A Pitt-led team plans to automate quantum computing research with a Department of Energy grant

A new University of Pittsburgh-led research project aims to automate the scientific process, using a team of AI agents to harness a promising new type of quantum computing that could enable discoveries in chemistry and materials science. Led by School of Computing and Information Professor Youtao Zhang, the project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission, a national effort to enable scientific discovery using AI.

“This ambitious, innovative project builds on the best of Pitt’s strengths in research computing and quantum science,” said Senior Vice Chancellor for Research Rob Rutenbar. “Leveraging the transformative potential of AI and new forms of collaboration between universities and national laboratories, projects like this one are bolstering U.S. leadership in scientific research.”

While circuit-based quantum computing involves isolating pairs of units called qubits to make calculations, measurement-based quantum computing — the focus of Zhang’s project — would instead make use of dense, interconnected networks of qubits. This approach has several advantages, but the field is still young: The process of measuring these qubits would take an imposing amount of computational power, and not enough of the necessary algorithms and principles have been developed to make use of any data collected.

Each of these problems would be daunting for a human team to tackle, which is why Zhang and his colleagues are turning to AI instead.  

“We’re building AI that can automatically design, optimize and verify measurement-based quantum computing, automatically discovering better ways to build quantum computations,” said Zhang. “By automating the workflow, the project aims to accelerate discoveries in chemistry, materials science and energy.”

The project’s team includes Assistant Professor Junyu Liu and Associate Professor Xulong Tang, both in Pitt’s School of Computing and Information, as well as collaborators at Virginia Tech and Argonne National Laboratory.

The researchers are designing specialized AI agents to perform different research tasks: one to determine which measurements to make, one to develop new principles that can be tested, one to optimize the process for hardware and one to manage the other three.

AI agents, Zhang and his colleagues are betting, are well-positioned to boil down the complexities of quantum research in a way that would be impossible for humans. The system of agents will be built to improve with time and experience, with the goal of creating and sharing a pipeline for measurement-based quantum computing that can contribute to future breakthroughs.

A Pitt researcher is also contributing to a Genesis project led by the University of Hawaii. Pranava Teja Surukuchi, assistant professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics and Astronomy, will lend his expertise to the project on leveraging AI to unify search technologies for neutrinoless double-beta decay, a theoretical process that has the potential to answer key questions about the makeup of our universe.

Both projects are part of the Genesis Mission, a historic national initiative led by the Department of Energy, which is building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform across a range of leading application areas. By uniting government, industry, academia and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security through a new platform that combines AI, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced scientific instruments.