QC Ware Announces Q2B 2021: Practical Quantum Computing

PRESS RELEASE — QC Ware announced its fifth annual Q2B Practical Quantum Computing conference to be held exclusively in-person at the Santa Clara Convention Center on December 7-9, 2021. Q2B is the world’s largest gathering of the quantum computing community, focusing solely on quantum computing applications and driving the discourse on quantum advantage and commercialization.

This year’s sponsors which include Honeywell, AWS, IBM, IonQ, Keysight Technologies, Nvidia and Quantum Machines have facilitated a three-day agenda packed with discussions about the latest hardware breakthroughs and applications in optimization, chemistry simulations, monte carlo methods, and machine learning. Business seminars and technical education initiatives in the form of workshops, presentations, and tutorials are featured on the Q2B 2021 agenda. Prominent speakers include academia’s quantum computing pillars John Preskill, Scott Aaronson, Umesh Vazirani and William Oliver.

“With record investment and significant technology advancements in both hardware and software, 2021 has been a big year for quantum computing,” said Matt Johnson, CEO, QC Ware. “We are looking forward to bringing together the entire quantum computing community —  including leading academics, Fortune 500 companies, vendors and venture capitalists — to explore recent advancements and anticipated developments over the next few years.”

Q2B 2021 will showcase an increasing number of companies that are beginning to explore the impact of quantum computing on their operations, have continuing research collaborations with vendor companies, or have deployed full-scale organizations focused on advancing the implementation of quantum computing applications. Industry leaders from a range of domains will highlight their quantum computing ambitions, research collaborations, and progress in leveraging quantum computing to address their most complex challenges, including automotive, pharmaceuticals, and energy, as well as finance, and materials design. The list currently includes: BASF, BP, BMW Group, General Dynamics, Goldman Sachs and US Airforce, among others. In addition, leading hardware and software businesses are likely to make major announcements at Q2B 2021.

“Honeywell Quantum Solutions is proud to be the platinum sponsor for the 2021 Q2B conference,” said Tony Uttley, president of Honeywell Quantum Solutions. “Our organization has long supported and participated in this event and have watched it grow into one of the premier conferences for the quantum industry and those interested in exploring and investing in quantum-enabled solutions.”

Q2B 2021 Details:

Co-Located Events: QED-C and Women in Quantum: Q2B 2021 will also feature two co-located events this year:

• Women in Quantum (WIQ): On December 6, QC Ware, Honeywell and IonQ will host its first in-person WIQ event which will feature a keynote, talks and other sessions, a networking cocktail hour, career fair, and the Women in Quantum awards session. Portions of WIQ (not Q2B) will be live streamed for free, RSVP here https://www.runtheworld.today/app/invitation/32221

• QED-C: Hosted by the Quantum Economic Development Consortium the co-hosted event will feature keynotes by senior U.S, government officials on the economic and national security importance of the quantum industry.

BMW Group and AWS to Reveal Winner of BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge

During the conference, BMW and AWS will announce the results of the BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge, which aims to investigate quantum computing technologies for industrial use. Launched in July 2021, The Quantum Computing Challenge invited the quantum community to apply innovations in quantum computing to real world problems in industrial applications. The use case problems presented in the challenge represent critical commercial applications that demonstrate the real-world value of quantum computing.

“The technological landscape in the field of quantum computing is only just starting to take shape,” said Peter Lehnert, Vice President BMW Group Research, New Technologies. “With our crowd-innovation approach, we have succeeded in activating additional innovative forces and getting them excited about automotive quantum applications. The Q2B conference is the perfect stage to announce the winners of our BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge.”

Global Quantum Computing Market Report: Q2B together with QED-C and the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC) has commissioned the generation of a market report to better understand and communicate the size and development of the quantum computing market. The results will be presented on Day 1 (December 7) at the ‘Q2B 2021 Global Quantum Computing Market Size and Forecast’ by Bob Sorensen from Hyperion Research.

Social Panels and Roundtables: The conference will feature the popular social impact track which will include panels exploring quantum computing and ethics, women in quantum computing, the search for new sustainable materials, and epidemiology and health science. The agenda will also include a new Industry Analyst Roundtable which will feature notable industry analysts and their predictions for the race to practical quantum computing as well as a venture capital panel which will take a look at the rise of corporate venture capital funding in quantum computing startups.

Startup Pitch Day: New to Q2B, the Q2B Pitch Day will connect a new cohort of quantum computing startups with strategic and traditional venture investors. The pitch day will feature a list of startups selected from the top incubators, Duality Accelerator, Creative Destruction Lab, and Quantum Startup Foundry among others.

USRA Paper Competition: For the second year, Q2B will also feature the winning paper from USRA Q2B Applied NISQ Computing Paper 2021 Award. The competition led by The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and QC Ware and sponsor US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) highlights the work from papers focused on ANISQC experiments or algorithms that can be applied to advance the state-of-the-art in optimization, machine learning, quantum, or classical simulation.

Quantum Chess Tournament: Back by popular demand, the Q2B Quantum Chess Tournament will see select sponsors try to unseat last year’s champion, Aleksander Kubica from Amazon.

Spiros Michalakis, Staff Researcher and the Manager of Outreach at the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQM) at Caltech, and co-designer of Quantum Chess with Chris Cantwell of Quantum Realm Games said: “With the advancement of AI in regular chess over the last 20 years, humans can no longer compete at the level of computer chess engines. Quantum Chess leverages the complexity of quantum physics to level the playing field once again and give human players another chance.”

The tournament will be streamed live in collaboration with Chess.com, and will feature expert opinions on the challenges and opportunities of developing quantum games.

Click here for more conference details and updates, and partnership opportunities. Click here to register.

For media interested in covering Q2B, please email qc_ware@sparkpr.com.

About QC Ware
QC Ware is a quantum software and services company focused on ensuring enterprises are prepared for the emerging quantum computing disruption. QC Ware specializes in the  development of applications for near-term quantum computing hardware with a team composed of some of the industry’s foremost experts in quantum computing. Its growing network of customers includes AFRL, Aisin Group, Airbus, BMW Group, Equinor, Goldman Sachs, and Total. QC Ware Forge, the company’s flagship quantum computing cloud service, is built for data scientists with no quantum computing background. It provides unique, performant, turnkey quantum computing algorithms. QC Ware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and supports its European customers through its subsidiary in Paris. QC Ware also organizes Q2B, the largest annual gathering of the international quantum computing community.