Software-Tailored Architecture for Quantum Co-Design (STAQ)

Quantum computers hold great promise to catalyze a new era of computational power that will benefit all of society. However, quantum computer processing is based on radical laws of physics that have no analog in everyday life, making it a challenge to attract the needed technical workforce and user base. The NSF-STAQ program is a unique national quantum computer research activity that designs, runs, and optimizes quantum algorithms on programmable quantum computer systems in a university setting.

STAQ quantum computers are designed and built in-house at Duke University, based on the mature and scalable platform of trapped atomic ions – individual atoms suspended above a chip with electromagnetic fields and controlled with laser beams. The Duke Quantum Center features several programmable quantum computer systems capable of running generic quantum circuits and applications.

The STAQ team of 17 investigators from 8 institutions, including a core at Duke University, exercises complete control of all hardware and software layers. STAQ will bring together scientists, engineers, computer scientists, and application experts to hasten quantum computer advantage over conventional computers, while educating the public and bringing quantum computers to users who may not be familiar with quantum mechanics or its growing importance to society.

Securing quantum advantage in computation will require a vertical “full stack” approach, integrating application and algorithmic development with software optimization and control down to the hardware level composed of controllable quantum systems typically expressed in terms of quantum bits (qubits). STAQ hardware is based on trapped atomic ions, owing to their high level of performance, reconfigurability, and software controllability, all designed and fabricated in STAQ facilities.

However, the general approach to quantum computing in the STAQ program is expected to confer to other physical platforms. The STAQ program will co-design quantum algorithms to STAQ machines having more than 50 qubits and gate fidelities well above 99% (including initialization and measurement errors), thus reaching a regime where quantum computations will challenge high-performance classical computers.

STAQ will pursue several families of quantum algorithms, including approximate optimization and variational algorithms, quantum simulations of physical models in condensed matter, broad classes of lattice gauge theory problems applicable to nuclear physics, and quantum computer certification standards. STAQ will engage and educate a broad base of users, students, and other researchers interested in quantum computer science and engineering, with a vibrant visitors program to stimulate collaborations and new areas of application exploration.

This project advances the objectives of Quantum Information Science and Engineering at NSF in response to the National Quantum Initiative Act for the continued leadership of the United States in QIS and its technology applications.

This award by the Physics at the Information Frontier program in the Division of Physics within the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences is jointly supported by the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

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.