PhD fellowship in quantum computing, optimization on noisy gate-based NISQ platforms

About the position Oslo Metropolitan University is Norway's third largest university with 23,000 students and over 2,600 employees. We have campuses in central Oslo and at Romerike. OsloMet educates students and conducts research that contributes to the sustainability of the Norwegian welfare state and the metropolitan region. The Faculty of Technology, Art and Design (TKD) offers higher education and research and development (R&D) activities within technical subjects, arts and design. The Faculty has approximately 4.000 students and 400 staff members and is situated at Pilestredet Campus in downtown Oslo and at Kjeller Campus in Akershus. The Department of Computer Science offers four bachelor’s degree programmes, a master’s degree programme, and is part of a cross-departmental PhD program. Academic staff at the department are pursuing research in a wide range of areas including computer science, the natural sciences, and innovation and management. Both students and researchers are also involved in an increasing number of interdisciplinary initiatives across the university. At the Department of Computer Science, we are offering a PhD fellowship position. This position is a part of the recently established Norwegian Quantum Software Centre (NorQSoft) and the OsloMet Quantum Hub. The scope of the NorQSoft Centre, which is hosted by Simula Research Laboratory and has OsloMet as one of its core partners, spans foundational research on quantum application software, the full quantum software stack, and quantum artificial intelligence. The aim is to pioneer quantum software technologies with real-world relevance by developing the necessary foundations, implementing them in prototype tools, and validating their feasibility and cost-effectiveness through academic and industrial case studies. The centre will also establish a world-class QC education program to lower entry barriers and train the next generation of professionals. Main duties and areas of responsibility The successful applicants’ primary duty is to carry out and publish research within their research project. This research will be performed in close collaboration with the main supervisors – in addition to other staff members at the department, Simula Research Laboratory and other NorQSoft members. It is also expected that the candidates contribute actively to the QC-related activity at SoloMet and NorQSoft centre. This could, e.g., involve giving seminars at summer/winter schools and public dissemination work. The candidates are also expected to present research findings at international conferences and workshops. Project description Many proposed quantum algorithms for optimization, including the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) and variational quantum-circuit approaches are formulated and analysed in the ideal unitary setting. On present-day noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware, these methods can fail already for small problem instances because the implemented circuit is a noisy quantum channel rather than the intended unitary transformation. Increasing the number of physical qubits does not by itself solve this problem. This project will investigate how optimization and data-analysis tasks can be formulated and run on existing gate-based NISQ platforms under such constraints. The central aim is to identify approaches that remain useful when the hardware dynamics include decoherence, gate imperfections and measurement noise. One direction to be studied is quantum reservoir computing and related schemes, where the noisy many-qubit dynamics can be treated as part of the computational resource rather than as an error that must be fully removed. The project will combine cloud-based quantum computation and cluster-based classical simulations. Candidate approaches will be compared using practical criteria such as circuit depth, number of entangling gates, sensitivity to gate errors, sampling cost and performance on small optimization and data-analysis benchmarks. The expected outcome is a set of methods and design principles for using current NISQ devices for optimization and data analysis, with emphasis on regimes where conventional variational circuits are not robust. The position is advertised as a 3-year position with 100% research, or a 4-year position with 75% research and 25% other career-advancing work. The goal must be to complete the PhD program/degree within the decided time frame. The decision on a 3- or 4-year position will be discussed as part of the interviews in the hiring process. Qualification requirements

• A relevant master’s degree with an average grade B or better, a minimum grade of B must be awarded to the master's thesis and a bachelor’s degree with an average grade C or better. The degree should be in theoretical physics, computer science or mathematics. The degree must normally include 120 credits (ECTS). If the master’s degree includes fewer than 120 ECTS credits, the applicant must, by the application deadline, submit documentation confirming that the master’s degree qualifies for admission to doctoral studies in the country where it was awarded. Exceptions to the grade requirements are provided on the doctoral programme’s website (PhD programme website).
• An academic profile aligned with the needs of the research group and the department.
• Written and oral proficiency in English (Language requirements for employees at OsloMet)
• Familiarity with scientific computing and programming in Python, C++, Julia, MATLAB or similar.
• Admission to a relevant doctoral programme is a prerequisite
• General criteria for appointment to teaching and research positions are set out in the Regulations relating to the Act relating to Universities and University Colleges.