Fujitsu and Entanglement Solve Problems Related to COVID-19 and Other Previously Unsolvable Problems through Quantum-Inspired Technology
Fujitsu partnered with Entanglement, Inc. to demonstrate and validate the capabilities of the Digital Annealer (DA), a quantum-inspired computing platform and related services, to address large scale logistical combinatorial optimization challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other intractable challenges facing humankind.
From the beginning of the pandemic, provisioning Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to high demand areas continues to pose an enormous logistical challenge. Through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Department of Defense, Fujitsu and Entanglement offered to deliver a theoretical nationwide optimization model to solve the challenge, optimizing the equitable resource allocation of the potentially available stock of PPE in the United States, while minimizing the mileage and time traveled to emerging hotspots.
A report prepared by the CRADA validated that this highly complex, combinatorial challenge is solvable in seconds using the DA solution, versus days or weeks for other traditional computing algorithms. In fact, one metric in the report – the efficiency of overall supply and demand allocation – showed the DA outperformed a comparative Evolutionary Algorithm by 90 percent. Using real-time data from an array of public and private sources, Digital Annealer efficiency increases exponentially with the addition of diverse variables and larger datasets.
“Traditional logistics tools are simply too slow and incapable of managing the complexities of these huge combinatorial problems,” said Jason Turner, CEO of Entanglement, Inc. “Fujitsu’s Digital Annealing technology and related services, in combination with our advanced computational and quantum computing expertise, not only solve these problems quickly, but do so in a way that is scalable, effective, iterative, equitable, and transparent. The best part? The more complex the problem, the more it shines, producing evermore accurate and efficient results the more its stressed.”
Fujitsu and Entanglement formed their partnership in May of 2020 based on their common core values, which together aim to deliver advanced technology ecosystems that assist in solving large-scale, human-centric problems for end users. Fujitsu intellectual property and DA technology, combined with Entanglement’s intellectual property, domain experience and commitment to demonstrate and accelerate quantum information science and artificial intelligence, created an optimum environment for the two companies to spotlight computing capabilities beyond the reach of traditional computing systems in the market today, and make a significant impact.
“While our initial collaborations centered on commercial prospects leveraging the emerging mobility ecosystem, the COVID-19 pandemic made it abundantly clear we needed to redeploy our conceptual thinking and quickly offer new models that accelerated our response to the virus,” said Paul Warburton, Global Head of Mobility DX business at Fujitsu. “Both companies felt and embraced a deep responsibility to use our capabilities for good, and there is no area of greater need today than fighting this pandemic.”
The DA solution, related consultancy and professional services, together with the advanced research, experienced team and purpose-built laboratory capabilities from Entanglement, make the particular use case for PPE optimization highly transferrable to a number of different applications in a variety of public and private sector endeavors. Agile and adaptive, the quantum-inspired model is designed to tackle a variety of linear parallel processes including predictive modeling for financial markets and portfolio optimization; supply chain logistics; transport and mobility; drug discovery; diagnosing, preventing and treating disease; predicting and preventing cyber threats; and modeling simulations, to name a few. The DA also adapts to fast-moving environments and integrates with existing systems, making it non-disruptive to ongoing and transforming operations.
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