QCIS-FF: Quantum Computer Systems Faculty Fellowship

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Quantum computing is at the cusp of a revolution. A quantum computing industry is emerging and hardware prototypes have been deployed for public use. Yet a significant gap remains between the quantum applications that have been developed in theory and the size and reliability of the hardware that will be available in the near future. The key to closing this gap is to develop a science and workforce around quantum computing software and systems. With more efficient quantum software and careful system design, quantum applications can run on much smaller machines with many fewer instructions, by a factor of 100 or even 1000. This greater efficiency will allow practical quantum computing to be realized 10 to 20 years earlier than with technology progress alone. This award seeks to catalyze the creation of this workforce by funding a faculty position at the interface of Quantum Information Science and Computer Science at the University of Chicago. The Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago will use NSF QCIS Faculty Fellowship to recruit a new faculty member in this area of Quantum Computing Software and Systems, with expertise in one or more of the following: quantum algorithms, programming languages, compilation, verification, and circuit optimization. The QCIS Faculty Fellow will catalyze efforts to create useful software abstractions that will enable use of near-term hardware advances in quantum computing. Such addition plays an important role in growing the School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago in computational aspects of quantum technologies. The Faculty Fellow will expand course offerings in Quantum Information Science at the University of Chicago and train students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.