Design Automation for Quantum Computing: Intermediate Stage Report of the ERC Consolidator Grant “DAQC”

We are at the dawn of a new “computing age” in which quantum computers hopefully will find their way into practical applications. 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. The ERC Consolidator project “Design Automation for Quan-tum Computing” aims to provide a solution for this upcoming design gap by developing efficient and practically relevant de-sign methods for this emerging technology. While the current state of the art suffers from the interdisciplinarity of quantum computing (leading to the consideration of inappropriate models, inconsistent interpretations, and “wrong” problem formulations), this project builds 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. This intermediate stage report provides an overview of the motivation and approach of the project as well as showcases selected results and outreach activities conducted in the first two years of the project.