This paper pioneers the use of quantum machine learning (QML) for modeling the Ohmic contact process in GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) for the first time. Utilizing data from 159 devices and variational auto-encoder-based augmentation, we developed a quantum kernel-based regressor (QKR) with a 2-level ZZ-feature map. Benchmarking against six classical machine learning (CML) models, our QKR consistently demonstrated the lowest mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), and root mean squared error (RMSE). Repeated statistical analysis confirmed its robustness. Additionally, experiments verified an MAE of 0.314 ohm-mm, underscoring the QKR's superior performance and potential for semiconductor applications, and demonstrating significant advancements over traditional CML methods.

A new startup run by a former acting NASA administrator hopes to capitalize on the recent zeal for lunar space exploration by building robotic outposts and spacecraft to send to space near the Moon. Their goal is to create a fleet of robotic helpers that can do a variety of tasks near the Moon, such as providing internet capabilities, collecting data, refueling spacecraft, and assembling structures in lunar space. The company called Quantum Space was formed in 2021. At the helm is Steve Jurczyk, who served as NASA's associate administrator beginning in 2018, before becoming the agency's acting administrator when President Biden was inaugurated. After retiring in May, Jurczyk decided to team up with three additional entrepreneurs and experts in the space industry to create this new company based out of Maryland.

Machine learning and quantum computing have their staggering levels of technology hype in common. But certain aspects of their mathematical foundations are also strikingly similar. In a paper in Nature, Havlíček et al.1 exploit this link to show how today's quantum computers can, in principle, be used to learn from data -- by mapping data into the space in which only quantum states exist. One of the first things one learns about quantum computers is that these machines are extremely difficult to simulate on a classical computer such as a desktop PC. In other words, classical computers cannot be used to obtain the results of a quantum computation.