IBM TEAMS UP TO ACCELERATE CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION

by Tech Talk | Nov 17, 2022 | Articles

At this year’s COP27 in Egypt, IBM announced the new members of its global pro bono social impact programme, the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, which applies IBM technologies – such as hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence – and an ecosystem of experts to enhance and scale projects focused on populations vulnerable to environmental threats, including climate change.

All new members will focus on accelerating clean energy projects. IBM has previously announced it plans to select five organisations for this programme each year and expects to provide $30-million worth of services by the end of 2023.

According to the International Energy Agency, the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, disruptions to global supply chains, and diversion of fiscal resources to keep food and fuel prices affordable, have affected the pace of progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030.

“With the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, we are convening experts and using innovative technologies to help tackle the toughest environmental challenges our planet faces; and transitioning to clean energy is a critical step right now,” says Justina Nixon-Saintil, vice-president of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG at IBM. “With this new cohort, helping marginalized communities get just and equitable access to sustainable energy resources not only helps the world achieve the goal of UN SDG7, but can help in the larger global energy transition.”

After evaluating more than 100 submissions from around the world, IBM selected the following organisations to become the clean energy cohort of the program:

1. United Nations Development Programme: UNDP is working with IBM to increase access to sustainable, affordable and reliable energy in African countries, focusing on those furthest left behind. The goal is to forecast electricity access to better guide policy and investment decisions, using UNDP’s technical knowledge and IBM’s artificial intelligence and geospatial analytics.

2. Sustainable Energy for All: IBM is working with Sustainable Energy for All to build an intelligent model to project energy needs based on current and future human activity. This model will be designed to help to address key development challenges (e.g., lack of energy access and poor healthcare) and support the development of robust infrastructure planning, such as electrification plans. IBM machine learning and IBM Cloud technology and expertise will be used to build and scale open-access datasets and an energy needs model using temporal and spatial data. Kenya and India are being explored as the first regions to pilot the model.

3. Net Zero Atlantic: Net Zero Atlantic is collaborating with IBM to create an interactive digital tool that will geospatially display environmental and socioeconomic impacts of possible energy system futures for Nova Scotia. Ultimately, the goal is for Indigenous communities in Nova Scotia to leverage advanced modelling capabilities to inform their input into energy and development planning. The tool aims to be easy-to-use, locally relevant and time efficient. It will be designed to produce easy-to-understand visual results using IBM technology such as the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.

4. Miyakojima City Government: The Miyakojima City Government is working with IBM to support the development of a renewable energy strategy including a microgrid on Miyakojima Island, a distant community facing severe climate issues due to typhoons in Japan, with the goal of helping their residents, who rely on a clean local environment for the tourist industry and agriculture. Miyakojima City Government and IBM will collaborate to leverage technologies such as IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite weather data and IBM Cloud to model electricity demand and advise energy infrastructure development.

5. Environment Without Borders Foundation: Environment Without Borders Foundation’s collaboration with IBM will be aimed to develop a platform to forecast, track, and communicate clean energy usage options in Egypt. The goal is to enable resilient and sustainable infrastructure and operations for clean energy in Egypt, helping residents of remote villages for whom energy is currently both expensive and unreliable. The clean energy management platform will leverage IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.

The selection process considered the applicant’s commitment to support communities who are especially vulnerable to environmental threats, its ability to increase access to affordable clean energy services, its strategic focus and transparency on measurement and reporting, among others.

Editor@tech-talk.co.za

IBM UNVEILS 400 QUBIT-PLUS QUANTUM PROCESSOR

by Tech Talk | Nov 15, 2022 | Articles

IBM has announced new advancements in quantum hardware and software and outlined its vision for quantum-centric supercomputing.

“The new 433 qubit ‘Osprey’ processor brings us a step closer to the point where quantum computers will be used to tackle previously unsolvable problems,” says Dr Darío Gil, senior vice-president of IBM and director of research.

“We are continuously scaling up and advancing our quantum technology across hardware, software and classical integration to meet the biggest challenges of our time, in conjunction with our partners and clients worldwide.

“This work will prove foundational for the coming era of quantum-centric supercomputing.”

The company has unveiled the following new developments:

• ‘IBM Osprey’ – IBM’s new 433-quantum bit (qubit) processor – IBM Osprey has the largest qubit count of any IBM quantum processor, more than tripling the 127 qubits on the IBM Eagle processor unveiled in 2021. This processor has the potential to run complex quantum computations well beyond the computational capability of any classical computer. For reference, the number of classical bits that would be necessary to represent a state on the IBM Osprey processor far exceeds the total number of atoms in the known universe.

• New quantum software addresses error correction and mitigation – Addressing noise in quantum computers continues to be an important factor in adoption of this technology. To simplify this, IBM released a beta update to Qiskit Runtime, which now includes allowing a user to trade speed for reduced error count with a simple option in the API. By abstracting the complexities of these features into the software layer, it will make it easier for users to incorporate quantum computing into their workflows and speed up the development of quantum applications.

• IBM Quantum System Two update – IBM’s next-generation quantum system – As IBM Quantum systems scale up towards the stated goal of 4,000+ qubits by 2025 and beyond, they will go beyond the current capabilities of existing physical electronics. IBM updated the details of the new IBM Quantum System Two, a system designed to be modular and flexible, combining multiple processors into a single system with communication links. This system is targeted to be online by the end of 2023 and will be a building block of quantum-centric supercomputing — the next wave in quantum computing which scales by employing a modular architecture and quantum communication to increase its computational capacity, and which employs hybrid cloud middleware to seamlessly integrate quantum and classical workflows.

• New IBM Quantum Safe technology: As quantum computers grow more powerful, it is crucial that technology providers take steps to protect their systems and data against a potential future quantum computer capable of decrypting today’s security standards. From offering the z16 system with quantum safe technology, to contributing algorithms in connection with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) goal for standardisation by 2024, IBM offers technology and services with these security capabilities.

• Client & Ecosystem Expansion: Growth of IBM Quantum Network: IBM has also announced that German conglomerate Bosch has joined the IBM Quantum Network to explore a variety of quantum use cases. Other recent additions to the network include multinational telco Vodafone to explore quantum computing and quantum-safe cryptography, French bank Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale to explore use cases in financial services, and Swiss innovation campus uptown Basel to boost skill development and promote leading innovation projects on quantum and high-performance computing technology. These organisations are joining more than 200 organisations — and more than 450 000 users — with access to the world’s largest fleet of more than 20 quantum computers accessible over the cloud.