Quantum computing hardware has matured significantly over the years, with several noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers already being available for public use in the cloud. Larger-scale hardware with capabilities such as quantum error correction and fault tolerant implementations of universal set of gates are currently being developed to support general purpose fault tolerant quantum computation. Quantum algorithms requiring general purpose FTQC, in the vein of the classic algorithms such as Shor’s algorithm for factorization, and Grover’s algorithm for search algorithm, continue to be developed. Additionally, in keeping with the trend of machine learning and AI in classical computing, quantum machine learning has emerged as a key application of quantum computers already in the NISQ era. Use cases range from quantum chemistry and drug design to financial portfolio optimization and fraud detection, to potentially more in the upcoming fault tolerance era. Quantum computing also poses a significant threat to public key cryptography such as RSA and elliptic curve cryptography, warranting the development of post quantum cryptography.

It is likely that quantum computers for the foreseeable future will be housed in remote servers. While cloud access for current quantum computers is limited to classical instructions and responses since they are hosted over the classical internet that is only capable of transporting classical information bits, quantum networks capable of faithfully transferring quantum information in the form of qubits are being developed. The latter would enable distributed quantum information processing in general, including the exchange of quantum instructions or inputs and responses between cloud quantum servers hosting powerful quantum computers or trained QML models, and small-scale client quantum computers. 

Delegated and distributed quantum computation over both the present day classical networks and future quantum networks bring with it issues related to trust, privacy and security. Some examples include, from the client perspective, protection of intellectual property (IP) of quantum algorithms and quantum data; and from the server perspective, defense against as denial-of-service attacks, defense against tomographic attacks to steal information regarding hardware architectures, and QML model security. Examples of remedies include, on the software side, blind quantum computation, entanglement distillation in quantum networks, quantum network coding, and on the hardware side, forbidding access to pulse-level instruction inputs. It is imperative to develop such countermeasures against these issues right away while quantum computing is still in its early days, which informs the goal of this workshop. 

Call for Papers

We invite submissions of previously unpublished works broadly in the areas of quantum computing, quantum machine learning, quantum networks, cybersecurity, and their interplay. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Quantum computation

  • Blind quantum computation

  • Distributed quantum computing architectures

  • Quantum algorithms

  • Quantum communication complexity

  • Error correction and mitigation algorithms

  • NISQ and fault-tolerant applications

• Quantum machine learning

  • QML algorithms

  • QML applications

  • Quantum optimization (e.g., QAOA)

  • QML model security

  • Quantum data security

  • Training ML models

• Quantum networking & Cybersecurity

  • Quantum repeaters, switches, routers

  • Quantum data center architectures

  • Secure quantum networking

  • Quantum network coding

  • Quantum Key Distribution

  • Post quantum cryptography

Submission Deadline and Guidelines

• Deadline: August 31, 2024 September 07, 2024 (Submissions closed.)

• Notification of decision: September 10, 2024 September 17, 2024

• Final version due: September 20, 2024 September 24, 2024

• Paper Submission: EasyChair (Track 2024 IEEE Workshop on Quantum IntelLigence, Learning & Security (QUILLS)))

List of Accepted Papers

1. Randomized Benchmarking of Local Zeroth-Order Optimizers for Variational Quantum Systems, Lucas Tecot and Cho-Jui Hsieh

2. Pragmatic Obfuscation of Factoring in Hamiltonian Simulation and Ground State Estimation, Dhruv Gopalakrishnan and Michele Mosca

3. Exploration of Attacks on the HHL Quantum Algorithm, Yizhuo Tan, Hrvoje Kukina and Jakub Szefer

4. Synergizing Error Suppression, Mitigation and Correction for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing, Yanzhang Zhu, Siyuan Niu, Di Wu

5. Simulation of Quantum Homomorphic Encryption: Demonstration and Analysis, Sohrab Ganjian, Connor Paddock and Anne Broadbent

6. Enhancing Quantum Security over Federated Learning via Post-Quantum Cryptography, Pingzhi Li, Tianlong Chen and Junyu Liu

7. Network Operations Scheduling for Distributed Quantum Computing, Nitish Chandra, Eneet Kaur and Kaushik Seshadreesan

8. Entangling Intelligence: AI-Quantum Crossovers and Perspectives, Zhuo Chen, Di Luo

9. Towards efficient and secure quantum-classical communication networks, Pei Zeng, Debayan Bandyopadhyay, Jose A. Mendez, Nolan Bitner, Alexander Kolar, Michael T. Solomon, F. Joseph Heremans, David D. Awschalom, Liang Jiang, and Junyu Liu

Venue

The Darcy, Washington, DC

1515 Rhode Island Ave NW，

Washington, DC, 20005, USA

Phone +1 8444899661

Room: Deacon

Schedule

7:15 AM - 8:20 AM

Breakfast (provided by conference)

8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Remarks and Conference Logistics (Main Room)

(Session Chair: James Joshi, U. Pittsburgh, USA)

8:50 AM – 9:50 AM

Keynote 4 (Main Room)

Michael L. Littman, NSF IIS Division Director & University Professor of Computer Science, Brown University

Title: The National Science Foundation's Role in the Future of AI

(Session Chair:  Paolo Boldi, U. Milan, Italy)

9:50 AM – 10:00 AM

Break

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Session 1: Quantum Computing & Algorithms (Venue: Deacon)

(Chair: Junyu Liu, U. Pittsburgh, USA)

Randomized Benchmarking of Local Zeroth-Order Optimizers for Variational Quantum Systems

Pragmatic Obfuscation of Factoring in Hamiltonian Simulation and Ground State Estimation

Exploration of Attacks on the HHL Quantum Algorithm

Synergizing Error Suppression, Mitigation & Correction for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

12:00 PM – 02:00 PM

Lunch Break (provided by conference) and

Panel Session (Main Room)

Student Mentoring Panel

02:00 PM – 03:00 PM

Session 2: Panel (Venue: Deacon)

Quantum Cybersecurity: Challenges & Opportunities 

(Moderator: Kaushik Seshadreesan, U. Pittsburgh, USA)

(Panelists: Michele Mosca, U. Waterloo, Canada; Junyu Liu, U. Pittsburgh, USA; Eneet Kaur, Cisco Quantum Lab, USA; Di Wu, U. Central Florida, USA; Donna Dodson, EvolutionQ)

03:00 PM – 03:15 PM

Break

03:15 PM – 05:15 PM

 Session 3:  Quantum Services with Efficiency and Privacy (Venue: Deacon)

(Chair: Lucas Tecot, U. California, Los Angeles)

Simulation of Quantum Homomorphic Encryption: Demonstration & Analysis

Enhancing Quantum Security over Federated Learning via Post-Quantum Cryptography

Network Operations Scheduling for Distributed Quantum Computing

Entangling Intelligence: AI-Quantum Crossovers and Perspectives  

Towards efficient and secure quantum-classical communication networks

06:00 PM – 09:00 PM

Banquet Dinner (provided by conference)

Organizing Committee 

General Chair: Rob Cunningham, University of Pittsburgh

Program Committee

Co-Chair: Kaushik P. Seshadreesan, University of Pittsburgh

Co-Chair: Junyu Liu, University of Pittsburgh

Bruno Ricardi de Abreu, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

Kishor Bharti, A*STAR Singapore

Alessandro Cilardo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Karim Eldefrawy, SRI International

Edoardo Giusto, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Zhiding Liang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Paul Lopata, University of Maryland

Elham Kashefi, Sorbonne Universite

Eneet Kaur, Cisco

Di Luo, MIT

Atul Mantri, Virginia Tech

Michele Mosca, University of Waterloo

Yuxiang Peng, Purdue University

Jeff Prevost, University of Texas at San Antonio

Kaitlin Smith, Northwestern University

Runzhou Tao, University of Maryland

Hanrui Wang, MIT

Di Wu, University of Central Florida

Xiaochuan Wu, University of Chicago

Peng Zhao, Cisco

Quntao Zhuang, University of Southern California

Bronze Donors