[mofeing]

PhD student there. Ask me anything if you wish to know more about BSC.

Some news: the new Marenostrum 5 no longer fits in the chapel, so it has been moved to the contiguous building. But one quantum computer from the Quantum Spain project will be installed soon (in a couple of months).

Easter Egg: whenever there is an official visit, they put Gregorian choirs in the chapel.

[cameron_b]

The side hallway has a wonderful collection of previous rack instances. Cheers for the preservation efforts.

What is your focus at the BSC?

[mofeing]

I'm working on classical simulation of quantum computers using tensor networks. Basically trying to push the frontier of quantum advantage / supremacy from the classical side.

BSC is fun due to its interdisciplinarity. I do quantum and HPC, but I have friends working on iron deposition on the seas (i.e. climate change), nuclear fusion simulations of a tokamak, large scale scientific visualization, protein folding and synthesis, ...

The European Chips Act is also coordinated from there so there is a ton of people working on hardware design (specifically RISC-V).

[santiagobasulto]

I just happen to be visiting Barcelona for a few days. Is it possible to visit the BSC?

Any other nerd recommendations that can spare me from yet another Passeig de Gracia walk?

[mofeing]

Yes, but you must contact through a form or get someone from inside to show it to you. Unfortunately, I'm out of town til next week so I cannot offer it myself. Check out https://www.bsc.es/discover-bsc/visit-our-supercomputer

If you want to visit some other nerdy places, I suggest you to visit: - CaixaForum: cool science museum - Observatori Fabra: a very old telescope (no longer used for science) but has cool views of the city

These days there is a very cool interactive AI exposition at CCCB. I really recommend it.

[stevoski]

A little outside of Barcelona, you can (sometimes) visit a particle accelerator.

https://www.cells.es/en/about/welcome

[pier25]

The Labyrinth of Horta. It's a bit far away from the center but there's a metro station close.

[wlst14]

The quantum computer is corruption. They created an spin-off where some management guys have shares on the company. Then launched a procurement. Only the spin-off company went for the procurement and won.

This was paid with European Funds and is illegal.

https://contrataciondelestado.es/wps/poc?uri=deeplink%3Adeta...

[personomas]

Sounds about right here in Europe. At least they have something to show for it this time, I guess? I mean, assuming they created the quantum computer with the EU funds.

[mofeing]

wtf are you talking about? I know people from both sides and can assure you that the whole process was done transparently and legally. The external board which selected the winner proposal did a blind review (they only knew the proposals, not who made those proposals).

It's true that Qilimanjaro is a spin-off of BSC, but they are the only company in Spain that can fabricate quantum chips. Furthermore, the chips are fabricated by Quantware and IQM, while Qilimanjaro provides the testing, calibration and service. One of the requirements from the European Funds is that the providers must be European companies. There are not many fully european companies that fabricate digital quantum chips, I'm afraid.

If you have doubts about the legality of the process, I welcome you to contact the coordinator of the project.