Zapata Computing Earns DARPA Award for Quantum Benchmarking

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Zapata Computing, a leading enterprise software company for quantum solutions, announced that the company, along with several academic and technology partners, has earned a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) award for quantum benchmarking. The multi-year, multi-million-dollar award will help fund the creation of software tools to make hardware-specific resource estimates for quantum computers. The partners behind this effort represent some of the most esteemed and forward-looking quantum computing minds in the industry. The collaboration includes teams from:

• Aalto University (Finland)
• IonQ
• University of Technology Sydney
• University of Texas at Dallas
• Zapata Computing

The effort kicked off earlier this month.

“This DARPA award is an important milestone in our ongoing journey to learn more about the potential of quantum computing and the implications it can have on some of the world’s biggest challenges,” said Alexandru Paler, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Aalto University. “We’re looking forward to getting the initiative underway and I’m excited about what we’ll discover as we conduct our tests and research.”

“We’re proud to be a part of this effort, bringing IonQ’s industry-leading quantum computing hardware and commercial insights to the collaboration,” said Sonika Johri, Lead Quantum Applications Research Scientist at IonQ. “Benchmarking is a critical step in building practical quantum applications for customers, and this award from DARPA allows us to explore with the most immediate ways our quantum computers can have impact across industries and business practices.”

“Every step forward in quantum technology presents the community with a new opportunity to learn and grow,” said Simon Devitt, Faculty, Center for Quantum Software and Information at University of Technology Sydney. “These DARPA initiatives will help us better understand the reality of where we are, and the potential for what’s ahead.”

“It’s an amazing time to be engrained in the quantum computing industry,” said Joseph S. Friedman, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas. “It feels like there’s a new breakthrough every day and we’re slowly but surely chipping away at a future where quantum computers become more mainstream. These DARPA projects are a clear indicator that we’re headed in the right direction and we’re excited to be a part of this broader team.”

“We are incredibly proud that the department of defense and the U.S. government will tap our software expertise and capabilities to benchmark hardware performance as the industry continues to mature,” said Christopher Savoie, CEO of Zapata Computing. “We’ve assembled a dream team to tackle these DARPA projects, gathering some of the best and brightest from across the global quantum ecosystem to collectively push the envelope of what’s possible.”