Scientists use a photonic quantum simulator to make virtual movies of molecules vibrating

Source:

University of Bristol

Summary:

Scientists have shown how an optical chip can simulate the motion of atoms within molecules at the quantum level, which could lead to better ways of creating chemicals for use as pharmaceuticals.

Scientists have shown how an optical chip can simulate the motion of atoms within molecules at the quantum level, which could lead to better ways of creating chemicals for use as pharmaceuticals.

An optical chip uses light to process information, instead of electricity, and can operate as a quantum computing circuit when using single particles of light, known as photons. Data from the chip allows a frame-by-frame reconstruction of atomic motions to create a virtual movie of a molecule's quantum vibrations, which is what lies at the heart of the research published today in Nature.

These findings are the result of a collaboration between researchers at the University of Bristol, MIT, IUPUI, Nokia Bell Labs, and NTT. As well as paving the way for more efficient pharmaceutical developments, the research could prompt new methods of molecular modelling for industrial chemists.

When lasers were invented in the 1960s, experimental chemists had the idea of using them to break apart molecules. However, the vibrations within molecules rapidly redistribute the laser energy before the intended molecular bond is broken. Controlling the behaviour of molecules requires an understanding of how they vibrate at the quantum level. But modelling these dynamics requires massive computational power, beyond what we can expect from coming generations of supercomputers.

The Quantum Engineering and Technology Labs at Bristol have pioneered the use of optical chips, controlling single photons of light, as basic circuitry for quantum computers. Quantum computers are expected to be exponentially faster than conventional supercomputers at solving certain problems. Yet constructing a quantum computer is a highly challenging long-term goal.

As reported in Nature, the team demonstrated a new route to molecular modelling that could become an early application of photonic quantum technologies. The new methods exploit a similarity between the vibrations of atoms in molecules and photons of light in optical chips.

Bristol physicist Dr Anthony Laing, who led the project, explained: "We can think of the atoms in molecules as being connected by springs. Across the whole molecule, the connected atoms will collectively vibrate, like a complicated dance routine. At a quantum level, the energy of the dance goes up or down in well-defined levels, as if the beat of the music has moved up or down a notch. Each notch represents a quantum of vibration.

"Light also comes in quantised packets called photons. Mathematically, a quantum of light is like a quantum of molecular vibration. Using integrated chips, we can control the behaviour of photons very precisely. We can program a photonic chip to mimic the vibrations of a molecule.

"We program the chip, mapping its components to the structure of a particular molecule, say ammonia, then simulate how a particular vibrational pattern evolves over some time interval. By taking many time intervals, we essentially build up a movie of the molecular dynamics."

First author Dr Chris Sparrow, who was a student on the project, spoke of the simulator's versatility: "The chip can be reprogrammed in a few seconds to simulate different molecules. In these experiments we simulated the dynamics of ammonia and a type of formaldehyde, and other more exotic molecules. We simulated a water molecule reaching thermal equilibrium with its environment, and energy transport in a protein fragment.

"In this type of simulation, because time is a controllable parameter, we can immediately jump to the most interesting points of the movie. Or play the simulation in slow motion. We can even rewind the simulation to understand the origins of a particular vibrational pattern."

Joint first author, Dr Enrique Martín-Lopéz, now a Senior Researcher with Nokia Bell Labs, added: "We were also able to show how a machine learning algorithm can identify the type of vibration that best breaks apart an ammonia molecule. A key feature of the photonic simulator that enables this is its tracking of energy moving through the molecule, from one localised vibration to another. Developing these quantum simulation techniques further has clear industrial relevance."

The photonic chip used in the experiments was fabricated by Japanese Telecoms company NTT.

Dr Laing explained the main directions for the future of the research: "Scaling up the simulators to a size where they can provide an advantage over conventional computing methods will likely require error correction or error mitigation techniques. And we want to further develop the sophistication of molecular model that we use as the program for the simulator. Part of this study was to demonstrate techniques that go beyond the standard harmonic approximation of molecular dynamics. We need to push these methods to increase the real-world accuracy of our models.

"This approach to quantum simulation uses analogies between photonics and molecular vibrations as a starting point. This gives us a head start in being able to implement interesting simulations. Building on this, we hope that we can realise quantum simulation and modelling tools that provide a practical advantage in the coming years."

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Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Bristol. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Engineers develop flexible, water-repellent graphene circuits for washable electronics

Source:

Iowa State University

Summary:

Nanoengineers are finding new ways to use graphene printing technology. A new research paper describes how they're treating printed graphene with lasers to create electronic circuits that repel water. That could lead to washable electronics and better biological sensors. 

New graphene printing technology can produce electronic circuits that are low-cost, flexible, highly conductive and water repellent.

The nanotechnology "would lend enormous value to self-cleaning wearable/washable electronics that are resistant to stains, or ice and biofilm formation," according to a recent paper describing the discovery.
"We're taking low-cost, inkjet-printed graphene and tuning it with a laser to make functional materials," said Jonathan Claussen, an Iowa State University assistant professor of mechanical engineering, an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and the corresponding author of the paper recently featured on the cover of the journal Nanoscale.
The paper describes how Claussen and the nanoengineers in his research group use inkjet printing technology to create electric circuits on flexible materials. In this case, the ink is flakes of graphene -- the wonder material can be a great conductor of electricity and heat, plus it's strong, stable and biocompatible.
The printed flakes, however, aren't highly conductive and have to be processed to remove non-conductive binders and weld the flakes together, boosting conductivity and making them useful for electronics or sensors.
That post-print process typically involves heat or chemicals. But Claussen and his research group developed a rapid-pulse laser process that treats the graphene without damaging the printing surface -- even if it's paper.
And now they've found another application of their laser processing technology: taking graphene-printed circuits that can hold water droplets (they're hydrophilic) and turning them into circuits that repel water (they're superhydrophobic).
"We're micro-patterning the surface of the inkjet-printed graphene," Claussen said. "The laser aligns the graphene flakes vertically -- like little pyramids stacking up. And that's what induces the hydrophobicity."
Claussen said the energy density of the laser processing can be adjusted to tune the degree of hydrophobicity and conductivity of the printed graphene circuits.
And that opens up all kinds of possibilities for new electronics and sensors, according to the paper.
"One of the things we'd be interested in developing is anti-biofouling materials," said Loreen Stromberg, a paper co-author and an Iowa State postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and for the Virtual Reality Applications Center. "This could eliminate the buildup of biological materials on the surface that would inhibit the optimal performance of devices such as chemical or biological sensors."
The technology could also have applications in flexible electronics, washable sensors in textiles, microfluidic technologies, drag reduction, de-icing, electrochemical sensors and technology that uses graphene structures and electrical simulation to produce stem cells for nerve regeneration.
The researchers wrote that further studies should be done to better understand how the nano- and microsurfaces of the printed graphene creates the water-repelling capabilities.
The current studies have been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust plus Iowa State's College of Engineering and department of mechanical engineering.
The Iowa State University Research Foundation is working to patent the technology and has optioned it to an Ames-based startup, NanoSpy Inc., for possible commercialization. NanoSpy, located at the Iowa State University Research Park, is developing sensors to detect salmonella and other pathogens in food processing plants. Claussen and Stromberg are part of the company.
The graphene printing, processing and tuning technology is turning out to be very useful, Stromberg said. After all, "electronics are being incorporated into everything."
In addition to Jonathan Claussen and Loreen Stromberg, co-authors of the paper describing water-repelling, inkjet-printed graphene circuits are: Suprem Das, an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Kansas State University, formerly an Iowa State postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory; Srilok Srinivasan, an Iowa State graduate student in mechanical engineering; Qing He, an Iowa State graduate student in agricultural and biosystems engineering; Nathaniel Garland, an Iowa State graduate student in mechanical engineering; Warren Straszheim, an Iowa State associate scientist with the Materials Analysis and Research Laboratory; Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering, a professor of materials science and nanoengineering and a professor of chemistry at Rice University in Houston; and Ganesh Balasubramanian, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, formerly an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State.

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Materials provided by Iowa State University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING QA/QC PRACTICES IN TRENCHLESS METHODS

The EPA report, “Quality Assurance and Quality Control Practices for Rehabilitation of Sewer and Water Mains” summarizes the research findings and discusses gaps or needed improvements that could and/or should be made to QA/QC steps currently being employed on trenchless rehab projects.

Earlier this year the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Aging Water Infrastructure Research Program released a report reviewing the quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) practices and acceptance testing for trenchless rehabilitation systems used in drinking water distribution networks and wastewater collection systems.

The EPA report, “Quality Assurance and Quality Control Practices for Rehabilitation of Sewer and Water Mains” summarizes the research findings and discusses gaps or needed improvements that could and/or should be made to QA/QC steps currently being employed on trenchless rehab projects.

A successful QA/QC program is one that measures the finished installation in terms of the desired and/or required long-term performance requirements. This means tailoring the QA/QC program to be technology-specific and considering its role in the new soil-structure interaction system that is created by the improvements.

As part of this effort, the design engineer must review the current pipeline or structure’s as-built information and current condition assessment. Parameters affecting the service life of the proposed improvements such as hydrostatic buckling forces must be properly investigated and communicated in the contract documents. Site-specific issues related to the local soils, past repairs, etc. must be accurately conveyed to the installation contractor.

In all cases, the owner should require that a post-installation CCTV inspection be conducted with the camera at the approximate center of the pipeline, while traveling no faster than 30 feet per minute with adequate lighting and no water in the invert to allow for a full 360 view of the finished liner.

A CCTV inspection also should be conducted by the asset management team to code the condition of the rehabilitated pipeline in a standardized format and update the utility’s asset database as soon as is practical after the project is accepted. A follow-up inspection should be made 30 to 60 days prior to the end of the installation warranty period again coding the new pipeline’s condition so that any construction-related defects can be identified and scheduled for repair under warranty by the contractor.

Based upon a review of the current QA/QC practices in use and considering the future needs of well-constructed asset management programs, the following recommendations were developed for a best practice QA/QC system listed by technology.

Cured-In-Place Pipe

A pre-lining CCTV should be conducted to assess the current pipe condition and to investigate the line for obstructions that would prevent liner insertion such as offset joints, protruding service connections, or collapsed pipe sections. Point repairs may be needed to address any identified obstructions.

A trained and qualified inspector should perform the following activities during the construction observation phase for CIPP projects:

-- Upon arrival of the saturated tubes on the project site, require tube-specific saturation logs to confirm a full saturation was made based upon the earlier submittals; if not, reject any tube suspected of containing less than 97% of the manufacturer’s recommended quantity of resin.

-- Require an in situ cured sample for each installation performed, including UV light cured installations. Restrained samples should come from an intermediate manhole if possible. Measure the finished thickness of the liner in place using a non-destructive testing gage such as an ultrasonic thickness gage.

-- Review results of the cured sample testing. The sample testing should include verifying the flexural modulus, the flexural strength, and the tensile strength. If elongation at break during the tensile strength testing (ASTM D638) is larger than that stated for the resin material per its technical data sheet (TDS), require additional testing to verify that the proper amount of resin is present in the liner and that the porosity of the installed liner is in keeping with the specified water tightness performance expectation in the contract documents.

Close Fit Liner Systems

Close fit liner systems are promoted as being relatively easy to install and less vulnerable to deviations in their installed mechanical properties as they are manufactured in a controlled plant environment. The following steps are recommendations of a best practice for the QA/QC of close fit liner installations:

Conduct a CCTV inspection to verify that the pipe is ready to receive the lining, to note if there are any pipe openings not detected, to see if there are any protruding services or other defects that would preclude lining, and to track the location of service connections to be renewed.

A trained and qualified inspector should perform the following activities during the construction observation phase for close fit lining projects:

-- Upon arrival of the lining materials on the project site, the inspector should confirm that the materials have the required markings identifying them as the correct materials and that they are of the correct thickness.

-- Require that an in situ sample be made during the processing of each installation using a mold of like diameter.

-- Have the sample tested to verify the following:

• Thickness includes looking for areas of uneven stretching
• Mechanical properties (should match those performed at the time of manufacture)
• No residual stresses are present (perform an oven test on a ring of the reformed material to ensure that the liner stays round and is dimensionally stable as specified in ASTM F1057 Practice for Estimating the Quality of Extruded Poly (Vinyl Chloride) (PVC)Pipe by the Heat Reversion Technique).

-- Require that a post-installation CCTV inspection be made. Excessive local stretching and poor fit at the lateral connections (not tight with the host pipe) should be given a thorough review and visual documentation by the camera operator.

Sprayed-on Polymeric Coating

The recommended best practices for QA/QC of a sprayed-on polymeric coating system are as follows:

-- Upon arrival of the raw materials on the project site, the inspector should review the products’ labeling to ensure that the correct products have been delivered.

-- Prior to commencing work, review with the project superintendent the proposed methodology for cleaning and preparing the pipe wall for lining. This will be dependent upon the existing pipeline’s material and the current condition of the wall structure. The pipe wall must be completely dry and competent (solid) to accept the lining material and achieve the proper adherence between the polymer and the host pipe material.

-- Conduct a CCTV inspection of the pipeline to verify that there is no standing water and the pipe is suitably free of debris just prior to applying the polymeric coating.

-- Require the contractor to prepare samples in a manner consistent with the application technique being used. Curing should be done in the same environment in which the lining will be cured.

-- Review results of the cured sample testing. The sample should be tested for bond strength, mechanical properties, and porosity. In situ thickness should also be measured using an ultrasonic thickness gage calibrated for the particular polymeric material being applied.

-- Require that the post-installation for non man-entry size piping CCTV inspection be conducted. Blemishes in the coating and other deviations from an ideal installation should be given a thorough review by the camera. For man-entry size piping, the inspection should also include still photos of questionable areas.

Grout-In-Place Liner

The inspector should perform the following activities during the construction observation phase for GIPL projects:

-- Upon arrival of the lining materials on the project site, review the products’ labeling to ensure that the correct products have been delivered and that they are free from defects.

-- Prior to commencing work, review with the project superintendent the proposed methodology for cleaning and preparing the pipe wall for lining. This will be dependent upon the existing pipeline’s material and the current condition of the wall structure. The pipe wall should be clean with no active leaks that will affect the grout placement. The host pipe’s wall should be competent to accept the grout and achieve the proper interaction between the thermoplastic liner and the host pipe material.

-- Require a visual confirmation of the existing pipeline’s condition just prior to installation of the lining.

-- Once the lining material is in place, the grouting operation should be carried out in lifts per the technology manufacturer’s recommendations. Samples of the grout mixture should be taken at regular intervals throughout the grout’s placement. Curing of grout samples should be done in the host pipe’s environment or similar conditions.

-- Review results of the cured grout sample testing. The sample should be tested for compressive strength. Additionally, the entire length of the installation should be evaluated for the presence of voids in the grout zone. At a minimum, this should be done by “sounding” the liner surface with a small hammer; other non-destructive techniques such as ultrasonic testing should be used as they become available. Void areas greater than 5% of the circumference should be spot grouted.

Pipe Bursting

The inspector should perform the following activities during the construction observation phase for pipe bursting projects:

-- Upon arrival of the raw materials on the project site, review the products’ labeling to ensure that the correct products have been delivered and that they are free from defects.

-- Prior to commencing work, review with the project superintendent the proposed construction sequence and methodology for reconnecting the service laterals. Note that this will be somewhat dependent upon the existing pipeline’s material and how much upsizing (if any) is planned for the project.

-- Conduct a CCTV inspection of the pipe to verify that the diameter is consistent, that there are no unanticipated pipe bends or dips in the pipe and track location of connections.

-- During the bursting and pulling in of the new pipeline, the inspector should observe that the lengths of pipe are joined properly by butt fusion (where fused pipe is employed) and that no portion of the piping has a gash, blister, abrasion, nick, scar or other deleterious fault greater in depth than 10% of the pipe’s thickness. (Note: For pipes expected to perform under significant internal pressure, the control of scratches and gouges is much more important and should be more restrictive.)

-- Require that a post-installation CCTV inspection be conducted. Blemishes in the pipe wall and other deviations from an ideal installation should be given a thorough documentation by the camera operator.

Encouraging Best Practices

The rehabilitation of pipelines generally does not carry the same sense of importance for construction observation and as-built documentation when compared to new construction. In addition, it doesn’t afford the same opportunity for construction observation because access is often limited by nature for trenchless rehabilitation technologies to the ends of the pipe or a few access pits. This may discourage utilities from undertaking rehabilitation technologies even if they may cost less.

Better recognition is needed among utilities and vendors that trenchless rehabilitation technologies are part of a comprehensive re-building program for pipelines and structures. As utilities become aware of the benefits of more extensive data collection in the field and consistent documentation of as-built data, their focus on developing and maintaining successful QA/QC programs will increase.

Nuclear physicists leap into quantum computing with first simulations of atomic nucleus

Source:

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Summary:

Scientists have now simulated an atomic nucleus using a quantum computer. The results demonstrate the ability of quantum systems to compute nuclear physics problems and serve as a benchmark for future calculations.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are the first to successfully simulate an atomic nucleus using a quantum computer. The results, published in Physical Review Letters, demonstrate the ability of quantum systems to compute nuclear physics problems and serve as a benchmark for future calculations.

Quantum computing, in which computations are carried out based on the quantum principles of matter, was proposed by American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman in the early 1980s. Unlike normal computer bits, the qubit units used by quantum computers store information in two-state systems, such as electrons or photons, that are considered to be in all possible quantum states at once (a phenomenon known as superposition).

"In classical computing, you write in bits of zero and one," said Thomas Papenbrock, a theoretical nuclear physicist at the University of Tennessee and ORNL who co-led the project with ORNL quantum information specialist Pavel Lougovski. "But with a qubit, you can have zero, one, and any possible combination of zero and one, so you gain a vast set of possibilities to store data."

In October 2017 the multidivisional ORNL team started developing codes to perform simulations on the IBM QX5 and the Rigetti 19Q quantum computers through DOE's Quantum Testbed Pathfinder project, an effort to verify and validate scientific applications on different quantum hardware types. Using freely available pyQuil software, a library designed for producing programs in the quantum instruction language, the researchers wrote a code that was sent first to a simulator and then to the cloud-based IBM QX5 and Rigetti 19Q systems.

The team performed more than 700,000 quantum computing measurements of the energy of a deuteron, the nuclear bound state of a proton and a neutron. From these measurements, the team extracted the deuteron's binding energy -- the minimum amount of energy needed to disassemble it into these subatomic particles. The deuteron is the simplest composite atomic nucleus, making it an ideal candidate for the project.

"Qubits are generic versions of quantum two-state systems. They have no properties of a neutron or a proton to start with," Lougovski said. "We can map these properties to qubits and then use them to simulate specific phenomena -- in this case, binding energy."

A challenge of working with these quantum systems is that scientists must run simulations remotely and then wait for results. ORNL computer science researcher Alex McCaskey and ORNL quantum information research scientist Eugene Dumitrescu ran single measurements 8,000 times each to ensure the statistical accuracy of their results.

"It's really difficult to do this over the internet," McCaskey said. "This algorithm has been done primarily by the hardware vendors themselves, and they can actually touch the machine. They are turning the knobs."

The team also found that quantum devices become tricky to work with due to inherent noise on the chip, which can alter results drastically. McCaskey and Dumitrescu successfully employed strategies to mitigate high error rates, such as artificially adding more noise to the simulation to see its impact and deduce what the results would be with zero noise.

"These systems are really susceptible to noise," said Gustav Jansen, a computational scientist in the Scientific Computing Group at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at ORNL. "If particles are coming in and hitting the quantum computer, it can really skew your measurements. These systems aren't perfect, but in working with them, we can gain a better understanding of the intrinsic errors."

At the completion of the project, the team's results on two and three qubits were within 2 and 3 percent, respectively, of the correct answer on a classical computer, and the quantum computation became the first of its kind in the nuclear physics community.

The proof-of-principle simulation paves the way for computing much heavier nuclei with many more protons and neutrons on quantum systems in the future. Quantum computers have potential applications in cryptography, artificial intelligence, and weather forecasting because each additional qubit becomes entangled -- or tied inextricably -- to the others, exponentially increasing the number of possible outcomes for the measured state at the end. This very benefit, however, also has adverse effects on the system because errors may also scale exponentially with problem size.

Papenbrock said the team's hope is that improved hardware will eventually enable scientists to solve problems that cannot be solved on traditional high-performance computing resources -- not even on the ones at the OLCF. In the future, quantum computations of complex nuclei could unravel important details about the properties of matter, the formation of heavy elements, and the origins of the universe.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Lasers Could Make Computers 1 Million Times Faster

An artist's rendering shows polarized light interacting with the honeycomb lattice.

Credit: Stephen Alvey, Michigan Engineering

A billion operations per second isn't cool. Know what's cool? A million billion operations per second.
That's the promise of a new computing technique that uses laser-light pulses to make a prototype of the fundamental unit of computing, called a bit, that could switch between its on and off, or "1" and "0" states, 1 quadrillion times per second. That's about 1 million times faster than the bits in modern computers.
Conventional computers (everything from your calculator to the smartphone or laptop you're using to read this) think in terms of 1s and 0s. Everything they do, from solving math problems, to representing the world of a video game, amounts to a very elaborate collection of 1-or-0, yes-or-no operations. And a typical computer in 2018 can use silicon bits to perform more or less 1 billion of those operations per second. [Science Fact or Fiction? The Plausibility of 10 Sci-Fi Concepts]
 
In this experiment, the researchers pulsed infrared laser light on honeycomb-shaped lattices of tungsten and selenium, allowing the silicon chip to switch from "1" to "0" states just like a normal computer processor — only a million times faster, according to the study, which was published in Nature on May 2.
That's a trick of how electrons behave in that honeycomb lattice.
In most molecules, the electrons in orbit around them can jump into several different quantum states, or "pseudospins," when they get excited. A good way to imagine these states is as different, looping racetracks around the molecule itself. (Researchers call these tracks "valleys," and the manipulation of these spins "valleytronics.")
When unexcited, the electron might stay close to the molecule, turning in lazy circles. But excite that electron, perhaps with a flash of light, and it will need to go burn off some energy on one of the outer tracks.
 The tungsten-selenium lattice has just two tracks around it for excited electrons to enter. Flash the lattice with one orientation of infrared light, and the electron will jump onto the first track. Flash it with a different orientation of infrared light, and the electron will jump onto the other track. A computer could, in theory, treat those tracks as 1s and 0s. When there's an electron on track 1, that's a 1. When it's on track 0, that's a 0.
 
Crucially, those tracks (or valleys) are sort of close together, and the electrons don't need to run on them very long before losing energy. Pulse the lattice with infrared light type one, and an electron will jump onto track 1, but it will only circle it for "a few femtoseconds," according to the paper, before returning to its unexcited state in the orbitals closer to the nucleus. A femtosecond is one thousand million millionth of a second, not even long enough for a beam of light to cross a single red blood cell.
So, the electrons don't stay on the track long, but once they're on a track, additional pulses of light will knock them back and forth between the two tracks before they have a chance to fall back into an unexcited state. That back-and-forth jostling, 1-0-0-1-0-1-1-0-0-0-1 — over and over in incredibly quick flashes — is the stuff of computing. But in this sort of material, the researchers showed, it could happen much faster than in contemporary chips.
The researchers also raised the possibility that their lattice could be used for quantum computing at room temperature. That's a kind of holy grail for quantum computing, since most existing quantum computers require researchers to first cool their quantum bits down to near absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature. The researchers showed that it's theoretically possible to excite the electrons in this lattice to "superpositions" of the 1 and 0 tracks — or ambiguous states of being kind-of-sort-of fuzzily on both tracks at the same time — that are necessary for quantum-computing calculations.
"In the long run, we see a realistic chance of introducing quantum information devices that perform operations faster than a single oscillation of a lightwave," study lead author Rupert Huber, professor of physics at the University of Regensburg in Germany, said in a statement. However, the researchers didn't actually perform any quantum operations this way, so the idea of a room- temperature quantum computer is still entirely theoretical. And in fact, the classical (regular-type) operations the researchers did perform on their lattice were just meaningless, back-and-forth, 1-and-0 switching. The lattice still hasn't been used to calculate anything. Thus, researchers still have to show that it can be used in a practical computer.
Still, the experiment could open the door to ultrafast conventional computing — and perhaps even quantum computing — in situations that were impossible to achieve until now.
  SOURCE : Live Science.

A Step-by-step Guide to Quality Control Procedures for Work Inspection Requests

On construction projects, such as low- and high-rise buildings or even on horizontal projects like building roads, bridges, skyways, ports and embankments, Work Inspection Requests (WIR) are routinely required. Understanding and following the correct procedures for submitting your Work Inspection Requests is important.

These procedures are sometimes confusing, especially if you are not an expert on the document controlling system for Work Inspection Requests.

There are also various types of document controlling systems for different projects, but Work Inspection Requests are the ones that would definitely require proper document controls.

In my previous blog, there are about 10 different project forms that I mention on how a WIR is supposed to be used. Also, remember that a WIR is necessary when you submit the project for regular billing, so taking great care with your WIR is extremely important.

By the way, I advise continuing reading until almost the very end of this article because I’m gonna giving tips for you to boost your knowledge about this topic.

Below are the steps you need to take for your Work Inspection Request to be properly controlled:

1. Site Engineer or Project Engineer Prepares a Draft WIR

Once a part of the project is completed, the Project Engineer or Site Engineer will prepare a draft of the Work Inspection Report or he/she may write a description of the inspection on a drawing or sketch of the work completed. He/she will then hand it over to the QA Engineer.

He/she will highlight the specific location of the area to be inspected, indicating the gridlines on the drawing.

2. QA Engineer or QAQC Engineer will prepare the Work Inspection Request

On a huge project I was recently involved in (a more than a 1 billion-dirham project) we had a Quality Assurance Engineer prepare the Work Inspection Request. But, on smaller projects you would have the QAQC Engineer take care of preparing the WIR. In that project, I greatly enhanced How To Fill-up Inspection Request for the First Time and so can you.

Once you receive the WIR from the Project Engineer you can write the description into your approved WIR template.

The first thing to do is ask the document controller (DC) for the next WIR reference number. Or, if you are the one controlling the WIR number, then you can just use the reference number that comes next.
Then write in the date and the date of the inspection, which sometimes occurs after 24 hours. Next you describe your activity. Don’t forget to write the activity number from the Inspection and Test Plan.

3. Main contractor Document Controller to Submit WIR to Consultant

The document controller shall be responsible for submitting the Work Inspection Request to the engineer or consultant. He/she will make a copy from the original WIR as a “received copy,” which he/she will hand over to the consultant’s document controller. At this stage of the process, the main contractor’s document controller and the consultant’s document controller will talk.

4. The Consultant’s Document Controller to Record the WIR

The document controller of the consultant shall receive the WIR and he/she shall stamp the received copy. The WIR will then be recorded in his/her log and eventually return the WIR received copy after confirming that the reference number is in true succession and correct.
While the original WIR shall be sent to the Engineer or Consultant for Inspection.

5. The Main Contractor’s Document Controller to Log the WIR

Once the WIR received copy is returned to the document controller of the main contractor, he/she will record all the details on the WIR in his/her log. He/she should make sure that the log is up-to-date with all the details indicated on it.
At this stage, the log is being updated with the date the WIR is submitted along with the revision, which is at zero status (revision 0).

When the original WIR is returned with comments (the engineer or consultant has definitely completed the inspection), then the DC will give a copy of the WIR’s front sheet to each concerned staff member, especially the QAQC Engineer because he/she is the one who will follow up with the rectification if the WIR needs to be revised and the status resubmitted. He/she will eventually resubmit the WIR once the rectification is completed.

If the WIR is returned with “Approved with Comment status” a copy shall also be given to the concerned staff members to inform them of what the comments are. Although it is approved, there are still requirements that need to be taken care of.
The DC will update the log putting in all the necessary details, such as the “date returned” and the comments, which shall be recorded in the log. But, this is optional because it will require a lot of work to record all the comments. A single DC can’t always perform that task due to his/her work volume.

The original WIR shall be stored in Archive 1. It is stored in the file box labeled 2. Also, scan the WIR and store in the shared folder so that each staff member may access it in the network.

6. QA or QAQC Engineer to resubmit the WIR

Now, at this time a commented WIR will only be submitted if the comments are addressed. Take a copy of the revision 0 of the same WIR and then save as Revision 1 (Rev. 1) and then update the date and time of your desired time of inspection.

7. Start over at Step 3

The main contractor’s document controller shall start over again at Step 3. He/she will follow the process again, but this time it is for the Revision 1 Work Inspection Request until it reaches Step 6. If the WIR still gets a “revise and resubmit” status, then go back to Step 3 and so on and so forth.

In most cases, the Work Inspection Request does have a revise and resubmit status. So, you as a QAQC Engineer have to make sure that the site you are going to inspect with your consultant is fully ready in order to avoid resubmissions of the WIR, which obviously delays the project because you cannot proceed with the following work without the Work Inspection Request you submitted being approved.

Quality Engineers Tips:

• Work Inspection Request or WIR is used to include in the application of periodical project billing, ensure that it is approved.
•  Always follow up your WIR, a  WIR with revise and resubmit status is advised to immediately resubmit.
• In filling up the WIR, ensure that you check it many times before you submit.

In addition, you have to ensure that all WIRs are in approved status because that’s how your project is going to get paid for.