Significant academic papers are not written overnight; they require persistence, tenacity, and patience - all the more so when it comes to visionary topics, such as working on quantum computers. Prof. Robert Wille (currently a JKU professor and the scientific director of the Software Competence Center Hagenberg) was recently presented with an award in recognition of published research findings that continue to have a major impact and play a key role, despite having been published over a decade ago. Together with colleagues Mathias Soeken (now at Microsoft Research), Christoph Hilken (now at Rheinmetall), Nils Przigoda (now at Siemens) and Rolf Drechsler (University of Bremen and DFKI Ltd.), Prof. Wille was presented with a "10-Year Retrospective Most Influential Paper Award" this past week during the ASP Design Automation Conference!

Prof. Wille began his research and the resulting paper during his time at the University of Bremen, laying the groundwork for today's software solutions in support of quantum computers at a time when this particular technology was more of an academic idea with little real-world relevance. How things have changed! IBM, Google, Microsoft, and many other "players" are now seriously developing – and even now marketing! - quantum computers. People in various industrial sectors continue to invest millions in this particular technology, however, like any computer, quantum computers need the corresponding software to run applications. The foundations laid ten years ago has now been recognized.

Meanwhile, Upper Austria continues to be at the forefront of software development for quantum computers as both the Kepler University and the Software Competence Center Hagenberg are conducting extensive research in this field. Tools created by IBM and Atos already have integrated corresponding methods. Just recently, Prof. Robert Wille and his team was awarded a € 2 million ERC Consolidator Grant to continue forging ahead in this area. To this day, the groundwork laid ten years ago continues to play a key role.

See JKU/SCCH: https://iic.jku.at/eda/research/quantum/, opens an external URL in a new window for additional information on research being conducted in the area of quantum computing.