Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Texas at Austin received a $412,008 CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Information and Intelligent Systems under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070), effective September 15, 2026, through August 31, 2031. This award funds research on co-designing compilers and quantum computing architectures to advance fault-tolerant quantum computing systems. The project addresses a critical challenge in quantum computing: the inherent vulnerability of qubit devices to computational errors, which currently prevents practical execution of most quantum algorithms despite the availability of hundreds to thousands of qubit devices.

The research is organized into three primary thrusts designed to reduce error impacts through fault-tolerant program execution. The first thrust develops automated and optimized program compilation methods, including application-specific instructions and resource optimization for fault-tolerant operations on large-scale quantum systems. The second thrust advances qubit control architectures to improve real-time instruction scheduling and error correction, focusing on resource-efficient quantum error correction codes and hardware-software co-design techniques to address non-trivial errors such as hardware defects and qubit losses. The project deliverables will enable quantum computing applications across critical domains including chemistry, physics, cryptanalysis, machine learning, and drug discovery by establishing methodologies and architectures that enhance quantum computational reliability and scalability.