Chair for Design Automation

The Chair for Design Automation covers the development of design methods for various application areas. A particular focus of our work is on the design and simulation of circuits and systems for conventional as well as future technologies (such as quantum computing, microfluidics, or field-coupled nanocomputing). Besides that, we have proven to successfully apply the methods developed by us in complementary research areas. For students, we offer for graduate and undergraduate courses and supervise Bachelor as well as Master theses. We believe in research-oriented learning.

News

• Mar 15, 2021: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD).

• Mar 08, 2023: Bohan Lu from the FU Berlin visits us and gives a talk on “Improved decoding of quantum LDPC codes using neural-network enhanced belief propagation”.

• Feb 17, 2022: Feng Hao successfully completed his Master thesis entitled “Elderly Fall Detection by FMCW Radar”. Congratulations!

• Feb 15, 2023: Victory Omole from Super.tech visits us and gives a talk on how software engineers contribute to the development of Quantum Computers.

• Feb 7, 2022: Benjamin Hien successfully completed his Master thesis entitled “Signal Distribution Networks in Automatic QCA Standard-Cell Placement & Routing”. Congratulations!

• Feb 6-7, 2023: Our works on

  • “Software Tools For Decoding QLDPC Codes, and
  • “QLDPC Codes for Modular Architectures are presented as posters at the Quantum Information Processing Conference (QIP).

• Jan 16-19, 2023: Our works on

  • “Equivalence Checking of Parameterized Quantum Circuits: Verifying the Compilation of Variational Quantum Algorithms”,
  • “Software Tools for Decoding Quantum Low-Density Parity Check Codes”,
  • “Exploiting Reversible Computing for Verification: Potential, Possible Paths, and Consequences”,
  • “A SAT Encoding for Optimal Clifford Circuit Synthesis”, and
  • “Compilation of Entangling Gates for High-Dimensional Quantum Systems”

  are presented at the Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC).

• Jan 13, 2023: We released version 2.0 of our quantum circuit compilation tool QMAP as part of the Munich Quantum Toolkit (MQT) with many new features and improvements.

• Jan 08-12, 2023: Our work on Automatic Implementation and Evaluation of Error-Correcting Codes for Quantum Computing: An Open-Source Framework for Quantum Error Correction is presented at the International Conference on VLSI Design (VLSI Design). Besides that, we contributed to the tutorial “Quantum Computing: Algorithms, Systems and Design Automation” at this conference.

• Jan 08, 2023: Our book chapter “Verification of Quantum Circuits” in the “Handbook of Computer Architecture” published by Springer is now available online.

• Dec 19, 2022: Our work on “SyReC Synthesizer: An MQT tool for synthesis of reversible circuits” has been published in the Software Impacts Journal.

• Dec 12, 2022: Our book chapter “Decision Diagrams for Quantum Computing” has been published by Springer.

• Dec 07-09, 2022: Our works on

  • “Efficient Multi-Path Signal Routing for Field-coupled Nanotechnologies” and
  • “Exploiting the Third Dimension: Stackable Quantum-dot Cellular Automata”

  are presented at the International Symposium on Nanoscale Architectures (NANOARCH).

• Dec 7, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the International Conference on Quantum Software (QSW).

• Nov 12, 2022: Kevin Mato presents the Munich Quantum Toolkit at the Workshop on Quantum Software, co-located with QTML22.

• Nov 11, 2022: Riccardo Romanello from the Universiy of Udine visits us and gives a talk on “Encoding of directed graphs for Quantum Computing”.

• Nov 07-09, 2022: Omar Paranaiba Vilela Neto from the Federal University of Minas Gerais stays at our chair, discussing Photonic Computing, DNA Computing and FCN.

• Nov 07, 2022: Stefan Hillmich successfully completed his PhD thesis entitled “Efficient Implementation of Quantum Circuit Simulation with Decision Diagrams”. Congratulations!

• Nov 06, 2022: Our work on “MMFT Droplet Simulator: Efficient Simulation of Droplet-based Microfluidic Devices” has been published in the Software Impacts Journal.

• Oct 28, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the International Symposium on Design and Diagnostics of Electronic Circuits and Systems (DDECS).

• Oct 27, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the International Conference on Reversible Computation (RC).

• Oct 25, 2022: We released version 2.0 of our quantum circuit equivalence checking tool QCEC as part of the Munich Quantum Toolkit (MQT) with many new features and improvements.

• Oct 24, 2022: Our work on Improved Performance of Two-phase Microfluidic Fuel Cells Using Nanostructures: A Numerical Study is presented at the International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (µTAS).

• Oct 19, 2022: Priyanka Mukhopadhyay from the University of Toronto visits us and gives a talk on “Some recent algorithms to optimize T-count of multi-qubit unitaries”.

• Oct 11-14, 2022: Our quantum computing group is going for a retreat at the TUM Science & Study Center Raitenhaslach.

• Oct 17, 2022: Huawei Sun successfully completed her Master thesis entitled “Explainable and Robust Al for improving People Counting Tasks using FMCW radar”. Congratulations!

• Oct 07, 2022: Lukas Burgholzer gives a (virtual) talk on “Design Automation and Software Tools for Quantum Computing” in the ECE seminar at the University of Utah.

• Oct 4-6, 2022: We are participating at the Review Meeting of the Munich Quantum Valley in which we are developing software for quantum computing (more about our work on quantum computing is available at this page).

• Sep 29, 2022: The article “Data structures for quantum computing” covering our work on data structures for quantum computing has been published by the Open Access Government.

• Sep 28, 2022: Poulami Das from Georgia Tech visits us and gives a talk on “Software and Architecture for Reliable Quantum Computing”.

• Sep 27, 2022: Robert Wille gives a talk on “Design Automation and Software Tools for Quantum Computing” at the Technical University of Denmark.

• Sep 26, 2022: We are participating at the milestone meeting of the AUTOMATE project in which we are developing simulation methods for microfluidic devices (more about our work on microfluidics is available at this page).

• Sep 22: Robert Wille gives a talk on “Quantum Computing: Potential and Challenges from a Design Perspective” at the IT Discovery Week by Infineon.

• Sep 18-23, 2022: Our work on Adaptive Compilation of Multi-Level Quantum Operations is presented at the IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE). Besides that, we are giving an invited talk on “Data-structures for Quantum Circuit Simulation” and participate in the panel of the International Workshop on Integrating High-Performance and Quantum Computing.

• Sep 17, 2022: Robert Wille gives a keynote on “Software for Quantum Computing: How to Design and Develop Applications for the Next Big Thing?” at the 11th Heinz Nixdorf Symposium.

• Sep 14, 2022: The video of our panel discussion with Krysta Svore (from Microsoft Research), Leo Stok (from IBM Research), and Austin Fowler (from Google Research) at DAC 2021 is now available at YouTube.

• Sep 13, 2022: Robert Wille gives a keynote on “SAT Solvers and Quantum Computing: Potential and Challenges” at the International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC).

• Sep 09, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the European Test Symposium (ETS).

• Aug 28, 2022: Our work on “Equivalence Checking of Quantum Circuits with the ZX-Calculus” has been published in the Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems (JETCAS).

• Aug 28, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the European Test Symposium (ETS).

• Aug 12, 2022: Our work on “Simulations Paths for Quantum Circuit Simulation with Decision Diagrams: What to Learn from Tensor Networks, and What Not” has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD).

• Aug 02, 2022: Our work on “Towards a SAT Encoding for Quantum Circuits: A Journey From Classical Circuits to Clifford Circuits and Beyond” is presented at the International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT).

• Aug 01, 2022: We are visiting the IBM Research team in Haifa and give a talk on “Verification of Quantum Circuits”.

• Jul 25, 2022: Lieuwe Vinkhuijzen from the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science visits us and gives a talk on “The big tent of decision diagram research”.

• Jul 25, 2022: Simon Hofmann successfully completed his Master thesis entitled “Reinforcement Learning and Evolutionary Algorithms for Jammer Mitigation in Cognitive Radio”. Congratulations!

• Jul 19, 2022: Our work on “Simulation of Pressure-Driven and Channel-Based Microfluidics on Different Abstract Levels: A Case Study” has been published in MDPI Sensors.

• Jul 19, 2022: Our book chapter “Empowering the Design of Reversible and Quantum Logic with Decision Diagrams” has been published by Springer.

• Jul 14, 2022: Stefan Hillmich got awarded a DAC Young Fellow Best Video Award. Congratulations!

• Jul 10-14, 2022: Our works on

  • “Handling Non-Unitaries in Quantum Circuit Equivalence Checking”
  • “Hexagons are the Bestagons: Design Automation for Silicon Dangling Bond Logic”, and
  • “Equivalence checking paradigms in quantum circuit design: A case study”

  are presented at the Design Automation Conference (DAC). Besides that, we are part of the Special Session presenting “The Basis of Design Tools for Quantum Computing: Arrays, Decision Diagrams, Tensor Networks, and ZX-Calculus” at this conference.

• Jul 12, 2022: We are organizing the PhD Forum at DAC.

• Jul 10, 2022: We are contributing to the panel of the Early Career Workshop at DAC.

• Jul 06, 2022: Our work on “Reordering Decision Diagrams for Quantum Computing Is Harder Than You Might Think” is presented at the Conference on Reversible Computation (RC).

• Jul 05, 2022: Our work on “Exact Mapping of Quantum Circuit Partitions to Building Blocks of the SAQIP Architecture” is presented at the IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI).

• Jul 01, 2022: Alwin Zulehner got awarded a Promotio sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publicae (the highest possible distinction for a doctoral degree in Austria) for his PhD (also covered by this press release by JKU). Congratulations!

• Jun 28, 2022: Lukas Burgholzer got awarded a JKU Early Research Achievement Award (also covered by this press release by JKU). Congratulations!

• Jun 14, 2022: Our work on “A Comprehensive Survey on Electronic Design Automation and Graph Neural Networks: Theory and Applications” has been published in the Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES).

• Jun 07, 2022: Our work on “Noise-aware Quantum Circuit Simulation With Decision Diagrams” has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD).

• Jun 04, 2022: Our work on “Channel Routing for Microfluidic Devices: A Comprehensive and Accessible Design Tool” has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD).

• Jun 01, 2022: We are supported by the “Distinguished Professorship”-program of the Bavarian High Tech Agenda which provides us with approx. 5 Mio. EUR for the first five years. More about that in

  • a press Release by the Technical University of Munich,
  • a press Release by the Bavarian Ministry of Science and Art (in German), and
  • an interview and Video (in German).

• Jun 01, 2022: Our work on “Optimal Railway Routing Using Virtual Subsections” is presented at the International Conference on Reliability, Safety and Security of Railway Systems (RSSRAIL).

• May 27, 2022: Our work on “Model-Driven Engineering of Safety and Security Software Systems: A Systematic Mapping Study and Future Research Directions” has been published in the Journal of Software: Evolution and Process.

• May 25, 2022: Our work on Label-Aware Ranked Loss for Robust People Counting Using Automotive In-Cabin Radar” is presented at the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP).

• May 16, 2022: Richard Kueng completed his habilitation today. Congratulations!

• Apr 28, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the International Workshop on Boolean Problems (IWSBP).

• Apr 28, 2022: We launched MQT Bench—a cross-level benchmark suite comprising more than 30.000 benchmark circuits ranging from 2 up to 130 qubits on four abstraction levels to empirically evaluate and compare software and design automation tools for quantum computing.

• Apr 25, 2022: Our work on “Approximating Decision Diagrams for Quantum Circuit Simulation” has been published in the ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing (TQC).

• Apr 21, 2022: Our work on “Neural Network Robustness Analysis Using Sensor Simulations for a Graphene-Based Semiconductor Gas Sensor” has been published in Chemosensors.

• Apr 18, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD).

• Apr 08, 2022: Our work on “A Concept Towards Pressure-Controlled Microfluidic Networks” is presented at the International Symposium on Design and Diagnostics of Electronic Circuits and Systems (DDECS).

• Apr 8, 2022: Our work on “Design Automation for Continuous-Flow Lab-on-a-Chip Systems: A One-Pass Paradigm” has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD).

• Apr 12, 2022: Karim Janou successfully completed his Master thesis entitled “Adversarial Attacks on Radar Data: Loss Functions’ Transferability and Universal Patches”. Congratulations!

• Apr 06, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed Subcommittee Chair for “Emerging Devices, Technologies and Applications” at the Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC).

• Apr 4-8, 2022: Kevin Mato visits the University of Innsbruck/AQT GmbH for exchanges on how to close the gap between physics and software in quantum computing and gives a talk on “An Introduction to Design Automation for Quantum Computing”.

• Apr 01, 2022: Our work on “Characteristics of reversible circuits for error detection” has been published in Array.

• Mar 30-Apr 1, 2022: Lukas Burgholzer and Stefan Hillmich mentored two teams at the 10th NYUAD International Hackathon for Social Good focusing on Quantum Computing at the New York University in Abu Dhabi.

• Mar 29, 2022: Our “10-year Retrospective Most Influential Paper Award” is covered in an article by the Bremen magazin up2date.

• Mar 28, 2022: Richard Kueng successfully completed his habilitation thesis entitled “Rigorous and non-asymptotic theory support for near-term quantum computers”. Congratulations!

• Mar 28, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the IFIP Working Group on Foundations of Quantum Computation.

• Mar 23, 2022: The article Classical simulation of quantum circuits covering our work on quantum circuit simulation has been published by the Open Access Government.

• Mar 22, 2022: Robert Wille discusses with M.Fernando González Zalba (from Quantum Motion) and Théophile Gonos (from A.I.Mergence) in a panel “What’s it like to be an Engineer for Emerging Computing Technologies” organized by Aida Todri at the Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE).

• Mar 21, 2022: Tom Peham successfully completed his Master thesis entitled “Equivalence checking of Quantum Circuits with the ZX-calculus”. Congratulations!

• Mar 18, 2022: Robert Wille gives a keynote on “Design Automation and Software Tools for Quantum Computing” at the International Workshop on Quantum Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (Q-SANER 2022; co-located with SANER 2022).

• Mar 15, 2022: Stefan Hillmich presents his work on “Decision Diagrams in Quantum Design Automation” at the DATE PhD Forum (see this page for more details on the topic).

• Mar 14-23, 2022: Our work on

  • Exploiting Arbitrary Paths for the Simulation of Quantum Circuits with Decision Diagrams (implementation available here) and
  • Comprehensive and Accessible Channel Routing for Microfluidic Devices (tool available here)

  are presented at the Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE).

• Mar 12, 2022: Our work on “Automatic Design of Microfluidic Gradient Generators” has been published at IEEE Access. The corresponding tool, which designs concentration gradient generators in an automatic fashion and through an easy to use online form, is available at this page.

• Mar 11, 2022: Stefan Hillmich gave a poster presentation on “Design Automation Tools for Quantum Computing” at the Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP).

• Mar 10, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed member of the Program Committee for the IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing (QCE).

• Mar 08, 2022: Robert Wille has been appointed to the Future Panel Upper Austria—a think tank for the Upper Austrian government.

• Mar 1, 2022: We started the Chair for Design Automation at the Technical University of Munich. All news below belong to our previous acitvities at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

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