DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Proposers Day

April 20, 2021 

Webinar Only - ZoomGov (gov't version of Zoom)

Registration Required by all meeting participants

Registration Deadline:
Thursday, April 15, 2021 at 5:00 PM ET

 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)
Special Notice (SN)

 

 

Program Objective and Description


It has been credibly hypothesized that quantum computers will revolutionize multiple scientific and technical fields within the next few decades; examples include machine learning, quantum chemistry, materials discovery, molecular simulation, many-body physics, classification, nonlinear dynamics, supply chain optimization, drug discovery, battery catalysis, genomic analysis, fluid dynamics, and protein structure prediction.

While there has been remarkable progress in developing quantum computers over the past 20+ years, it remains uncertain exactly whatsize, quality, and configuration of quantum system—if any—will enable the hypothesized revolutionary advances.

The Quantum Benchmarking program seeks to eliminate this uncertainty by taking a fundamentally different approach to assessing the long-term utility of quantum systems—developing computing benchmarks for a variety of scientific and technical fields that do not inherently assume classical limitations. These benchmarks will be hardware-agnostic, focusing on the core enabling computational capabilities that could enable revolutionary advances in the fields listed above. As a result, success will require collaboration between quantum computing experts and application-domain experts with a deep understanding of the classical state of the art and the potential impact of new computing capabilities. In parallel, tools will be developed for estimating the computational-paradigm-specific hardware resources needed to achieve specific benchmark performance thresholds.  These resource estimates will include both the quantum and classical resources needed to operate a candidate quantum machine at all problem scales. Specifically, in-scope will be an analysis of fault-tolerant quantum hardware paradigms.

Event Participation


Registration

There is no registration fee for the Proposers Day webcast. The registration deadline is 5:00 PM, EDT, Thursday, April 15, 2021 or when capacity is reached, whichever comes first. Advance registration is required in order to receive access to the webcast and is mandatory for every individual intending to view the webcast either alone or as part of a group. Registrants in excess of the maximum capacity limitation (300 individuals) may be added to a waitlist. Individuals who are unable to register because the deadline has passed may request to be added to the waitlist. If slots become available due to cancellations, the slots may be filled on a first come, first served basis from the waitlist. If you are interested in being put on the waitlist, please reach out to Renee Besanson at rbesanson@sainc.com.

All meeting participants are required to complete the online registration form.  Failure to register will result in not receiving access to the live webinar.

Eligibility

DARPA hosts Proposers Days to (1) promote teaming arrangements between researchers, (2) provide potential proposers with information on whether and how they might respond to the Government’s research and development solicitations, and (3) increase efficiency in proposal preparation and evaluation. Therefore, Proposers Days are only open to registered potential proposers, i.e., the events are closed to the general public and media. For this particular program, Proposers Day registration is open to potential proposers who are U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and foreign nationals.

All registrants for the webinar meeting, who are not U.S. Citizens, must complete and submit a DARPA Form 60 (U.S. Permanent Resident and Foreign National Visit Request) no later than 5:00 PM, EDT on Thursday, April 15, 2021. This form and submission instructions are provided in the registration confirmation email.  Failure to submit this form will result in not receiving the webinar information.

Lightning Talks

Attendees may be afforded the opportunity to give a brief 3-minute oral presentation during the webcast outlining their interests and capabilities. The purpose of these presentations is to facilitate teaming discussions among the attendees. Upon registering, attendees may indicate if they would like to give an oral presentation. Due to limited availability, DARPA will accept submissions on a first-come, first-served basis, and does not guarantee that these requests to brief will be fulfilled. Submitted briefing materials should use the template listed below and are limited to a single, PDF-format slide, which should be appropriate for public release, as they will be shared with the session via webcast. The slide must be submitted to QuantumBenchmarking@darpa.mil by 12:00 PM EDT, April 13, 2021.  DARPA will contact submitters upon receipt of their slide with additional guidance for the webcast.

Lightning Talk PowerPoint Template

Sidebars

There will be an opportunity to meet individually with the Program Manager, Joseph Altepeter, Ph.D. Eight-minute individual meetings will be held during Proposers Day between 3:00 PM–3:30 PM and 4:30 PM–5:00 PM. Please request an individual/team (limited to four [4] people per team) session via the registration website. Requests must be received no later than the registration cutoff date. Individual meetings will be scheduled on a space-available basis.  

Meeting Format & Webinar Platform


Meeting Format

The meeting will be in two segments, open sessions over CVR (gov't version of MS Teams) and closed sidebars with Program Manager, Joseph Altepeter, Ph.D. and the government team on their teleconferencing bridge.

Webinar Platform

This meeting will be held on the CVR (gov't version of MS Teams) webinar platform. 

Downloading the MS Teams application is suggested but understood that there may be affiliation restrictions. Therefore the alternative would be to join by web browser.  All registrants will receive more detailed information in the webinar logistics email that will be sent out on April 16th.