Presenting the IEEE Standards Workgroup’s Efforts to D-Wave’s User Group
I am at D-Wave’s “Qubits 2017” user group meetup to discuss quantum computing standards, and I bet you can guess the rest. (I’m happy to be here!) First, let me say thanks to D-Wave’s Bo Ewald for inviting me. The agenda for this event is jam-packed.
Earlier in the week, there were site reports from:
- Lockheed Martin
- USC ISI Google
- NASA Ames
- USRA Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
There was also a great set of presentations around “Quantum Computing: Proterozoic or early Cambrian?” They covered the presenters’ views from today and a look forward at the next five years.
For my part, I’m covering a few different topics around standards:
- The IEEE’s recent approval of the IEEE P7130™—Standard for Quantum Computing Definitions project. This project aims to make quantum computing terminology usage more consistent to a larger group of contributors, including developers of software and hardware, materials scientists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers, climate scientists, biologists, and geneticists.
- The IEEE’s role in helping shape quantum computing standards. The organization’s historical role in technical standards, how the process works, and how others can join me in getting involved in the Quantum Computing Standards Work Group.
- The IEEE’s next standards effort, IEEE P7131™, which will cover performance benchmark testing. This is an extremely important effort to help define the processes around creating a standardized performance benchmarking test that can be applied across the industry to give a more accurate assessment of a quantum computer’s performance.
I’m excited to see the D-Wave community’s reaction to getting to contribute to these standards. There are so many amazing organizations, companies, and individual contributors attending that I hope to get involved in quantum computing standards.
