Munich. Today marks the end of the BMW Group Quantum
Computing Challenge with the winners being announced at Q2B 2021, the
leading conference for the application of quantum computing.
The BMW Group, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS),
invoked the Crowd Innovation Initiative: in
July of this year, they called on the global quantum computing
community to develop innovative quantum algorithms for four specific
industrial challenges and to test them on real quantum computing
technologies. One winning team has now been selected for each of the
four identified areas. In all, around 70 teams from all over the world
took part.
These winning teams have been selected for the four
challenges:
1. Sensor positions for automated driving functions: Accenture
Accenture’s winning team tackled the problem of optimising the
positioning of sensors for highly automated driving functions.
2. Simulation of material deformations: QuCo
The jury concluded that the quantum computing start-up QuCo
stood out with its approach to solving partial differential equations
in the field of numerical simulation.
3. Configuration optimisation of pre-series vehicles: 1QBit
and NTT
The winning team from 1QBit and NTT came out on top with hybrid
algorithms for solving satisfiability problems in propositional logic
for optimising equipment configuration.
4. Automated quality analyses: QC Ware
The QC Ware team stood out with its approach, drawn from the field of
machine learning, that can be used in image recognition in the area of
quality analysis.
The BMW Group worked closely with the Amazon Quantum
Solutions Lab Professional Services team, an expert group of
professionals, throughout the challenge, right up to the moment when
the winners were determined. AWS also provided credits for the use of
Amazon Braket, enabling the development and testing of the submitted
quantum algorithms. Amazon Braket provides a development environment
to explore and create quantum algorithms, test them on quantum circuit
simulators and run them on different quantum hardware technologies.
The jury that oversaw the challenge and ultimately decided on the
winning teams also included professors from the Technical University
of Munich (TUM) as well as representatives of the BMW Group and AWS.
TUM is an important partner for the BMW Group for research in the
field of quantum computing. The BMW Group announced the establishment
of the “Quantum
Algorithms and Applications” endowed chair at TUM back in June
of this year. Algorithms close to specific use cases along the
industrial value chain are being researched at the chair. The BMW
Group is providing 5.1 million euros over a period of six years to
fund the professorship, staff and equipment at TUM.
Quantum computing is one of the most promising future technologies in
the automotive sector. It has enormous potential for research into
materials, for complex optimisation problems and for the future of
automated driving. The Quantum Computing Challenge once again
underlines the BMW Group’s leading-edge role in building a quantum
ecosystem. As recently as June, the company was a founding member,
along with nine other large corporations, of the Quantum Technology and Application Consortium
(QUTAC). This aims to specifically accelerate the development of
the technology in Germany and Europe. In November this year, the BMW
Group and RWTH Aachen University jointly announced the establishment
of the “Quantum
Information Systems” endowed chair, where software and
industrialisation comeptencies will be created to realise a quantum
advantage in the medium term.
Dr Peter Lehnert, Vice President BMW Group Research and New
Technologies Digital Car: “We at the BMW Group are
convinced that future technologies such as quantum computing have the
potential to make our products more desirable and sustainable. We have
succeeded in reaching the global quantum computing community with our
crowd-innovation approach and enthusing them about automotive use
cases. We look forward to continuing to work with the winners.”
BMW Group reaches out to quantum computing community worldwide
The BMW Group received around 70 submissions from all over the world
from different areas such as international and national research
groups, the start-up scene and established companies. The
exceptionally high quality of the submissions enables new perspectives
and offers potential for innovative approaches to solutions such as
the development and further development of new algorithms. The expert
jury took into account criteria such as comprehensibility,
feasibility, scalability, innovation and benefit for the BMW Group
when evaluating the submitted solutions.
All 15 finalists set themselves apart with their high innovation
potential and have therefore been shortlisted for future projects. The
journey continues straight away for the four winners: they immediately
gain the BMW Group as a customer and will be involved in the further
development of the pilot projects. The company looks forward to
working with these four winners.
The BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge is structured around the
“Supplierthon” methodology, which is the BMW Group’s future-oriented
supplier scouting method. It marks the company’s first global
crowd-innovation initiative on this scale. The crowd innovation
approach enables innovative solutions to be found within a very short
time and to validate them in cooperation with the specialist
departments. The challenge also gave the BMW Group invaluable insights
into the status quo of the global quantum ecosystem. This knowledge is
crucial in determining the future direction of research on the future
technology and the long-term establishment of the market for quantum
computing. The successful challenge along with the extremely promising
submissions encourage the company to continue to look to the crowd
innovation approach in the future.