Google has launched a global competition with XPRIZE and the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) to apply quantum computing to real-world challenges.
Quantum computers use mechanics to solve problems that are simply too complex to be calculated by traditional computers, or even supercomputers. The hope is that, as the field progresses, these computers will be able to make these sorts of complex calculations, perhaps in the areas of discovering drugs for medical use or modeling the behavior of molecules.
“A classical supercomputer might try to simulate molecular behavior with brute force, by using its many processors to explore every possible way every part of the molecule might behave. But as it moves past the simplest, most straightforward molecules available, the supercomputer stalls. No computer has the working memory to handle all the possible permutations of molecular behavior by using any known methods,” IBM .
“Quantum algorithms take a new approach to these sorts of complex problems – creating multidimensional computational spaces. This turns out to be a much more efficient way of solving complex problems like chemical simulations.”
It’s an exciting field. Every few months, we get to hear about some huge new breakthrough or record in quantum computing and hype about how it is set to . But for all the hype, quantum computers aren’t all that useful yet. In fact, companies are still working on the first quantum computing operating system.
“While there are many reasons to be optimistic about the potential of quantum computing, we’re still somewhat in the dark about the full scope of how, when, and for which real-world problems this technology will prove most transformative,” Google said in a announcing the new competition.
“We hope launching this prize will help to shed light on these questions — by incentivizing the community to advance and more thoroughly anticipate the positive impact of quantum computing on society.”
The competition, which will run for three years, asks competitors to develop applications for quantum computing that will benefit society. In the first round, competitors are simply asked to describe the problem they are trying to solve, and provide an analysis of how long it would take for a quantum computer running their algorithm to solve it.
From this pool of competitors, up to 20 teams will advance to the finals, and share the first $1 million of the total prize. In the next round, they will be asked to provide evidence that they could get to this answer faster (or more accurately) on a quantum computer over regular computers, and outline how the calculations will have a positive impact on society. $3 million will be given to the top three candidates or teams, while a further $1 million will be given to the runners-up.
More details can be found on the .