Advancing the frontiers of quantum science and engineering

Abstract: Discrete-event simulation (DES) engines like NetSquid are essential tools for designing and optimizing quantum communication networks, allowing protocol feasibility studies and requirement assessments without expensive hardware deployment. However, as network scale and physical parameter set grow, these simulators hit hard computational limits. Here, we introduce NetSquid's design and show how it bridges device-level parameters to network-level protocol metrics using a comparison of BB84 and MDI-QKD as a running example. We demonstrate what makes it powerful - and confront its fundamental scaling bottleneck. A modest parameter sweep over a physically realistic metropolitan network of 100 nodes on a modern high-end consumer device can require full CPU utilisation for periods of the order of one week or more. This is a scaling issue core to any DES engine. Quantum memories, entanglement swapping and other quantum-native effects introduce more complex interdependencies resistant to parallelisation. We close by posing the open question of what this means for the trajectory of quantum network modelling: whether to optimise existing DES frameworks, or to design bespoke for specific network architectures as the field reaches application scale.

The Quantum Information Processing Conference (QIP) is the largest quantum information processing technology conference, which annually gathers the world’s brightest researchers and industry leaders for a week long program to present and discuss the latest achievements in quantum computing, cryptography, information theory, mathematics and physics. Recent editions have drawn nearly 1000 participants. In 2027, CQT will host the 30th edition of this conference in Singapore. QIP2027 will take place 20-26 February 2027.

The International Conference on Women in Physics (ICWIP) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) will take place in the National University Singapore (NUS) during 7-11 June 2027, hosted by the Physics Department, NUS and the Centre for Quantum Technologies, Singapore. The ICWIP2027 is the 9th in a series of triennial conferences by IUPAP since 2002 that brings together practitioners from all over the world in order to deliberate on both topics in physics and processes within physics practice, with the goal of transforming physics into a welcoming inclusive enterprise for everyone. The conference will feature inspiring keynote talks by eminent women scholars, sessions where participants can present their own research in physics and on equity and inclusion in physics, interactive workshops to engage with the barriers to equity and inclusion in physics, call-to-action sessions on recommendations for the profession and more...