Financial Services

Wells Fargo 

Quantum Evolution with Measurement and Reset; A Challenge with Real-World Relevance in Finance 

In the financial industry, especially in areas like algorithmic trading, real-time risk management, optimal order execution, and dynamic stochastic optimization, modelling and predicting complex, non-linear stochastic processes is crucial. Agents interact with partially observable systems, observing noisy signals and taking actions based on them. This interaction resembles the dynamics of open quantum systems, where measurement collapses a subsystem’s state and alters the larger system due to entanglement. This challenge simulates quantum protocols where measurement outcomes influence future evolution, like how new market data or customer behavior affects financial models in real time. Your task is to build a quantum circuit that reproduces the conditional evolution resulting from the measurement-reset loop.

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Financial Services

JPMorganChase 

Performance Improvement of Quantum Optimization Package QOKit

Quantum computers offer a potential solution to optimize modern business processes, improving quality, speed, cost, and solution applicability. For instance, in finance, quantum optimization algorithms can find optimal asset or financial instrument sets for maximum returns under risk constraints, known as Portfolio Optimization (PO). QAOA, a leading proposal, combines algorithmic and computational steps, leaving room for further performance improvements. Your challenge is to enhance QAOA on JPMC’s QOKit, such as speeding up single-core CPU performance, improving scaling strategies for large CPU/GPU clusters, enhancing initial states and/or mixers for portfolio optimization, or other areas.

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Risk Management & Insurance

The World Bank 

Quantum Computing for Climate Change Risk Insurance Model 

The increasing frequency and intensity of natural catastrophes driven by climate change are causing significant damage to cities, communities, and buildings worldwide. This escalating risk poses a major challenge to the insurance sector. Without prompt action, more assets will become uninsurable, making financing unavailable, stalling development projects, and deepening economic instability. Your challenge is to develop a sustainable, quantum-driven risk-based climate risk insurance model that benefits all stakeholders, including policyholders, insurers, reinsurers, governments, and financial institutions. The new model should include Quantum-Enhanced Risk Assessment & Prediction, Quantum Optimization for Risk Diversification, Quantum-Enabled Dynamic Pricing, and Inclusive Insurance Solutions. 

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Infrastructure

MITRE 

Quantum Simulations for Durable Asphalt Binders

Asphalt binders are crucial to modern infrastructure, and the U.S. spends $30-50 billion annually on road maintenance. Extending asphalt life to 25-30 years would reduce costs and environmental impact. Quantum chemistry methods better capture asphalt oxidation, charge transfers, and binding energies. Your challenge is to simulate asphalt binder degradation using a 3-stage challenge: system identification, property selection, model Hamiltonian development, and quantum algorithm implementation. ​

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Life Sciences

NeuroQuantum Nexus 

Decoding Neural Circuits with NISQ-Based Spike Analysis

Understanding the complex dynamics of neural circuits is crucial for unravelling brain function and developing effective treatments for neurological disorders. Quantum computing’s ability to naturally handle probabilistic models and perform complex iterative calculations with potential speedups makes it a uniquely promising approach for unravelling the brain’s intricate communication networks. This challenge invites participants to develop innovative techniques utilizing Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices or hybrid quantum-classical approaches to analyze a provided neural network calcium signals dataset. Participants may explore relevant quantum algorithms such as VQA, QAOA, Quantum Neural Networks (QNNs), or Quantum Graph Neural Networks (QGNNs).