The National Quantum Lab (or QLab in short at the University of Maryland is a research collaboration between IonQ and the scientific community at UMD. This collaboration supports and accelerates digital quantum computing-focused research directions through close collaboration with IonQ Scientists and privileged access to IonQ’s trapped-ion quantum computers.

In September 2023, Dr. Avik Dutt was inducted as an inaugural National Quantum Lab Fellow.

The FloQuET Lab’s Digital Quantum Computing directions are primarily focused on two fronts:

• Utilizing machine learning techniques to efficiently approximate existing subroutines with high fidelity to allow for efficient, scalable simulation on NISQ-Era quantum processors. In close collaboration with Dr. Nikhil Chopra, the FloQuET lab presented at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering, with expanded results found here.
• Representing physical models as a combination of single and two-qubit gates, allowing for high accuracy time evolution that combats NISQ-Era quantum processor noise.

In addition to research efforts, the group also actively mentors contestants in the Quantum Track at Bitcamp, the largest collegiate hackathon on the East Coast. In December 2023, the group attended a joint workshop with scientists at NASA-Goddard to pinpoint research areas in which digital quantum computation could help forward NASA-Goddard science directives.