. Helens, where she is from.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- www.linkedin.com/in/lauraalicefoster
Rory Daniels
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorydaniels28/
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