The world is buzzing about artificial intelligence (AI), driven by the remarkable advancements in deep neural networks, large language models, and other types of foundation models. But what’s next? A new whitepaper, “Envisioning Possible Futures for AI Research,” from the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) dives into this crucial question, suggesting that the current wave of AI innovation, while powerful, is built on a paradigm that’s already 15 years old. “The current paradigm, while incredibly successful, is not the endpoint,” says David Jensen, one of the paper’s authors from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “For AI to continue to progress over the long term, we need researchers to be actively exploring […]

CCC’s recent Computing Futures Symposium brought together leading minds in computer science for a dynamic panel discussion, expertly moderated by Mark Hill (University of Wisconsin – Madison). This expert panel, featuring Margaret Martonosi (Princeton University), Brent Hecht (Microsoft Research), Charles Leiserson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Rajmohan Rajaraman (Northeastern University), delved into critical issues facing the field, from the future of quantum computing to the societal impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and the enduring quest for performance optimization. Key Perspectives and Insights  Martonosi kicked off the discussion with a passionate plea for computer science expertise in the burgeoning field of quantum computing. Acknowledging that quantum is still in its “Wild […]

Quantum computing has captured the public’s attention due to its incredible theoretical applications, but the intensely complicated underlying physics make it difficult for even computing experts in other fields to understand. Computing researchers in other disciplines, however, have valuable knowledge to aid in the development of quantum computers. “To increase momentum in quantum system progress, we must lower the barrier to entry”, says Kaitlin N. Smith, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University. “Scientists shouldn’t be required to have an expert-level understanding of quantum mechanics to contribute their skill set to quantum computing”. Though quantum computers operate very differently from classical computers, some of the approaches used in classical […]

In 2018, CCC recognized the need for more dialogues between quantum computing experts and experts in other fields of computer science, such as compiler design, design automation, computer architecture, and programming languages. In May of 2018, the CCC held a workshop with the goal of bridging the gap between quantum computing and classical computing, and released a report in November. This report identified a number of research challenges facing the community that demand increased attention, such as   Practical quantum computing algorithms that can be deployed on intermediate-scale hardware to continue motivating investments in quantum computing research. Research on scalability and modular design of quantum systems as they are able […]

Computer scientists have been attempting to harness the power of quantum computing for over two decades. Traditional computers perform calculations sequentially, one at a time. In contrast, quantum computers leverage the unique properties of sub-atomic particles, such as existing in multiple places simultaneously and demonstrating instantaneous connections across vast distances to successfully transfer quantum information between computer chips at unprecedented speeds and accuracy. So far, institutions such as Google, IBM and Microsoft have only been able to achieve simple quantum machines. A new breakthrough development in quantum, led by Professor Winfried Hensinger of Sussex University and highlighted in a recent BBC article, promises to move the needle closer to harnessing […]

Khari Douglas will be covering the 8th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) on the CCC blog all week. Stay tuned and check out the HLF blog for more coverage of the event.  On the opening day of the 8th Heidelberg Laureate Forum, Scott Aaronson, winner of the 2020 ACM Prize in Computing, discussed the recent advancements in quantum computing and the impact that “quantum supremacy” could have on the future of computing. Aaronson described quantum mechanics as the operating system of the universe, through which everything in nature runs as an application program. As Aaronson explained, the state of any isolated physical system can be shown as a unit vector of complex numbers […]