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Congratulations to Dr. Lorcan Conlon and V. Vijendran, who won at the first-ever (Quantum 2 Business) Hackathon, representing A*STAR Quantum Innovation Centre (Q.InC) at the last December. Competing against 21 teams from around the world, the A*STAR Q.InC team was one of three winners, recognised for their innovative approach to applying quantum computing to real-world problems.

As industries seek practical applications for quantum computing, events like these provide vital opportunities for researchers and developers to collaborate, experiment, and push the field forward. Organized by IBM, Aqora, QC Ware, and the Stanford QC Association, the Q2B Silicon Valley Hackathon, held on December 10–11, 2024, challenged participants to identify pressing real-world problems that quantum computers could help address in the near future. Over an intense 36-hour sprint, teams used IBM’s framework to develop prototype applications, showcasing how quantum computing can enable businesses to solve complex problems more efficiently.

The A*STAR Q.InC team developed a user-friendly application that leverages hybrid quantum-classical solvers to optimise semidefinite programs (SDPs), building on the foundational work of their colleague Dr. Kishor Bharti, outlined in the paper “”. SDPs are a powerful class of mathematical optimisation tools widely used across industries such as finance, engineering, and machine learning to tackle complex problems involving constraints, uncertainty, and competing objectives. They work by optimising variables while ensuring that a related mathematical structure, called a matrix, remains semidefinite, preserving key properties essential for stability and efficiency. In many cases, SDPs outperform traditional methods, making them indispensable for solving real-world optimisation problems.

To demonstrate the application's practical utility, the team applied it to the antenna array optimisation problem—a challenge prevalent in modern communication systems. An antenna array, simply put, is a group of antennas that work together to transmit and receive signals, widely used in wireless networks, satellites, and radar systems. Optimising their arrangement involves finding the best configuration to maximise signal strength, enhance coverage, and minimise interference. Successfully solving this problem leads to faster mobile networks, better satellite connectivity, and more precise radar technology. The team demonstrated that such problems can be solved using only a logarithmic number of qubits, enabling quantum computers to tackle exponentially larger SDP problems than classical computers.

Discussing the solver’s approach, V. Vijendran explained: “Our solver uses a quantum computer to measure specific overlap functions, which help simplify the original problem into a smaller, more manageable version. These overlap measurements capture essential information about the system while ensuring that solutions to the reduced problem remain valid for the original. This reduction makes it possible to tackle optimisation problems that would otherwise be infeasible for classical computers.”

Dr. Lorcan Conlon reflected on the significance of their work, stating: “Quantum computers have the potential to solve optimisation problems beyond the reach of classical systems, but realising this promise requires bridging the gap between theory and application. Our work demonstrates how hybrid quantum-classical methods can make progress in this direction, with potential applications in telecommunications, finance, logistics, and healthcare. While there is still much to explore, this is a meaningful step toward making quantum computing more practical for real-world problems.”

Get connected with Lorcan at conlon_lorcan_oneill@imre.a-star.edu.sg and V. Vijendran at vjqntm@gmail.com