Conveners
Special: Quantum Computing
- Chair: Dr Samuel Mabakane ()
Special: Quantum Computing
- Chair: Dr Samuel Mabakane ()
Special: Supercomputing for Sustainability BoF
- Chair: Mr Maxmillian Höb ()
Special: Digital Leadership
- There are no conveners in this block
Special: Sustainable Research Software and Infrastructure for HPC
- Chair: Ms Anelda Van der Walt (Talarify)
As digital economies scale, the hidden environmental cost of data processing—especially from AI and search engines—has become a growing concern. Search engines like Google and AI models such as Meta AI consume hundreds of kilowatt-hours (kWh) daily; in 2024, Google disclosed that each AI search can consume up to 3 watt-hours, which, at scale, parallels the energy of running a home microwave...
Quantum circuits can be represented using complex unitary matrices. Certain algorithms, such as Shor's factoring algorithm, produce a matrix that needs to be converted into a quantum circuit and executed multiple times as part of a larger quantum circuit. Current approaches use the mathematical properties of matrices to factor arbitrary matrices into a different set of matrices that must then...
Optimization problems appear widely in science and industry, yet their classical solutions often demand considerable computational resources. Quantum computing provides a promising framework for addressing such problems more efficiently by exploiting quantum superposition and entanglement [1]. In this work, we investigate several quantum gradient descent [2] approaches to find the minimum of a...
Image reconstruction is a critical problem in industry, especially in certain areas of Optics, such as the Ghost Imaging experiment, [1], [2]. The experiment has many beneficial practical applications such as live cell imaging or remote sensing. The key leverage here lies with its non-local imaging procedure. This allows one to view a quantum image without collapsing its state. The...
Ramsey Numbers are a computationally difficult problem to solve. The expected runtime of any algorithm to find a Ramsey Number is in the computational complexity class of $\Pi_2^P$ or $\text{co-NP}^\text{NP}$ (Burr, 1987). Here we present some preliminary results from an optimized tree-search algorithm to find the next Ramsey Number $R(4,6)$ (Radziszowski, 2024) and verify the result...
Supercomputing for Sustainability: Balancing Performance and Energy
High-performance computing and AI are at the heart of modern cyber-infrastructure, enabling the transformation of massive data sets into knowledge and decisions. Yet, as system scale and complexity grow, so do the challenges of energy consumption, sustainability, and efficient data movement. This BOF will explore strategies...
The computation of Ramsey Numbers in graph theory looks for the appearance
of order of a certain substructure in a graph of given size. Mathematically, the
calculation of a Ramsey Number R(k, l) = n is a two colouring problem that
finds the smallest graph of size n, that contains either a colouring of size k
or a different colouring of size l, [1]. This is a formidable computational...
This project focuses on identifying quantum hardware based on its unique "quantum
noise fingerprint" using machine learning. Each quantum computer exhibits a distinct
noise signature due to physical imperfections, and recognizing these patterns can aid in
hardware development, calibration, and security. We utilized basic machine learning
algorithms (SVM, KNN) to analyse noise...
The rise of quantum computing poses a serious threat to password-based security systems
and could break the methods we currently use to keep data safe, putting sensitive information
at risk. For example, Grover’s algorithm, a well-known quantum algorithm can make bruteforce password attacks much faster by reducing the number of guesses needed roughly by the
square root of the total...
Digital transformation in the public sector needs more than just technology; it requires a new understanding of leadership. This presentation examines how leadership is practised within South Africa’s Centre for High-Performance Computing (CHPC), a national facility driving the country’s digital research agenda.
Building on the Leadership-as-Practice (L-A-P) framework and expanded through...
Digital leadership is crucial for driving innovation and transformation in health systems across Africa. This case study examines the implementation of drone technology for delivering medical supplies in Rwanda, demonstrating how strategic digital leadership facilitated the successful integration of this technology into the country's health logistics system. Through interviews and document...
Sovereign cloud is an increasingly important topic. Nations and businesses are realising that cloud solutions provided by foreign companies, even when deployed in South Africa, are subject to foreign laws. These laws enable states compel these companies to provide data from users of cloud platforms regardless of where they are deployed. In addition, geopolitics has become erratic and...
Digital leadership is emerging as the decisive competence of our time — the ability to align human insight, computational capacity, and organisational purpose in a world shaped by. This session explores what it means to lead when cognition, creativity, and computation are increasingly interwoven.
Far from being a technical role, digital leadership represents a new epistemic orientation —...
Motivation
Around the world, the Research Software Engineering (RSE) movement has shown how professionalising research software practices and building RSE communities can strengthen the sustainability of HPC-enabled research. Many HPC users are writing their own code, often without formal training or long-term support, which raises challenges for efficiency, portability, reproducibility,...
Quantum computing represents a transformative leap in technology with the potential to address complex challenges across sectors such as health care, energy, and finance. For Africa, embracing quantum technologies offers unique opportunities to drive innovation, enhance research capacity, and contribute to global advancements. This talk explores the steps needed to build a quantum-ready...
Searching algorithms play a crucial role in quantum computing, enabling the efficient identification of specific elements within large datasets. Grover’s algorithm, a key example, significantly speeds up searches for unstructured data compared to classical methods. Recent advancements have shown the potential of using optical fields as a computational resource to implement Grover’s algorithm,...
Quantum computing offers capabilities for simulating complex physical systems. In photonics, it plays a crucial role in modelling the behaviour of both bright laser beams and single-photons that are propagated through the atmosphere, turbid, and other complex media. This can be crucial for applications in fields such as biological imaging, LiDAR, laser light communication and surveillance...
Quantum computers have the potential to be faster at solving certain problems, such as optimization problems, than their conventional equivalents [1]. These speedups are made possible by the fact that quantum computers are based on quantum bits (qubits), which may use superposition or entanglement, two peculiar properties of quantum physics. In this work, we explore the quantum gradient...
Training phase masks for diffractive networks
Diffractive optical networks have been shown to be useful in a wide variety of application in the realms of optical computing and information processing, such as modal sorting and multiplexing. These systems utilise repeated phase modulations to transform a set of input states contained within a particular basis into a set of target states...
