The Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS), based at the University of Maryland has awarded an initial $5.7 million contract to IonQ to design a networked quantum computing system for the Department of Defense (DOD) to enable studying cybersecurity of multi-party quantum computation. This initial award is only for first phase design work on such a system and ARLIS indicates that a potential award of up to $12 million could be awarded in the future for construction, delivery, and maintenance of these systems. This award is funded by the Secretary of the Air Force Concepts, Development, and Management Office as part of the Securing Experimental Quantum Computing Usage in Research Environments (SEQCURE) program.
This research will enable studying the feasibility of blind quantum computation where a user can submit an encrypted program and data to be run on a remote quantum computer in such a way that the operator of the remote quantum computer cannot figure out what the program is doing or what the data means. IonQ is planning on building a two-node quantum computing system for conducting this research.
ARLIS has issued a press release announcing this award which can be viewed here and IonQ has issued another press release about this award which can be seen here.
August 6, 2024