The “Quantum Computing on the Road” National Forum” was organised by the Supercomputing Centre of Castilla y León (SCAYLE) and the ITCL Technology Centre with the support of the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) in the framework of the Centr@tec Programme. The forum was held last week at the University of León. The aim of the forum, which was attended by more than seventy participants, was to present the current state of technological knowledge, future development forecasts and challenges aimed at solutions/technologies for application in different sectors of activity.
The vision of a multitude of national and international experts from the field of research and business allowed the attendees to gain a scientific overview of the state of the technology, challenges and opportunities and an approach to the future of quantum computing. This technology is a multidisciplinary field that combines aspects of computer science, physics and mathematics and uses quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers, which will lead to major developments in areas such as computer security, biomedicine, economics, transport and communications, among many others.
The opening of the conference, held at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts of the Vegazana Campus of the University of León, was led by Jorge Llorente Cachorro, Vice-Counsellor of the Ministry of Mobility and Digital Transformation of the Junta de Castilla y León; Vicente Matellán, Director of SCAYLE, and José María Vela, Director of ITCL. This was followed by presentations on topics such as quantum hardware and circuit simulator machines by experts from universities such as the University of Oviedo and the Polytechnic University of Valencia. In addition, Manuel González and Erik Skibinsky, from ITCL, presented a workshop on "Practical simulation of quantum circuits with high-performance computing techniques", which served as a prelude to the roundtable discussion "What does the future hold for quantum computing?" moderated by Beatriz Casado, Director of Innovation at ICE and with the participation of experts from ITCL, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the University of Oviedo, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), IBM Spain, GVM Innovating Solutions and Ayesa-Ibermática.
The forum clarified some of the issues, with the speakers agreeing on the great potential of quantum computing as an engine of technological change that will enable companies, citizens and the scientific community to advance at a faster pace, solving problems that, as ITCL's R&D Director Javier Sedano said, "were unimaginable before".