Testing and Quality Assurance of Quantum Experiment Software
The start of this thesis is postponed indefinitely. You can send mail to schmidt@se-rwth.de to get notified once it is available.
Evaluating component prototypes is a focal task in researching hardware architectures of future quantum computer systems. This includes conducting complex experiments on manufactured hardware components. During these experiments, promising samples are cooled down to 20-70mK to measure their behavior automatically for dozens of input configurations. Those experiments are driven by a newly developed and specialized measurement framework that offers an end-to-end approach to configuring the hardware setup, steering the experiment, and storing and visualizing the measured data in real-time. The measurement software is a critical infrastructure in the daily work of quantum computer researchers. Therefore, it should be of high quality and even sustain its quality when potential new requirements arise. Both goals are hard to pursue and sustain with traditional Software Engineering approaches and tools. Some of the reasons are:
- The software’s functionality relies on the behavior of measurement hardware. Software components for mocking the hardware are available but may not mimic their hardware counterparts perfectly.
- Similarly, there are no mocks for potential measurement samples nor a systematic way to create them.
- The measurement software has to provide a high degree of flexibility and is often the subject of change while configuring new experiments.
- New experiments lead to new software variants that make testing and sustaining quality more complex.
Topics and Approaches
This thesis is part of a collaboration between the Chair of Software Engineering and the Quantum Technology Group. It focuses on the software engineering aspects of measurement software and requires little previous knowledge of quantum computing. The thesis should focus on answering one of the research questions:
- How can testing be successfully applied in variant-rich software systems that are closely intertwined with measurement hardware and samples?
- How can developers and experimenters assess and sustain the quality and evolution of a variant-rich software system that is subject to ad-hoc changes?
Our Offer
- Contribute to the success of cutting-edge quantum computer experiments.
- Getting insights into the work of quantum computer researchers.
- Enhance the durability of critical experiment infrastructure.
- Explore novel ways of testing software or improving the quality of a critical software system.
Your Profile
- Pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, similar degree courses, or Physics
- A solid background in Python.
- Experience with software testing or the design and realization of maintainable, adaptable software architectures.
- High-quality standards for your own work.
- The ability to independently develop solutions to complex problems.
- Previous knowledge of quantum computing is not necessary, but it helps to understand the bigger picture.
Contact
For more information, please send a short description of your background and overview of grades to Marc Schmidt (schmidt@se-rwth.de).
Task definition
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Rumpe Lehrstuhl Software Engineering Ahornstr. 55 52074 Aachen