The US National Science Foundation has renewed the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation, an institute co-led by Duke and Princeton and based at the University of Maryland, with an expected award of $37.5 million over five years. For Duke, where engineering professor Kenneth Brown directs the Duke Quantum Center, the renewal extends one of the most ambitious collaborative programmes in American quantum research into a second phase.
Quantum simulators are specialised machines built to model complex quantum systems that conventional computers handle poorly, much as wind tunnels let engineers test designs before committing to a full build. In its first five years, the institute produced new methods for verifying quantum systems, reducing errors and running advanced quantum simulations, while assembling a national network of researchers, educators, engineers and students around the technology.
The next phase shifts towards what the institute calls quantum simulation engineering: the push to turn laboratory demonstrations into scalable technologies. Harvard University joins the collaboration alongside existing partners Yale University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the institute will continue its teacher workshops and education programmes, aimed at building the quantum workforce the field will need as the machines mature.