New collaboration to explore quantum computing for industrial design and simulation

Quantinuum Inc., Rolls-Royce, Riverlane and EPCC today announced an agreement to explore the quantum computing capabilities needed in future industrial workflows, such as gas turbine design.

The new project aims to combine Quantinuum’s Helios platform, the world’s most accurate commercial quantum computer[1], Rolls-Royce’s industrial applications, Riverlane’s quantum error correction and fault-tolerant algorithm expertise, and EPCC’s supercomputing expertise. This collaboration will help advance the UK quantum strategy by developing the quantum technologies and hybrid computing capabilities needed for future industrial applications.

Under the agreement, Quantinuum will provide access to its quantum systems and software environment; Rolls-Royce will contribute industrial design use cases and domain expertise; Riverlane will contribute quantum error correction and algorithmic expertise; and EPCC will contribute supercomputing expertise and hybrid workflow integration.

Complex fluid dynamics simulations are central to gas turbine design, but they can require substantial computing resources as models become more detailed. In what is expected to be a multi-year collaboration, the partners will explore how fault-tolerant quantum computers could work alongside supercomputers to address this bottleneck, and accurately model fluid dynamics inside gas turbines.

The collaborators plan to test key computational building blocks for industrially relevant quantum algorithms on Quantinuum’s Helios quantum computer and assess how these could scale on planned future systems, such as Sol and Apollo.

This project builds on prior collaborations between Rolls-Royce, Riverlane and EPCC that laid the foundations for understanding key algorithmic, error correction and data requirements for tackling fluid dynamic simulations with commercial quantum computers.

“We have been developing and improving algorithms for hybrid fault-tolerant applications for almost five years with Riverlane, using classical emulators in collaboration with EPCC. This agreement marks the start of an exciting new phase where we work together to explore their implementations on Quantinuum’s hardware,” said Leigh Lapworth, Fellow in Computational Science at Rolls-Royce. “Applications development is a multi-year activity and if we want to be in a position to benefit from teraQuOp devices, we have to start now, co-developing the algorithms, hardware and software.”

EPCC will contribute its expertise in high-performance computing, simulations and the software interfaces needed to connect quantum and classical systems. Its role includes exploring how different parts of an algorithm can be compiled, emulated and executed across classical and quantum resources, including pre- and post-processing steps required for hybrid compute workflows.

The UK’s quantum computing mission aims to develop accessible, UK-based quantum computers capable of one trillion error-free operations, known as “teraQuOp” systems. The collaboration and its anticipated multi-year timeline support the UK Government’s quantum computing mission and reflect the strength and maturity of the UK’s quantum and advanced computing ecosystem in moving from foundational research toward industrially relevant hybrid applications.

Further information

See the Quantinuum website for the full announcement.

If your company would like to explore quantum computing opportunities with EPCC, please email commercial@epcc.ed.ac.uk

^{[1] Based on its high two-qubit gate fidelity supporting 98 physical qubits.}