ERC-2020-COG Design Automation for Quantum Computing (DA QC)

In the 1970s, researchers started to utilize quantum mechanics to address questions in computer science and information theory-establishing new research directions such as quantum computing. Now, more than four decades later, we are at the dawn of a new "computing age" in which quantum computers indeed will find its way into practical application. However, while impressive accomplishments can be observed in the physical realization of quantum computers, the development of automated tools and methods that provide assistance in the design and realization of applications for those devices is at risk of not being able to keep up with this development anymore-leaving a situation where we might have powerful quantum computers but hardly any proper means to actually use them. This project aims to provide a solution for this upcoming design gap by developing efficient and practical relevant methods for corresponding simulation, synthesis, and verification tasks. While the current state of the art severely suffers from the interdisciplinarity of quantum computing (leading to the consideration of inappropriate models, inconsistent interpretations, or "wrong" problem formulations), this project will build a bridge between the design automation community and the quantum computing community. This will allow to fully exploit the potential of design automation which is hardly utilized in quantum computing yet.