Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Science Foundation's Division of Information and Intelligent Systems awarded a $600,000 Project Grant to the University of California, San Diego under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) for the period July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. The project, titled "A Heterogeneous System Approach Toward Early Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing," develops innovative quantum error correction (QEC) methodologies to advance practical quantum computing systems. Rather than applying uniform error correction schemes across entire quantum machines, the research delivers a heterogeneous architectural framework that combines multiple specialized error-protection techniques optimized for distinct computational roles, thereby enabling meaningful quantum error correction capabilities without the prohibitive hardware costs of fully scalable, fault-tolerant systems.

The award funds three integrated research thrusts that collectively deliver system-level design principles, compiler infrastructure, and evaluation frameworks. The first thrust establishes architectural principles including hierarchical quantum memory designs, hybrid compute schemes that combine encoded and bare-qubit operations, and hardware layout strategies that manage communication overhead. The second thrust develops compiler infrastructure that bridges quantum programs to heterogeneous architectures through code-aware logical gate synthesis, inter-code conversion protocols, and latency-aware qubit mapping and scheduling. The third thrust builds evaluation frameworks to characterize system performance. These deliverables position quantum computing research to transition from the noisy intermediate-scale quantum era toward practical applications in drug discovery, materials design, and secure communication.