UCL Computer Science To Explore Natural Language Processing On Quantum Computers For Content Discovery and Archive Retrieval

A new consortium funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering will build on work in quantum mechanics and linguistics conducted over 15 years by researchers at University College London and Quantinuum

November 28, 2022

Cambridge, UK, November 28th, 2022 Quantinuum, the world’s leading integrated quantum computing company, has joined a consortium with University College London (UCL) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to explore the industrial relevance of quantum natural language processing (QNLP) and quantum-inspired natural language processing.

The consortium, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering for a Senior Research Fellowship at UCL, will build on a long-term exploration of quantum mechanics and linguistics by Quantinuum’s chief scientist Professor Bob Coecke, head of artificial intelligence Professor Stephen Clark, and Professor Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh of UCL Computer Science.

The BBC hopes to find new ways to represent content in forms readable by computers, to support tasks such as content discovery and archival retrieval. This builds on the Corporation’s previous work with Sadrzadeh on Enhancing Personalised Recommendations with the use of Multi Modal Information.

Ilyas Khan, founder of Cambridge Quantum Computing and CEO of Quantinuum said: “Developing quantum computing so that the broadest and most diverse populations can benefit, means looking across the timing spectrum at applications that can be made productive in the short, medium and long term. As part of our long-term work, we anticipate that true language processing will become important with fault tolerant quantum processors, and our work with the BBC and UCL is a very significant step towards being prepared to take advantage of quantum computers when they become available at scale. Quantinuum is a leader in the fields in which it operates, and this leadership is built on deeply meaningful collaborations such as this.”

In their 15-year collaboration, the researchers established a unified model of statistical and compositional meaning for natural language, in the seminal 2011 paper Mathematical Foundations of a Compositional Distributional Model of Meaning.  The foundational work was guided by Professor Coecke’s categorical quantum mechanics formalism. Experimental evidence followed suite by Professor Sadrzadeh’s work on Concrete Models and Experimental Evaluations for the Categorial Compositional Distributional Model of Meaning. The advance of these techniques beyond academic research, to a scaled industrial level, will take capabilities from mere sentence level to general text, using methods which were initiated in the papers The Mathematics of Text Structure and Evaluating Composition Models for Verb Phrase Elliptical Sentence Embeddings

The broadcaster’s archives reflect a century of global news and cultural life across the UK and beyond. It is one of the largest broadcast archives in the world, with over 15 million items, including audio, film, and text documents, as well as toys, games, merchandise, artefacts, and historic equipment.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum is the world’s largest integrated quantum computing company, formed by the combination of Honeywell Quantum Solutions’ world leading hardware and Cambridge Quantum’s class leading middleware and applications. Science led and enterprise driven, Quantinuum accelerates quantum computing and the development of applications across chemistry, cybersecurity, finance, and optimization. Its focus is to create scalable and commercial quantum solutions to solve the world’s most pressing problems, in fields such as energy, logistics, climate change, and health. The company employs over 480 people including 350 scientists, at nine sites in the US, Europe, and Japan.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents. 

April 3, 2025
Quantinuum Selected by DARPA to Advance to First Stage of Quantum Benchmarking Initiative

Broomfield, CO, April 3rd, 2025 — Quantinuum, the industry leader in quantum computing with the world’s most powerful quantum computer, has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense, to participate in the first stage of the agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).

QBI aims to assess the feasibility of building an industrially useful quantum computer by 2033. Successful QBI performers will advance through stages A, B, and C; Stage A requires performers to describe their utility-scale quantum computer with a path to near-term realization, where utility-scale means the computational value exceeds costs.

As validated in a recent independent benchmarking study by a group of institutions at the forefront of quantum computing research, Quantinuum’s quantum systems are the highest performing in the industry. Last year, Quantinuum published its development roadmap, outlining a path to a universal, fully-fault tolerant quantum computer by 2029. Beyond this public roadmap, Quantinuum plans to scale to even larger machines in the early part of the 2030s, aligning with the objectives of QBI.

“We are honored to collaborate with DARPA and look forward to working closely with their test and evaluation team as they assess our roadmap and technological approach,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. “With our roadmap firmly on track, we are confident in our ability to deliver on DARPA’s objectives for QBI.”

Microsoft and NVIDIA will take part in Quantinuum’s Stage A effort, building on their long-standing collaborations with Quantinuum in advancing commercially scalable quantum computing.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 550 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution.  

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April 2, 2025
Quantinuum’s ‘Quantum Origin’ Becomes First Software Quantum Random Number Generator to Achieve NIST Validation

Broomfield, CO, April 2nd, 2025 — Quantinuum, the industry leader in quantum computing with the world’s highest performing quantum computer, today announced that  Quantum Origin, the company’s software Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG), has received National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) validation. Quantum Origin is the first software QRNG to achieve this validation, establishing it as a crucial tool for federal agencies and agency partners in their mandated migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) under National Security Memorandum 10. This achievement will help strengthen cybersecurity in the age of PQC.

Quantum Origin generates mathematically proven randomness — a capability unmatched by hardware-based QRNGs or traditional pseudo-random number generators. Unlike hardware solutions that require specialized equipment and can be affected by environmental factors, Quantum Origin delivers consistent, proven randomness through flexible software deployment. Proven quantum randomness is an essential foundation for comprehensive quantum security strategy alongside PQC.

"The evolving threat landscape demands a new era of cybersecurity solutions for governments, enterprises, and critical infrastructure," said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. "Quantinuum is at the forefront of this transformation, driving innovation in quantum cybersecurity. Our recent certified randomness demonstration with JPMorganChase, and our NIST-validated Quantum Origin platform are just two examples of how we are deepening our portfolio to meet this critical need."

Quantum Origin is delivered entirely as self-contained software, making it adaptable to diverse environments from cloud solutions to highly sensitive systems. It can be deployed with zero network connectivity, enabling protection for air-gapped networks and confidential environments where traditional hardware-based QRNGs cannot operate effectively. It provides quantum-enhanced security without impacting the size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements of existing systems, a critical consideration for resource-constrained deployments.

U.S. Made using Quantinuum's quantum computers based in Colorado, Quantum Origin helps mitigate supply chain risks associated with foreign-sourced hardware components. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing NIST-approved cryptographic systems without requiring recertification. With this NIST validation, organizations can now accelerate their adoption of quantum-enhanced security within existing compliance frameworks.

Visit https://www.quantinuum.com/quantum-origin to learn how Quantum Origin can strengthen federal and enterprise cryptographic systems today.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 550 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution.

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March 26, 2025
JPMorganChase, Quantinuum, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Texas at Austin advance the application of quantum computing to potential real-world use cases beyond the capabilities of classical computing
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