Merge pull request #607 from KallieFerguson/Q3-Quarterly-Update

Q3 quarterly update

src/content/blog/2024_Q3.md

@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+---
+title: "Unitary Fund Q3 2024: QOSS Survey, unitaryCON, and Project Updates"
+author: Kallie Ferguson
+day: 15
+month: 10
+year: 2024
+tags: 
+  - Quarterly Updates
+---
+
+Dear Unitary Fund community,
+
+We had a busy Q3 in 2024 and we are excited to share our highlights! This quarter we launched the third annual 2024 QOSS Survey. The annual survey is a state of the community & industry snapshot. It is a chance for anyone in the quantum computing industry to share their voice in the development of our field. The survey covers information on demographics, experience, community, research, tech stacks and more.
+
+If you are a user or developer of software for any kind of quantum technology, we kindly encourage you to take this survey and contribute your voice to the future of quantum computing. Please note the survey will be available through the end of October 31, 2024. [**Take the survey here**](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/qosssurvey24).
+
+[![QOSS Survey](/images/2024_QOSS_Social_card_.png)](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/qosssurvey24)
+
+This September we also wrapped up our second annual [unitaryCON](https://unitary.fund/community/unitaryCON/), a collaborative workshop for the extended Unitary Fund community. With the help of Dr. Alexandru Paler, unitaryCON 2024 was hosted at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. UnitaryCON provided a unique opportunity for Unitary Fund advisors, grantees, staff, ambassadors and friends to gather, talk, learn, and share ideas about how to move the field forward. With an event rating of 9.36 out of 10, the event was a success in bringing the community together to learn and network. Read more about the event and find links to talk information and slides [here](https://unitary.fund/posts/2024_unitarycon/). 
+
+We look forward to another exciting quarter to close out 2024, and thank you to all of our community members for the impactful contributions to the open source quantum ecosystem in Q3!
+Make sure to follow our [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/JqVGmpkP96), [X](https://twitter.com/unitaryfund), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/unitary-fund/), and our [Community Calendar](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=c_mgqdq6hj2isi4d6h467kfqvg60@group.calendar.google.com).
+
+## New from Unitary Fund 
+
+**Unitary Fund Research**: [W. J. Zeng](https://arxiv.org/search/quant-ph?searchtype=author&query=Zeng,+W+J), [F. Labib](https://arxiv.org/search/quant-ph?searchtype=author&query=Labib,+F), [V. Russo](https://arxiv.org/search/quant-ph?searchtype=author&query=Russo%2C+V), *Towards violations of Local Friendliness with quantum computers*. arXiv preprint (2024), [[2409.15302](https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.15302)]
+
+**Mitiq**
+
+[v0.39.0](https://github.com/unitaryfund/mitiq/releases/tag/v0.39.0): updates to our documentation, beginning with the completion of the first section of the Pauli Twirling user guide, which offers a comprehensive introduction to this feature. Additionally, we've added a new tutorial on CDR (Clifford Data Regression) using [Qrack](https://github.com/unitaryfund/qrack/) as an efficient near-Clifford simulator.
+
+**Metriq**
+
+- This quarter we added two new members to the [Open Quantum Benchmark Committee](https://unitary.fund/posts/2024_benchmark_committee/), Ed Younis and Peter Groszkowski. Ed is a computer systems engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with extensive experience developing and implementing advanced algorithms for quantum compilation, such as QFAST and Qfactor. He is currently the principal engineer on the BQSKit project and has research interests in quantum synthesis, compilation, and software systems. Peter is a researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory working in various areas of physics, with emphasis on topics related to quantum computing and information. Beyond physics, he is also interested in all aspects of software development, ranging from numerical simulations to instrumentation control. Peter is a strong advocate of the open-source development model, supporting it whenever possible.
+- Work is being done to create state of the art metrics for benchmarking: https://metriq.info/Sota
+
+**Catalyst**
+
+Unitary Fund and Xanadu have partnered to enhance the error mitigation features of Catalyst, a powerful package for just-in-time (JIT) compilation of PennyLane programs. With this collaboration, Catalyst now includes support for exponential fitting and local folding within its zero-noise extrapolation routines, further boosting its capabilities.
+
+This marks Unitary Fund’s first venture into the domain of quantum just-in-time compilation and its initial exploration of the MLIR compiler framework. It was an exciting opportunity to tap into the potential of integrating error mitigation directly within the MLIR stack and to experiment with cutting-edge quantum compilation technologies. More about this in a dedicated blog post coming out soon. 
+
+**IEEE Quantum Week in review**
+
+Unitary Fund had a great presence at IEEE Quantum Week in Montreal, Canada this year! 
+
+IEEE Quantum week workshop ([Quantum Software 2.0](https://sites.google.com/view/quantum-software-2-0)) that was a collaboration between ORNL, Xanadu, Unitary Fund, and AWS
+
+![IEEE Workshop Organizers](/images/2024_Q3_IEEE.jpg)
+Pictured: Catalina Albornoz (Xanadu), Dan Strano (Unitary Fund), David Ittah (Xanadu), Elaine Wong (ORNL), Josh Izaac (Xanadu) Not in the photo we have Yunong Shi (Amazon) and Vicente Leyton-Ortega (ORNL), who also participated in co-organizing the workshop. 
+Co-authored by Unitary Fund, IBM, and Quantinuum, [Effective DEIA Requires Accountability](https://qce.quantum.ieee.org/2024/program/panels-abstracts/#pan10) was a panel discussion at IEEE Quantum Week to discuss strategies for accountability in building diversity in the quantum computing field. 
+
+![IEEE Diversity Workshop Organizers and Panelists](/images/2024_Q3_IEEE_Diversity.jpg)
+
+Pictured: Aaliyah Fowler (co-author, IBM);  Natasha Oughton (panelist, NQCC); Temitope (Odeyomi) Adeniyi (panelist, Cleveland State University); Jordan Sullivan (panelist, unitary Fund); Shawn Skelton, panelist, Leibniz University Hannover); Mira Wolf-Bauwens (panelist, IBM); Kallie Ferguson (co-author, Unitary Fund); Lauren Ryan (co-author, Quantinuum)
+
+The full schedule of the Unitary Fund IEEE Quantum Week presence is below, with [more information here](https://qce.quantum.ieee.org/2024/). 
+
+![IEEE Schedule](/images/2024_Q3_IEEE_Schedule.jpeg)
+
+**New Award**
+
+A research team led by Johns Hopkins APL quantum information scientist Gregory Quiroz and partners at five institutions, including Unitary Fund, has earned a competitive quantum computing award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to engineer potentially game-changing open-source software systems to propel scientific discoveries. [Read more here!](https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/241007-apl-earns-doe-quantum-computing-science-award)
+
+## Other news:
+
+ALF Project:
+
+1) The Helmholtz Platform for Research Software Engineering (HiRSE) is backing the ALF Project. More details and their promoting slide can be found at: https://gitpages.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/ALF/ALF_Webpage/news/2024-08-29-helmholtz-hirse/
+
+2) Last July we held our first hybrid ALF Workshop. The week-long, hands-on event was a success with both in person and remote participants. Some of the contributions can be found in our YouTube channel and more details can be found at: https://gitpages.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/ALF/ALF_Webpage/news/2024-08-17-alf-workshop-2024/ 
+
+## Microgrant Updates
+
+Earlier this year, we celebrated [awarding over 100 microgrants](https://unitary.fund/posts/2024_microgrant_impact/) and this quarter we opened up an application to join the Microgrant Advisory Review Board. If you are interested in applying, please [submit your application](https://airtable.com/appat5MoVPET2opYb/pag4FfvrhnWX0vgle/form) by Friday, October 18. 
+
+**QCoder**, a competitive quantum programming platform, now offers all its content, including problems and editorials, in English. Its second competition took place on 18 August and attracted 183 participants from 20 countries!
+
+top page: https://www.qcoder.jp/
+
+2nd contest page: https://www.qcoder.jp/contests/QPC002
+
+**Toqito** is now a [numfocus affiliated project](https://numfocus.medium.com/august-september-project-updates-e3dac6f86aa8).
+
+
+[**GQuantum Education**](https://physics.knust.edu.gh/mcp/gquantum-education): Teaching an online quantum education course for students in Ghana. Participated in WiSTEM Ghana's Girls Camp 2024, introducing quantum computing to high school senior girls in Ghana. 
+
+
+**Mqt-qudits**: successfully ran quantum circuits generated with 𝗠𝗤𝗧 𝗤𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀, the first open-source framework for mixed-dimensional quantum computing, on the state-of-the-art 𝗾𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 at the University of Innsbruck. [Check out the tool and tutorial here](https://github.com/cda-tum/mqt-qudits).
+
+
+**Q3 Grants**
+- To **Alberto Mercurio, Yi-Te Huang, and Luca Gravina** to further develop **[Documentation for QuantumToolbox.jl](https://github.com/qutip/QuantumToolbox.jl)**, a state-of-the-art Julia package designed for quantum physics simulations.
+- To **Hana KimLee** to further develop **Comprehensive Quantum Tomography Library**, a Julia library that includes standard algorithms such as state/process tomography and randomized benchmarking, as well as more sophisticated machine learning algorithms.
+- To [**Aidan Sims**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-sims/) to further develop **Python CVXQuad**, a project translating the CVXQuad library to Python and integrating it with the existing Toqito library.
+- To **Maxime Garnier and Thierry Martinez** to further develop **[Graphix](https://github.com/TeamGraphix/graphix)** through a 2025 workshop in Paris to further accelerate development of Graphix.
+
+## Job Opportunities
+- [Member of Unitary Fund Technical Staff - Quantum Benchmarking Lead](https://unitary.fund/jobs/mts-benchmarks/)
+- [Member of Unitary Fund Technical Staff - Quantum Compilers](https://unitary.fund/jobs/mts-compilation/)
+- [Academic research assistant, Saarland University](https://tinyurl.com/y47tp4us)