9:00 - 9:40 Jordi Tura "Quantum heuristics for near-term devices"

"In this work we present a method to build a quantum circuit to heuristically minimize the energy of a quantum Hamiltonian under a set of restrictions, such as having a limited number of gates of a given type. The algorithm is based on an adaptive algorithmic cooling procedure, aided by some classical optimization. Algorithms for the so-called NISQ (noisy, intermediate-scale quantum) devices have become an intensive field of research, and in our work we focus on the following directions: first, we benchmark the performance of the algorithm in for a number of qubits N > 50, thus going beyond the limits of classical simulation; second, we take into consideration and study the effect of different noise models; and third, we take into account the statistical noise arising from estimating expectation values of operators, thus giving realistic estimates for the number of measurements and actual runtime of the algorithm. Furthermore, the principles our procedure is based upon can be easily exported to specific experimental platforms, where only a restricted subset of operations is typically available, and coherence time is limited."

9:45 - 10:30 Frank Phillipson "Quantum Machine Learning: Benefits and Practical Examples"

"A quantum computer that is useful in practice, is expected to be developed in the next few years. An important application is expected to be machine learning, where benefits are expected on run time, capacity and learning efficiency. In this paper, these benefits are presented and for each benefit an example application is presented. A quantum hybrid Helmholtz machine use quantum sampling to improve run time, a quantum Hopfield neural network shows an improved capacity and a variational quantum circuit based neural network is expected to deliver a higher learning efficiency"

11:00 - 11:20 Macario Polo "Quantum Software Testing"

"The new features of quantum software require the adaptation of traditional testing techniques or the proposal of new ones. Taking both current quantum programming languages and the characteristics of quantum technology as starting point, this talk will review the main challenges of quantum-software testing. It will analyze which traditional techniques can be directly applied to this new paradigm, which ones have to be adapted and which characteristics of quantum technology need the development of new testing techniques."

11:20 - 11:40 Ricardo Pérez-Castillo "Reengineering of Information Systems toward Classical-Quantum Systems"

"In the coming years, companies will progressively need to add quantum computing to some or all of their daily operations. It is clear that all existing, classical information systems cannot be thrown away. Instead of this, it is expected to add some quantum algorithms working embedded in classical information systems. So far, there is not a systematic solution to deal with this challenge. Thus, this talk suggests a software modernization approach (model-driven reengineering) for restructuring classical systems together with existing or new quantum algorithms to provide target systems combining both computational paradigms. The method highlighted is systematic and based on existing software engineering standards (such as KDM and UML). As a result, it could be applied in industry in a compliant manner regarding the existing software evolution processes."

11:40 – 12:00 Guillermo Hernández "Adapting Service Delivery for Quantum Programming"

"IT services have undergone a gradual transformation to adapt to the new times and needs of the digital era. The integration of technology and customer focus have led to a series of new needs in how organizations can and should deliver their services and products. To meet this needs, multiple standards and frameworks such as ISO 20000, ITIL, VERISM, PMI, SCRUM, DevOps, etc. have appeared and evolved, constantly trying to adapt to new disruptive technologies such as machine learning or internet of things; however, none is prepared for the integration needs that will be required for the development, deployment, maintenance and improvement of quantum software within the scope of the IT service. In this talk, we will talk about how we can modify these management frameworks to adapt them for quantum programming and the impact it will have on the service delivery chain."

12:00 – 12:30 Héctor Sánchez Montenegro, Microsoft

"Round table with experts for discussing problems in the development of quantum software and needs for good practices in design, analysis, quality assurance, testing, design patterns, etc., for quantum software"

Moderator: Ignacio García-Rodríguez de Guzmán

Participants:

• Guido Peterssen
• Jordi Tura
• Frank Phillipson
• Manuel A. Serrano