FET Core: Small: Workshop on Emerging Technologies of Post-Von Neumann Ising Machines

This project is devoted to organizing a strategic visioning workshop on Ising Machines. The meeting will be held virtually over two days. Major themes include overarching issues for Ising Machines as special-purpose computers for non-convex optimization, strategies for maximizing the practical impact of future research on Ising Machines, and assessment of current status and next steps for hardware devices and architectures including both CMOS and non-CMOS (e.g. optical) platforms.

Recasting the foundations of computational optimization to leverage emerging physics, mathematics, and management science will require an expansive technology co-design approach that facilitates simultaneous and coordinated rethinking of devices, architectures, algorithms and performance metrics, in order to develop a concrete vision for optimization co-design grounded in recent work on post-von Neumann Ising Machines (PVNIMs). The intention of the workshop is to spark the coalescence of vertically-integrated research communities around existing experimental hardware platforms and build consensus regarding overarching goals for improving both the basic understanding of non-convex optimization and the practical impact of frontier efforts.

The workshop will also build a new community around the emerging technology of post-von Neumann Ising machines, and generally promote vertical integration of research on the theory and practice of non-convex optimization. Advances in this area have a high likelihood to impact broad areas of industry and policy. The summary document to be prepared by the Steering Committee after the workshop is intended likewise to influence research priorities across the CISE Directorate, leading to increased opportunities for interdisciplinary research and training in academic groups nationwide.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.