Quantinuum Helps Award-Winning High Schooler Test Algorithm
By Amy Wolff For Quantinuum
For most high school students, summers are for hanging out, playing video games, and staying up too late. Well, most high-schoolers are not Max Bee-Lindgren, a senior at Decatur High School in Decatur, Georgia. In 2021, Max spent his summer calculating transition matrix elements, the rate at which atoms, molecules, and other quantum-mechanical systems change states when interacting with their environments.
One important calculation is the emission of light from an excited electron in an atom. This state change is difficult to model accurately on current (classical) computers. Quantum computers, like those being developed by Quantinuum, hold great promise for modeling quantum systems but require new algorithms to make efficient use of their capabilities in a way that is robust to noise.
“I’ve always wanted to know how things worked — more specifically — why things happen,” said Max. “When I was a kid, I would endlessly ask my parents ‘why.’ When they answered, it would just trigger more and more questions down an endless chain until eventually the answer would end up being ‘it’s a complicated physics thing we can’t explain.’ So, I figured if I wanted to actually know why things happen, I should probably learn physics.”
For several months last summer, Max had the chance to collaborate online with other physics fanatics, including his mentor, Dr. Dean Lee, a nuclear physics professor at Michigan State University, and Kenneth Choi, a freshman at MIT who created the original rodeo algorithm during his apprenticeship with Dr. Lee in 2020. They were also joined by MSU students Zhengrong Qian, Jacob Watkins, Gabriel Given and Joey Bonitati.
The team met several times a week to discuss new developments in the rodeo algorithm research, collaborate about next steps, and get any big news updates on the project. The time spent paid off when Max was notified that he, along with 39 other high schoolers from across the U.S., was a finalist in the Regeneron Science Talent (STS) Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.
Like many people, when a call from an unknown number came in on his phone, Max declined the call. But when the Washington, D.C., number called back a second time, he picked up and was “shocked” to discover he had made the competition’s top 40.
“Being a part of this intensive summer program has driven me to complete the project in the best way possible,” Max said. “Without the support of Dr. Lee and his team, I would still be researching, but not fully applying myself nor putting my experience into practice. It is nice to have a direct and present force driving me to succeed, and thanks to the STS program and my experiences, I’ve met a lot of amazing people who are as focused on physics as I am.”
Quantinuum is an integral partner in the success of this research project.
“The purpose of this collaboration is one of mutual benefits,” said Dr. David Hayes, a principal theorist at Quantinuum. “Professor Lee and his students get to test their theories on real hardware and identify any weaknesses in the proposal. Quantinuum benefits by helping the world get a little closer to identifying quantum algorithms that yield a computational advantage over classical algorithms.”
“Quantinuum is well served by the world-wide effort to advance these algorithms, so we try to identify the most promising ones and provide testbeds for them,” Hayes added. “Professor Lee's proposal caught our eye last year as a new idea for simulating quantum materials, which we believe to be the most promising avenue toward a near-term quantum advantage.”
The 2022 Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists were selected from more than 1,800 highly qualified entrants based on their projects’ scientific rigor and their potential to become world-changing scientists and leaders. Each finalist is awarded at least $25,000, and the top 10 awards range from $40,000 to $250,000.
“Max’s award is for the design of the two-state rodeo algorithm,” said Dr. Lee. “The potential promise of the rodeo algorithm lies in its ability to be robust against noise and exponentially more efficient than other well-known methods for quantum state preparation.”
Max shares his notebook with the Quantinuum theory group regularly and is looking forward to implementing his algorithm soon on the company’s System Model H1 quantum technologies, Powered by Honeywell.
“In the next few months, we’ll get a chance to run the two-state rodeo algorithm on the H1, which is very exciting,” Max stated. “The H1 is a good bit less error prone than other available systems, by an order of magnitude, so the results should be interesting as they unfold.”
“Max was a great person to work with,” noted Professor Lee. “No matter what I gave him, he never got really stuck on anything. Max truly loves his work, and he’s very humble. He has a maturity beyond his years, which will serve him well in future endeavors.”
While Max is unsure about his college choice for next year, he is certain of one thing, “I can’t wait to get to college to just study more physics.”
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
If we are to create ‘next-gen’ AI that takes full advantage of the power of quantum computers, we need to start with quantum native transformers. Today we announce yet again that Quantinuum continues to lead by demonstrating concrete progress — advancing from theoretical models to real quantum deployment.
The future of AI won't be built on yesterday’s tech. If we're serious about creating next-generation AI that unlocks the full promise of quantum computing, then we must build quantum-native models—designed for quantum, from the ground up.
Around this time last year, we introduced Quixer, a state-of-the-art quantum-native transformer. Today, we’re thrilled to announce a major milestone: one year on, Quixer is now running natively on quantum hardware.
Why this matters: Quantum AI, born native
This marks a turning point for the industry: realizing quantum-native AI opens a world of possibilities.
Classical transformers revolutionized AI. They power everything from ChatGPT to real-time translation, computer vision, drug discovery, and algorithmic trading. Now, Quixer sets the stage for a similar leap — but for quantum-native computation. Because quantum computers differ fundamentally from classical computers, we expect a whole new host of valuable applications to emerge.
Achieving that future requires models that are efficient, scalable, and actually run on today’s quantum hardware.
That’s what we’ve built.
What makes Quixer different?
Until Quixer, quantum transformers were the result of a brute force “copy-paste” approach: taking the math from a classical model and putting it onto a quantum circuit. However, this approach does not account for the considerable differences between quantum and classical architectures, leading to substantial resource requirements.
Quixer is different: it’s not a translation – it's an innovation.
With Quixer, our team introduced an explicitly quantum transformer, built from the ground up using quantum algorithmic primitives. Because Quixer is tailored for quantum circuits, it's more resource efficient than most competing approaches.
As quantum computing advances toward fault tolerance, Quixer is built to scale with it.
What’s next for Quixer?
We’ve already deployed Quixer on real-world data: genomic sequence analysis, a high-impact classification task in biotech. We're happy to report that its performance is already approaching that of classical models, even in this first implementation.
This is just the beginning.
Looking ahead, we’ll explore using Quixer anywhere classical transformers have proven to be useful; such as language modeling, image classification, quantum chemistry, and beyond. More excitingly, we expect use cases to emerge that are quantum-specific, impossible on classical hardware.
This milestone isn’t just about one model. It’s a signal that the quantum AI era has begun, and that Quantinuum is leading the charge with real results, not empty hype.
Stay tuned. The revolution is only getting started.
Our team is participating in ISC High Performance 2025 (ISC 2025) from June 10-13 in Hamburg, Germany!
As quantum computing accelerates, so does the urgency to integrate its capabilities into today’s high-performance computing (HPC) and AI environments. At ISC 2025, meet the Quantinuum team to learn how the highest performing quantum systems on the market, combined with advanced software and powerful collaborations, are helping organizations take the next step in their compute strategy.
Quantinuum is leading the industry across every major vector: performance, hybrid integration, scientific innovation, global collaboration and ease of access.
- Our industry-leading quantum computer holds the record for performance with a Quantum Volume of 2²³ = 8,388,608 and the highest fidelity on a commercially available QPU available to our users every time they access our systems.
- Our systems have been validated by a #1 ranking against competitors in a recent benchmarking study by Jülich Research Centre.
- We’ve laid out a clear roadmap to reach universal, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing by the end of the decade and will launch our next-generation system, Helios, later this year.
- We are advancing real-world hybrid compute with partners such as RIKEN, NVIDIA, SoftBank, STFC Hartree Center and are pioneering applications such as our own GenQAI framework.
Exhibit Hall
From June 10–13, in Hamburg, Germany, visit us at Booth B40 in the Exhibition Hall or attend one of our technical talks to explore how our quantum technologies are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible across HPC.
Presentations & Demos
Throughout ISC, our team will present on the most important topics in HPC and quantum computing integration—from near-term hybrid use cases to hardware innovations and future roadmaps.
Multicore World Networking Event
- Monday, June 9 | 7:00pm – 9:00 PM at Hofbräu Wirtshaus Esplanade
In partnership with Multicore World, join us for a Quantinuum-sponsored Happy Hour to explore the present and future of quantum computing with Quantinuum CCO, Dr. Nash Palaniswamy, and network with our team.
Register here
H1 x CUDA-Q Demonstration
- All Week at Booth B40
We’re showcasing a live demonstration of NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q platform running on Quantinuum’s industry-leading quantum hardware. This new integration paves the way for hybrid compute solutions in optimization, AI, and chemistry.
Register for a demo
HPC Solutions Forum
- Wednesday, June 11 | 2:20 – 2:40 PM
“Enabling Scientific Discovery with Generative Quantum AI” – Presented by Maud Einhorn, Technical Account Executive at Quantinuum, discover how hybrid quantum-classical workflows are powering novel use cases in scientific discovery.
See You There!
Whether you're exploring hybrid solutions today or planning for large-scale quantum deployment tomorrow, ISC 2025 is the place to begin the conversation.
We look forward to seeing you in Hamburg!
Quantinuum has once again raised the bar—setting a record in teleportation, and advancing our leadership in the race toward universal fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Last year, we published a paper in Science demonstrating the first-ever fault-tolerant teleportation of a logical qubit. At the time, we outlined how crucial teleportation is to realize large-scale fault tolerant quantum computers. Given the high degree of system performance and capabilities required to run the protocol (e.g., multiple qubits, high-fidelity state-preparation, entangling operations, mid-circuit measurement, etc.), teleportation is recognized as an excellent measure of system maturity.
Today we’re building on last year’s breakthrough, having recently achieved a record logical teleportation fidelity of 99.82% – up from 97.5% in last year’s result. What’s more, our logical qubit teleportation fidelity now exceeds our physical qubit teleportation fidelity, passing the break-even point that establishes our H2 system as the gold standard for complex quantum operations.
This progress reflects the strength and flexibility of our Quantum Charge Coupled Device (QCCD) architecture. The native high fidelity of our QCCD architecture enables us to perform highly complex demonstrations like this that nobody else has yet to match. Further, our ability to perform conditional logic and real-time decoding was crucial for implementing the Steane error correction code used in this work, and our all-to-all connectivity was essential for performing the high-fidelity transversal gates that drove the protocol.
Teleportation schemes like this allow us to “trade space for time,” meaning that we can do quantum error correction more quickly, reducing our time to solution. Additionally, teleportation enables long-range communication during logical computation, which translates to higher connectivity in logical algorithms, improving computational power.
This demonstration underscores our ongoing commitment to reducing logical error rates, which is critical for realizing the promise of quantum computing. Quantinuum continues to lead in quantum hardware performance, algorithms, and error correction—and we’ll extend our leadership come the launch of our next generation system, Helios, in just a matter of months.