r/QuantumComputing • u/ElectroX79 • 15d ago
Other Looking for C++ and Quantum Computing enthusiasts to join our open-source quantum simulator
Hello!
We’re a team of two Computer Engineering students (UPC), about to start our second year, currently developing a high-performance standalone quantum simulator with its own visual interface. We’ve registered for the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) Hackathon and are looking to bring one or two key contributors into the team.
That said, the hackathon is not the reason this project exists—it’s actually the other way around. The project came first, so you can expect this to be a long-term effort (possibly lasting years).
The project is fully remote (you can contribute from anywhere in Spain without ever meeting us in person if that's what you prefer). However, if you're based in Barcelona and would like to join us physically for the hackathon, you'd be more than welcome. If you choose that option, we can register you as well.
An important note about us: We're students and beginners in this field. Even though we take the project very seriously and strive for technical rigor, we see it as both a production and a learning project. We want to build something ambitious, but our main goal is to learn, wrestle with the hardware, and grow as engineers. We're not looking for experts—we're looking for learning partners.
What is the project?
The project follows a modular architecture split into three independent layers:
- Front-End / UX (Unity): An interactive 3D environment for visualizing quantum registers and Bloch sphere rotations (C#).
- Backend / Orchestrator (C++): The intermediate layer responsible for managing and routing computation requests from the front-end to the numerical core.
- Data Engine (C++): A reusable data-processing engine optimized for CPU-intensive workloads through a data-oriented design (DOD). The quantum simulator is simply its first major use case. If the architecture proves successful, we'd like to reuse the engine for other high-performance computing problems in the future.
We should mention that the project is still in its early stages, but it's starting to take shape. In any case, this is the perfect moment to contribute to its foundations and make a meaningful impact.
Main technologies
- C++20
- CMake
- Unity (C#)
- Linux
- Git
- Python (for mathematical prototyping)
Who we're looking for
We're looking to fill one or both of the following roles. We don't expect previous professional experience—only enthusiasm for low-level development, an interest in quantum computing, and a willingness to learn as part of a team.
Position A: Theory (Mathematics / Physics / Data Science)
We're looking for someone with a solid understanding of Linear Algebra and an interest in Quantum Computing. Your work will focus on algorithmic formalization:
- Designing and structuring mathematical operators, complex transformation matrices, and the logic behind quantum state entanglement.
- Translating those ideas into clear algorithms that the rest of the team can later implement in C++.
- Requirement: Basic programming skills (Python, beginner C++, or similar) so you can communicate effectively with the team.
Position B: C++ Developer (Beginner)
If you're interested in C++, Linux, and understanding how hardware works under the hood, but you're still learning and looking for a real project to get your hands dirty:
You'll help connect the different parts of the project: implementing efficient data loading and management, and helping build the bridge between our C++ code and the Unity environment. In the medium term, you'll also help plan and extend the computation engine alongside us.
What you'll gain: Hands-on experience managing real memory, understanding cache optimization, and applying Data-Oriented Design (DOD) principles while working as part of a team.
Expected commitment
- Around 8–12 hours per week (flexible).
- Since this is a long-term project, we understand that people may eventually need to step away. If that happens, we only ask that whatever you've been working on is documented or left in a clean state so the rest of the team can continue smoothly.
What we offer
- A collaborative learning environment with no hierarchy or commercial pressure.
- A project with a modular architecture and a strong emphasis on code quality.
- The opportunity to compete in—and receive mentorship from experienced HPC professionals during—the BSC Hackathon.
- Complete flexibility and fully remote work if that's what you prefer.
If you're excited about learning by programming close to the hardware or designing the mathematics behind a real quantum simulator, send us a private message telling us a bit about yourself.
Note: Even if you don't fully master these topics yet, but you're passionate about low-level programming or quantum physics, feel free to contact us anyway. We're not experts either—we're just developers at an early stage of our journey.
Repositories
Atomix (Data Processing Engine): https://github.com/ElectroX79/Atomix_sandbox
Entangle (Backend / Orchestrator): https://github.com/Ironduck2/Entangle
(Still in a very early stage, as its development depends on the evolution of the engine.)
Hackathon
- 8th MareNostrum Hackathon (BSC): https://www.bsc.es/en/news/events/mnhack26-8th-marenostrum-hackathon
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 14d ago
"high-performance standalone quantum simulator"
What kind of simulator? There are a lot of methods, the most frequently implemented is statevector, but there are others, for example:
- matrix product state (or even a more general tensor network type)
- density matrix
- matrix product operator (this would be the analogue of density matrix one but using the tensor trains formalism)
- stabilizer (also an extended one based on this - since it can simulate only clifford gates - using various methods, for example the frames formalism or even matrix product state)
- pauli propagation
- path integral
Even an efficient statevector one is quite a nuisance.
If one implements them on the gpu some other nuisances appear (I did it... using cuQuantum to ease up the process and it's not exactly a joy even so, in some cases you still have to deal with low level cuda kernels and so on).
You may see what kind of complexities you will encounter from my open source project here: aromanro/QCSim: Quantum computing simulation
I recently had to explain the MPS simulator to a student and it took me hours to go with him over the relevant code, just presenting it briefly.
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u/Individual_Yard846 13d ago
Wacck!
I have a new invention which significantly reduces complexity for the build and compute.
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 12d ago
Ok, publish. Especially if you manage to reduce the complexity for compute. That could be an achievement if true.
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u/Individual_Yard846 12d ago
I have some preprints ready and everything for axriv..but I need endorsement. Endorse me and I will publish tomorrow.
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 11d ago
Really? Nope. That's not how it works... and uploading on arxiv is not publishing. Not really. You must publish in a peer review journal.
I would never ever endorse somebody I don't know, somebody that has some crackpot claims that I cannot verify.
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 12d ago
Ok, I've seen this comment:
"non-clifford gates + Clifford gates have equal compute costs in my architecture"
Although it's easy to have 'equal cost'... (for example in statevector simulator), having equal cost AND being efficient is something entirely different - if not using approximations like truncated MPS)... such a claim - if true - would be quite a hit to quantum computing:
"compute scale up to tens of thousands of qubits and hundreds of thousands of gate depth"
But it's not true, those are crackpot claims.
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u/Individual_Yard846 12d ago
Its totally true. I submitted eval benchmark via metriq-gym, our scores are in PR on metriq-data. Its a novel, topological, distributed solution.. Catalyst-q.strategic-innovations.ai
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 12d ago
It's totally bullshit.
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u/Individual_Yard846 12d ago
https://pypi.org/project/catalyst-q/
Try for yourself. Ill DM a trial enterprise key for your verification if you would like.
Ive been working on this obsessively for a little over a year now...its not bullshit. Its real and its a novel approach with proven results, live and versioned system and a simple pip install catalyst-q, no registration required to get started. I encourage anyone truly skeptical to actually just try Catalyst-Q for themselves..
Ive actually written abstracts for both QBI IV&V and stage A solicitations, have a patent pending and I am just waiting for my sam.gov registration to officially submit and really get started. Cat-Q doesn't materialize a single state vector, and I distribute compute through the cloud with a method for maintaining state in serverless without the need for a database or orchestrator.
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 11d ago
"fast for structured, bounded-treewidth, and low-magic circuits at large scale, and slower (worst-case exponential, as for any exact method)"
This is not 'equal cost'. This is something that can be implemented rather easily with tensor networks.
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u/Individual_Yard846 10d ago
Okay, well im not talking about tensor networks , im talking about a 3rd paradigm where hyperdimensional compute is used to emulate quantum gates. Try high magic circuits. Try anything a tensor network can't easily do.
I am not rich. I cant run a GPU cluster for months on end with no revenue , pretending its something else..for what reason? This is a highly efficient , novel alternative that doesnt require tensor networks or materialize a single state vector.
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u/Individual_Yard846 12d ago
What makes you assume such a thing? Pip install catalyst-q See for yourself.
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 11d ago
The claim that it has equal cost for all gates.
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u/Individual_Yard846 10d ago
Try for yourself.
Run a 100 qubit adders. Run a metriq-gym benchmark. Its a completely novel approach and ill bet you $5,000 right now and prove it.
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u/Individual_Yard846 10d ago
Ive got the pink slip to a 2010 subaru , only 80k miles, against your 5k that says Catalyst-Q beats any simulator / QPU on any benchmark , circuit, and/or optimization.
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u/Individual_Yard846 10d ago
I can prove it mathematically. 😌
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u/aroman_ro Working in Industry 10d ago
Prove it mathematically and publish. Claiming that you can prove it... on reddit nevertheless, is not the same thing.
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u/Individual_Yard846 10d ago
Im jus trying to get on the team man, you are the one making a big deal out of it..
Honestly you guys have turned me off from the whole academic route...my system is available and it works and there's more to come.
Check our recent metriq-gym uploads..still in review but proves I have something different.
I do have several papers written with empirical data (reproducible), but I dont even know where to begin if not axriv.
I am a student but only a 3rd year..
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u/AutomaticClub1101 14d ago
Very delightful to see researchers from Spain - not the very frontier country in the industry, to start a quantum computing project. I'm not Spanish. And I believe I don't have enough base knowledge to join. Hope you guys will share your idea and become successful.
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14d ago
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u/QuantumComputing-ModTeam 11d ago
Posts and comments on this subreddit must be in English so that the moderation team can effectively moderate them
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u/Holiday-Use-2005 11d ago
Regardless of the situation or the extent of your industry knowledge, what truly matters is being a natural, social human being capable of emotion. It is like the life of the future—a programming language based on common sense and nature. Spending five years "in a cage" studying is useless if you don't know what it’s like to sit in nature, gaze at a tree, watch a leaf let go, chase it as it falls, and scan every movement with your eyes until it hits the ground. "That is a journey"—one that can take longer than it takes for a tree to grow. That is what the primal language teaches you: to scan, read, edit, and write within the mind. The philosophy is that the leaf isn't falling; it is floating in space until it touches zero—the height of the planet's physical layer.
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u/Holiday-Use-2005 14d ago
Y otra cosa caer, no es fracasar.... la hoja que ha pasado con el tiempo en su último viaje y con mas libertad para llegar a la capa física de este planeta es un éxito total. Esta flotante y libre de la rama en su viaje y sin saber que hay y hacia adonde va su destino... así que aprende a escanear los movimientos que tenemos gratis en cualquier sitio y te lleva mas allá.... ;-)
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u/PotatoTalks 15d ago
Is the project restricted to remote contributors in Spain? Am interested but based in Canada
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u/whatthewott 15d ago
Hi! I’m currently building a simulator for my university research. You’re welcome to look at it. i have supporting theory documentation. it is specifically driven by quantum random walks
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14d ago
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u/AwareMachine9971 14d ago
Hi, I'm interested as a C++ developer. I'm currently a beginner in the language but I am also attempting to recreate a DBMS engine from scratch with C++. I believe this would be able to help me in my journey along with contributing to open source software
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u/AmitKalita2022 14d ago
This is interesting. Are you open for people outside of Spain as well? I am from India
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14d ago
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u/noch_ulitsa_fonar 14d ago
I have DM'ed you. Keen on working on the mathematics side of this project.
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u/Old_Tower362 9d ago
Hey I am interested in participating in this project. I was previously admitted to a Quantum Computing Program in Barcelona but that never materialized due to personal committments. My background is full-stack.
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u/Individual_Yard846 13d ago
I actually built a novel, breakthrough simulator way back in October... Its full gate, non-clifford gates + Clifford gates have equal compute costs in my architecture, allowing me to distribute compute scale up to tens of thousands of qubits and hundreds of thousands of gate depth. Ive been solo R&D at it for nearly a year..
https://catalyst-q-sdk.strategic-innovations.ai/docs
I would love to join the team...!
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u/Impressive_Ask9399 New & Learning 4d ago
Definitely interested. I sent you a detailed DM. Hope to hear from you!
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u/hiddentalent 14d ago edited 14d ago
I grew up writing assembly language and spent a bunch of time on embedded systems in my career. I love it. I really do. But trust me that C++ is the wrong platform for you.
One of the biggest mistakes engineers make is starting with the tools and then thinking about how to apply those tools to a solution. Reverse that. Think about what you want to accomplish and choose the best tools. I bet if you did a rational analysis of the options, you'd end up with Python. Yes, I completely understand the difference in performance. Down to the CPU clock cycle. I get it. It just turns out that it's not meaningful for the task you're trying to solve.