Publications

Authors: José Luis Hevia, Ezequiel Murina, Aurelio Martínez & Guido Peterssen 

In this chapter, the authors present some of their results and experiences in the research and development of quantum pharmacogenomics, for which INUBE Instituto Universitario de Investigación has designed a pharmacogenomic model and aQuantum has developed an algorithm that takes into account genetic polymorphisms, drug polytherapy and clinical conditions. Based on the results of their PoC, the authors argue that the combination of this pharmacogenomic model, the corresponding quantum algorithm and the designed quantum/classical software systems will bring personalised pharmacogenomics to healthcare systems in a practical way.

aQuantum
published on Springer, 2024

by Guido Peterssen, José Luis Hevia and Mario Piattini

English edition of the book edited and written by members of aQuantum. In the book, the authors state that, for quantum software to be truly useful for the industry, it must be developed according to the best practices of Software Engineering. In the different chapters of the book this statement is unpacked with the aim of showing, from different angles, that only professional quantum software development can provide the industry with what it expects from it: high-quality, secure, extensible, high performance, high scalability and to ensure the investment made in it.

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on Amazon, 2023

Editors: Manuel A. Serrano, Ricardo Pérez-Castillo and Mario Piattini

Edited by members of aQuantum, the book contains the contributions of European researchers on Quantum Software Engineering and Programming from nine universities in five different countries and the collaboration of two quantum software companies from two countries.
This book introduces Software Engineering techniques and tools to improve the productivity and assure the quality in quantum software development. Shows the application of formal methods, modeling languages, and reengineering approaches to quantum software. Presents a set of quantum software environments, tools and frameworks.

UCLM-Alrcos Group
aQuantum
published on Springer, 2022

by Mario Piattini, Manuel A. Serrano, José Cruz Lemus and Ricardo Pérez-Castillo 

Written by a group of researchers specializing in Quantum Software Engineering and Programming, this book presents the basic concepts of quantum computing, the best-known algorithms, offering an overview of the technologies to implement quantum computers, the main quantum programming languages and tools, as well as the most active research areas, and some questions about the implementation and future of quantum computing. The book is an important contribution to the dissemination of knowledge about quantum computing in Spanish.

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on Amazon, 2022

PySDK qSOA®

by José Luis Hevia and Alonso Martín-Toledano

In this article the authors focus the analysis on the Python language, introducing readers to how to develop with the Python language in QPath® and its PySDK. To do so, they show how to work, step by step, with this programming language in two different development environments supported by the platform: Conda and Visual Studio Code. The article shows in a practical way how to develop with Python in QuantumPath®.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

QrEngineer usage example

by Aurelio Martínez and José Luis Hevia

Article in which the authors show how to use, step by step, Q Provider Factory to run, through QuantumPath®, a quantum program implemented with Amazon Braket SDK. The example chosen for the article is an implementation of the Simon’s algorithm. The authors show, with another practical example, how Q Provider Factory opens a new path for developers of quantum applications who wish to manage the lifecycle of their developments with QPath®.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

by Aurelio Martínez, Borja García Zapardiel, Guido Peterssen and José Luis Hevia 

Article in which the authors show, step by step, a practical example of how to use Q Provider Factory to transpile and execute, through QuantumPath®, a quantum program implemented with Ocean SDK, Python development software provided by D-Wave that allows solving optimization problems on their annealing quantum computers. The authors highlight that Q Provider Factory opens a new path for developers of quantum applications who wish to use in the lifecycle of their developments the extensive set of tools, services, methods and processes of QPath®.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

Adapter for quantum programs developed with the third-party SDK

by Aurelio Martínez, Guido Peterssen and José Luis Hevia 

Article in which the authors announce the launch of Q|rEngineer>, a new QuantumPath® APP, which allows to perform different practical actions from the perspective of quantum software reengineering to adapt, with the least possible effort, algorithms developed in other environments to the QPath® architecture. In this first instalment of the article, the authors focus the analysis on Q Provider Factory, Q rEngineer’s tool for adapting quantum programs to QuantumPath® through its Q Provider Factory Python SDK and Q Provider Factory Web UI options.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

by José Luis Hevia and Alonso Martín-Toledano

In this article the authors show, in a practical way, how to work with Q xCompositor, a tool of the Q Assets Compositor® family of QuantumPath® that allows the development of circuits with Microsoft Excel, taking advantage of the features of this software. The practical exposition is carried out through two use cases: Creation of a 100-qubit QRNG circuit with Q xCompositor and Editing an existing circuit, Teleportation, with Q xCompositor.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

by José Luis Hevia, Mario Piattini and Guido Peterssen

In this article autors present the new member of the Q Assets Compositor® family, Q xCompositor: a rich QuantumPath® client developed with Microsoft Excel, with the Q Assets Compositor® extensions for quantum circuit design.

QST

published on The QPath Blog, 2023

by Guido Peterssen, Mario Piattini and  José Luis Hevia

In this article the authors share with readers, on the occasion of today’s World Quantum Day, their thoughts on professional quantum/classical software development from the perspective of more than five years of R&D in Quantum Software Engineering and Programming to create professional tools and services for industry-ready quantum/classical software development.

UCLM-Alrcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

by Aurellio Martínez and Guido Peterssen

In this article the authors state that QTester APP is the result of an extensive research and development process initiated in 2019 when, motivated by the almost non-existent scientific and technical expertise on quantum software testing, the aQuantum research team took up the challenge  of addressing quantum software testing research. The authors state that with the beta 1 of QTester APP takes the first practical steps to provide tools to developers of quantum gate circuits based on the best practices of Quantum Software Engineering.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2023

by Luis Jiménez, Ricardo Perez-Castillo, and Mario Piattini

Quantum annealing software has gained a certain market penetration, demonstrating a good performance for optimization problems. However, there are no reverse engineering techniques with which to discover the underlying optimization problem definitions (the Hamiltonian functions to be minimized). This paper presents a dynamic analysis technique for D-Wave (Python) programs with which to reverse Hamiltonian expressions, and which are additionally represented according to the Knowledge Discovery Metamodel. 

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on Journal of Systems and Software, 2023

by José Luis Hevia, Mario Piattini and Guido Peterssen 

In this article, the authors announce the release of Q Assets Compositor® 2.0, the new version of this QuantumPath® technology to agnostically and visually  create quantum gate circuits a, which connect to the servers of quantum computer providers and retrieve the results. The authors highlight that the main technological novelty of Q Assets Compositor® 2.0 is that it natively supports the development of quantum gate circuits without qubit limits.

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by José Luis Hevia, Mario Piattini and Guido Peterssen 

In this article, the authors show the impact that the change of a certain quantum technology provider can have and the importance of considering this possibility as something real in the risk management of quantum computing projects. The article shows how, depending on the way we prepare to manage this risk, this will be the quality of the response to critical situations linked to change management of quantum technologies, as well as the importance of a strategy based on the agnostic approach regarding technologies to mitigate the risks implicit in the change of quantum technologies.

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by José Luis Hevia and Alonso Martin-Toledano

Article in which the authors present a complete example of integrating a QRNG circuit with a classic software application. In the example, the classic client will be responsible for calling the quantum circuit and collecting and post-processing the data. In QuantumPath® this process will be carried out in an agnostic way, starting from the design of the circuit (which once designed and available in QPath® can be reused whenever the client needs it), its control flow, and the encoding of the result, and the client will be able to launch the execution on any of the quantum computers available on the platform.

aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by José Luis Hevia, Guido Peterssen and Mario Piattini,

In this post the authors discuss the characteristics of health and medicine applications, and present QuantumPath®, a platform designed and developed to accelerate the construction of hybrid software in the real world. The publication summarizes a real project on quantum pharmacogenomics, in this case applied to aging, and the integration of with Amazon Braket for the execution of the hybrid classical/quantum solution that will allow quantum services to be provided to doctors from their classical computers.

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by Guido Peterssen, José Luis Hevia and Mario Piattini,

In this paper the authors, based on their extensive experience in Software Engineering and Programming, explain why, to develop professional, industry-ready quantum software that provides guarantees of quality, security, extensibility, high performance, and scalability, in addition to the programming language and source code management application, a set of tools and solutions is needed to work through each phase of development.

UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by José Antonio Cruz, Manuel Serrano, Ricardo Pérez, and Mario Piattini,

Quantum computing is the latest revolution in computing and will probably come to be seen an advance as important as the steam engine or the information society. In the last few decades, our understanding of quantum computers has expanded and multiple efforts have been made to create languages, libraries, tools, and environments to facilitate their programming. Nonetheless, quantum computers are complex systems at the bottom of a stack of layers that programmers need to understand.
UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on ACM Computing Surveys, 2022

by Ricardo Pérez del Castillo and Mario Piattini

The design of quantum software poses two main challenges: the modelling of software quantum elements must be done in high-level modelling languages; and the need to further develop so-called “hybrid information systems”, which combine quantum and classical software. To address these challenges, authors first propose a quantum UML profile for analysing and designing hybrid information systems. In comparison to certain other quantum domain-specific languages, this UML profile ensures compliance with a well-known international standard.
UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
publishe on Computing journal of Springer, 2022

by Guido Peterssen, José Luis Hevia, Mario Piattini, Adrián Llerena and Eva M. Peñas Lledó

Being able to predict unexpected responses by individually adjusting pharmacological treatment is the challenge of pharmacogenetics. The joint management of all the variables will allow the generation of prediction scenarios of inter-individual and intra-individual variability according to temporal variables, something unimaginable without the quantum solutions proposed in QHealth project with QuantumPath®.
aQuantum
UCLM-Alarcos Group
INUBE
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by Mario Piattini, José Luis Hevia and Guido Peterssen,

The learning curve for this new technology is significantly higher than previous ones and requires
much more time for the organisation to have the necessary skills. The lack of talent in quantum technologies in general, and especially in quantum computing, is tremendous and one of the most serious problems facing companies. QuantumPath® is very efficient for the training and preparation of the workforce required for quantum software development.
UCLM-Alarcos Group
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2022

by José Luis Hevia, Guido Peterssen and Mario Piattini 

Quantum computing has experienced a breakthrough. Several companies aretaking up the challenge of designing and manufacturing quantum computers,and the supply of tools for quantum software development is growing all thetime. This article addresses quantum software development toolkits and introduces the ‘QuantumPath®’ platform. In developing QuantumPath®, our aim isto fulfil certain principles such as: agnosticism, extensibility, integration, independency, optimisation, scalability, security, usability and software engineering support.
UCLM-Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on Journal of Software: Practive and Experience, 2021

by José Luis Hevia, Mario Piattini and Guido Peterssen

QuantumPath®, the quantum development and application lifecycle platform. In the workshop we showed why QPath® is an accelerator for the adoption of quantum software in the real world through its functionalities, the facilities it provides to develop algorithms and quantum applications for gates and annealing technology and how it can be dynamically integrated existing classical software applications with quantum software..
UCLM-Alrcos Group
aQuantum
published on aQuantum, 2021

by Mario Piattini. Guido Peterssen, José Luis Hevia

QHealth is researching about the correlation among the genetic variables and other variables related to the health history of the patients. The study includes the adverse reactions to prescribing drugs in order to predict unwanted side effects of a specific one. This will be analyzed in function of the drugs consumption history of the patients, the reactions the older adult has experimented, and his/her physiological and genetic limitations.
aQuantum
UCLM – Alarcos Group
published on aQuantum, 2021

James Dargan talks with Mario Piattini, Pepe Hevia Oliver and Guido Peterssen Nodarse

 the Software Engineering Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University has just published a “National Agenda for Software Engineering Research & Development” titled: “Architecting the Future of Software Engineering”. For this reason, we have found it interesting to talk with Mario Piattini, José Luis Hevia and Guido Peterssen, who have not only been working on R&D for Software Engineering and Quantum Programming for some years, in the process of which they have dcreated QuantumPath®
UCLM-Alrcos Group
aQuantum
published on The Quantum Insider

by Javier Verduro, Moisés Rodríguez and Mario Piattini

Quantum computers and envi-ronments are already offering great advantages when building advanced applications in fi-nance, health, or logistics. However, if industry is to boost the large-scale production of quantum software, an adequate quality level must be achieved and assured. In this sense, it is very important to consider quantum software quality platforms and products, and to create an effective quality environment for quantum software. In this paper we will summarise some of these issues.
aQuantum
UCLM – Alarcos Group
published on CEUR-WS, 2021

Edited by Ricardo Pérez-Castillo, Manuel A. Serrano and Mario Piattini

There were 15 papers submitted for peer-review to this workshop. Out of these, 10 papers were accepted for this volume, 4 as regular papers and 6 as short papers.
UCLM-Alrcos Group
aQuantum
published on CEUR-WS, 2021

by Jose Luis Hevia, Guido Peterssen, Christof Ebert, and Mario Piattini

This article discusses the main quantum software development platforms, both proprietary quantum computer manufacturers and third party (more “agnostic”), as well as the challenges of using quantum software. The authors conclude that while the capabilities of theses platforms are good, it is necessary to invest time and effort in investigating how to fit them into a complete rigorous software lifecycle, to improve the productivity and assure quality quantum software development.
aQuantum
UCLM – Alarcos Group
published on IEEE Software,
the Issue 5,  Vol. 38,
September-October 2021

by Ezequiel Murina

In this article you will be introduced into the discussion about considering or not quantum annealing as quantum computing. The advantages of annealing technology will be highlighted as well as the tools offered by QPath® to make things easier no matter how complex is your pairwise interaction model. The text resolves around the role of an interface and an interesting analogy between annealer devices and musical instruments that add a new point of view.
aQuantum
QST 
published on The QPath Blog, 2021

by Ricardo Pérez del Castillo, Luis Jiménez Navajas and Mario Piattini

One of the challenges and lessons learned from classic software engineering is the need for high-level, abstract and technology independent representations with which to design software before it is coded. This paper specifically addresses this challenge for quantum software design. Our proposal comprises the definition of a UML profile based on various stereotypes that can be applied to the existing UML activity diagrams in order to represent quantum circuits.
UCLM – Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on arxiv.org, 2021

by Guido Peterssen Nodarse

The proposal of the emerging quantum computing industry for software development is currently broad and does not stop growing. Bearing in mind that the panorama is wide, and above that all changing at a frenetic pace, in this article exposure is limited to the tools of the main quantum computing providers and to QPath, our platform for the development and life cycle of quantum software applications..
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2021

by Mario Piattini Velthuis

It’s necessary a new “quantum software engineering”. Quantum software will need to be developed in an appropriate way. We can achieve something as influential as the methods and tools that have improved considerably in the last decades: structured programming, object-oriented programming, or DevOps/continuous software engineering.
How does QPath solve the quality problems presented by most quantum computing platforms?
UCLM – Alarcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2021

by Mario Piattini; Manuel Serrano; Ricardo Perez-Castillo; Guido Petersen; Jose Luis Hevia

Nowadays, we are at the dawn of a new age, the quantum era. Quantum computing is no longer a dream; it is a reality that needs to be adopted. But this new
technology is taking its first steps, so we still do not have models, standards, or methods to help us in the creation of new systems and the migration of current ones. Given the current state of quantum computing, we need to go back to the path software engineering took in the last century to achieve the new golden age for quantum software engineering.
University of Castilla-La Mancha
aQuantum
published on IEEE IT Professional
(Volume:23, Issue:1, Jan.-Feb.1 2021) 

by Ezequiel Murina Moreno

Annealing as a foreign concept in computing science. Theory with practice. In full correspondence with this statement, the article focuses on explaining, through an attractive presentation and language, what is quantum annealing, how works the first commercial quantum annealer, what we code, and what QPath offers in this regard.
In a very interesting proposal, the author reels, through examples and questions, a journey to understand conceptually, from a scientific perspective, the Annealing concept and, on that basis, makes a transparent presentation of its application to the world of quantum computing.
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2021

by Ricardo Pérez-del Castillo 

The article analyzes the importance for the development of practical quantum software of the characteristics that the QPath Platform incorporates for the modernization of quantum software. The QPath Modernization contributes to boost the construction and deployment of quantum applications as well as their integration with other classical software assets.
UCLM – Alarcos Group
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2021

by Guido Peterssen Nodarse

QPath is a platform designed to support the integration of hybrid classical/quantum software and therefore contains the necessary tools to facilitate something as complex as dynamically integrating classical software with quantum computing.
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2020

by Guido Peterssen Nodarse 

QPath helps circumvent the current limitations of the quantum workforce market and, in this sense, is an accelerator for the adoption of commercial quantum software development that contributes to the democratization of access to quantum computing.
aQuantum
QST
published on The QPath Blog, 2020

by Ricardo Pérez-del Castillo, Manuel A. Serrano y Mario Piattini 

Quantum Computing is becoming an increasingly mature area, with a simultaneous escalation of investment in many sectors. Quantum technology will revolutionize all the engineering fields. 
UCLM – Alarcos Group
aQuantum
published on Advances in Engineering Software, 2020

by Ricardo Pérez-del Castillo, Mario Piattini, Guido Peterssen, Jose Luis Hevia

Quantum Computing is becoming more and more a mature area while an investment scalation is happening in public and private sectors. There are a lot of promising application that never comes true with quantum computers in isolation. Quantum software is necessary to achieve all the claimed, cutting-edge applications in almost every business sector. Quantum software, as other kind of software, need to be planned, designed, coded, estimated, tested, quality-assured, evolved, among otherthings.
Social Sciences & IT Faculty, UCLM
UCLM
aQuantum
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Cláudio Gomes, Daniel Fortunato, João Paulo Fernandes and Rui Abreu

In this position paper, we argue that readily available components are much needed as central contributions towards not only enlarging the community of quantum computer programmers, but also in order to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. We describe the work we intend to do towards providing
such components, namely by developing and making available libraries of quantum algorithms and data structures, and libraries for testing …
CIS Universidade de Coimbra
University of Porto
Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Jose Luis Hevia

In present days, we are attending the raise and fast evolution of the quantum machines. Without even being as powerful as they can be, we can experiment their first steps and enjoying with our “knowledge from scratch” training creating, designing, testing and executing quantum algorithms from a software engineer perspective. But, how this new context can affect our vision and experience from a classical perspective? As IT industry experts, how those new quantum technologies can alter the life cycle of our projects, designs, tests, …?
aQuantum
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Luis Jiménez-Navajas, Ricardo Pérez-del Castillo, and Mario Piattini

Quantum computing has been growing drastically for the last year due to all the possible applications that this new paradigm brings as well as its incomparable computational power. Therefore, the new information systems that will be developed in a future might be influenced by this paradigm. However, discarding the legacy information systems is not an option if those systems embed mission-critical knowledge over time.
UCLM
aQuantum by Alarcos
Social Sciences & IT Faculty, UCLM
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Francesco Piro, Mehrnoosh Askarpour and Elisabetta Di Nitto

Quantum computers promise to allow for great improvements in the solution of ?-SAT problem, determining whether a set of clauses with ? variables have a satisfiable boolean assignment, which is one of the fundamental problems of computational logic. Given the recent advancements of quantum computers, we argue that they allow for great improvements in solving the ?-SAT problem.
DEIB – Politecnico di Milano
McMaster University
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Ezequiel Murina

We are in presence of a quantum computing revolution that will be critical for the dominant global position of nations in near future. A solid knowledge base in math and physics is essential for a workforce able to develop high quality quantum technology. This work addresses the necessity of quantum literacy for the creation of a new workforce, proposing the basic math tools, and physics background for entering into the field of quantum programming. It also addresses a certification about Science Foundation for Quantum Programming, as a means for assuring the quality of quantum software professionals.
aQuantum by Alhambra.
published on Springer Nature, 2020

by Guillermo José Hernández González & Claudio Andrés Paradela

The interest in quantum computing has grown exponentially in recent years, with large technology companies engaging in the creation of computers and quantum technologies. In this paper, aQuantum’s findings and proposals are defined to anticipate the future needs of quantum software project management, taking into account the new roles, requirements and deficiencies of this new technology.
aQuantum by Alhambra
published on Springer Nature, 2020

This manifesto collects some principles and commitments about the quantum software engineering and programming field, as well as some calls for action. This manifesto collects some principles and commitments about the quantum software engineering and programming field.
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Guido Peterssen

Quantum computing started recently from a historical point of view. This paper addresses the how quantum technology has impacted and will impact in society and, in particular, in quantum industry and academia. This study analyzes the necessary workforce for developing quantum software
aQuantum by Alhambra
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Jose Luis Hevia

Brief presentation to introduce to the Quantum basics needed to understand the Quantum Computing Principles. Quantum Computers that make possible the usage of the fundamental part of the nature, to know more about the nature; that can give us a power of computation never seen before; and that require us a new way to address the problems.
aQuantum by Alhambra
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Jordi Tura

Here we discuss quantum algorithms for the so-called k-local Hamiltonian problem. This is one of the problems that is QMA-complete which, roughly speaking, is the NP-complete analogue for a quantum computer.
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Macario Polo Usaola

This article introduces some ideas and challenges related to the testing
of quantum programs. In particular, it approaches functional testing, white
box testing (specially mutation) and model-based testing.
Escuela Superior de Informática, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
published on CEUR-WS, 2020

by Ricardo Pérez-Castillo

In the coming years, companies will progressively need to add quantum computing to some or all of their daily operations. It is clear that all existing, classical information systems cannot be thrown away. Instead of this, it is expected to add some quantum algorithms working embedded in classical information systems.
Social Science & Information Technology Faculty, University of Castilla-La Mancha
published on CEUR-WS, 2020