Easy access to quantum computing for applications: Presentation held at 1st IEEE International Workshop on Integrating High-Performance and Quantum Computing at IEEE Quantum Week 2021, virtual event, October 17-22, 2021

Quantum computing can result in disruptive changes in many industrial areas, e.g. through the more efficient solution of optimization problems e.g. in logistics. To profit from a potential quantum advantage fully, an easy access to quantum computing hardware and software is required which does not require profound knowledge of the user regarding the underlying physics or technology. Within the Munich Quantum Valley, we develop a high-level software eco-system to achieve exactly this in a unique approach including all elements of the software stack. This includes e.g. the automatic decomposition of application problems into parts better suited for classical, HPC-systems or quantum computers, the development of mapping libraries to map the resulting software optimally onto the quantum computing hardware, down to the co-design of software and hardware. At the same time different tools ensure robust algorithms to solve the application problem. Quantum computing is predicted to result in disruptive changes in many industrial sectors, e.g. by more efficiently solving optimization problems in logistics or in production, or in the areas of artificial intelligence and simulation problems, which e.g. are relevant in the pharma sector in the design of new drugs. However, to realize these potential benefits, significant progress in quantum computing is still required. This does not only concern improvements in the quantum hardware with the need of more qubits of higher quality and noise correction. Also, the full software stack needs to be developed in an easily accessible way for the end user. Quantum computers need to be integrated with classical systems including HPC-systems to ensure that a computational task is using the best suited systems for a problem at hand. The Munich Quantum Valley is a new initiative in Garching/Munich (Germany) with the ambitious aim to build multiple quantum computers based on different technologies along with a full software stack up to (industrial) applications. This includes - besides the construction of the quantum computers - also their integration into existing computing infrastructure including HPC-systems, as well as the software that is required to realize the solution of application problems on quantum computers. Despite huge progress in realizing programming interfaces for quantum computers, the design of quantum algorithms is still very uncommon for the typical industrial software engineer - even if the API is embedded in hi