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A version of this op-ed was published in the Raleigh News & Observer on November 24, 2023. That version is available on the News & Observers website.

As a young professor at N.C. State, Jim Goodnight in the mid-1970s teamed with colleagues to build software to analyze agricultural data. That N.C. State team turned a good idea into a great one, spinning that innovation into a product line that birthed SAS, the Cary-based software giant that recorded $3 billion in sales last year and employs more than 12,000 people.

Thats the sort of success story we need more of here in North Carolina, which is why the CHIPS and Science Act is so important. The Tar Heel State and rest of America are on the precipice of a transformational era for our nations research and innovation enterprise, spurred largely by the work of our research universities. The CHIPS and Science Act signed into law last year included a $52 billion boost to the semiconductor industry a sector where North Carolina companies are well positioned to create new jobs and boost the economy. It would also provide $200 billion to further strengthen the nations competitive advantage in other fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, energy sciences and bioengineering. This money has been approved but not yet distributed, and time is wasting.

North Carolina is well positioned to capitalize on this investment, but Congress must prioritize this funding in the current and future budget cycles to ensure the nation stays ahead in the increasingly competitive race for global leadership in science and innovation.

The universities in North Carolina are extraordinarily successful in winning research funding; Duke ranks 9thnationally in federal research funding and brings in about $776 million of the more than $2 billion of federal funds that support university research in our state each year. These dollars fuel discoveries that become solutions we all need. The funding attracts and retains talent to our state, provides jobs and prosperity for North Carolinians, and generates long-term and sustainable benefits when companies that are born here decide to stay here. In the last 5 years, Duke researchers have launched 75 companies around Duke intellectual property; 55 of them, including Sparta Biosciences, which has developed a new chemically engineering cartilage to help people with cartilage degeneration, have stayed right here in North Carolina.

Building this economic engine doesnt occur overnight or even over a few years. It requires long-term and sustained investment and a highly trained workforce.

We face increasingly tough competition for talent as other countries, both allies and adversaries, are substantially increasing investments in science and technology and other STEM fields. Full funding of the science portion of the CHIPS and Science Act will expand opportunities for North Carolina and the country to cultivate and retain homegrown talent and continue to attract the very best from across the globe.

One example of this is the National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Engines program, which seeks to build innovation capacity across the country. Duke is a partner on a proposal led by UNC Wilmington to unite universities, community colleges, non-profits and businesses to build and sustain coastal and climate resiliency in Eastern North Carolina. This program has great promise to transform regions in North Carolina, and across the country. But NSF currently only has enough funding to support its current round of applicants.

Similarly, our Duke Quantum Center, in downtown Durham, is a major player in large-scale information processing, building ever-larger quantum computer systems. North Carolina could be well positioned to be a leader in quantum computing if the promise of CHIPS and Science is realized.

Were ready for the next step.

Academic research and development is a federal partnership that has galvanized the states economy for more than 60 years and one that must remain robust if we want to continue that momentum. The CHIPS and Science Act will further catalyze North Carolinas leadership in discovery-based research, but current projections show a $7 billion funding shortfall from the original spending targets. If not fully funded, we will see further stagnation of the nations economic growth, defense capabilities and global competitiveness.

If we want the great innovations to grow from our soil and benefit our citizens, we need Congress to start distributing the money it approved for use a year ago.Lets create the next generation of innovators.

Vincent Price is president of Duke University.

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Lets Create the Next Generation of Innovators - Duke University

Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA will bring the latest generative AI technologies to enterprises worldwide.

Combining AI and cloud computing, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang joined AWS CEO Adam Selipsky Tuesday on stage at AWS re:Invent 2023 at the Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas.

Selipsky said he was thrilled to announce the expansion of the partnership between AWS and NVIDIA with more offerings that will deliver advanced graphics, machine learning and generative AI infrastructure.

The two announced that AWS will be the first cloud provider to adopt the latest NVIDIA GH200 NVL32 Grace Hopper Superchip with new multi-node NVLink technology, that AWS is bringing NVIDIA DGX Cloud to AWS, and that AWS has integrated some of NVIDIAs most popular software libraries.

Huang started the conversation by highlighting the integration of key NVIDIA libraries with AWS, encompassing a range from NVIDIA AI Enterprise to cuQuantum to BioNeMo, catering to domains like data processing, quantum computing and digital biology.

The partnership opens AWS to millions of developers and the nearly 40,000 companies who are using these libraries, Huang said, adding that its great to see AWS expand its cloud instance offerings to include NVIDIAs new L4, L40S and, soon, H200 GPUs.

Selipsky then introduced the AWS debut of the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, a significant advancement in cloud computing, and prompted Huang for further details.

Grace Hopper, which is GH200, connects two revolutionary processors together in a really unique way, Huang said. He explained that the GH200 connects NVIDIAs Grace Arm CPU with its H200 GPU using a chip-to-chip interconnect called NVLink, at an astonishing one terabyte per second.

Each processor has direct access to the high-performance HBM and efficient LPDDR5X memory. This configuration results in 4 petaflops of processing power and 600GB of memory for each superchip.

AWS and NVIDIA connect 32 Grace Hopper Superchips in each rack using a new NVLink switch. Each 32 GH200 NVLink-connected node can be a single Amazon EC2 instance. When these are integrated with AWS Nitro and EFA networking, customers can connect GH200 NVL32 instances to scale to thousands of GH200 Superchips

With AWS Nitro, that becomes basically one giant virtual GPU instance, Huang said.

The combination of AWS expertise in highly scalable cloud computing plus NVIDIA innovation with Grace Hopper will make this an amazing platform that delivers the highest performance for complex generative AI workloads, Huang said.

Its great to see the infrastructure, but it extends to the software, the services and all the other workflows that they have, Selipsky said, introducing NVIDIA DGX Cloud on AWS.

This partnership will bring about the first DGX Cloud AI supercomputer powered by the GH200 Superchips, demonstrating the power of AWSs cloud infrastructure and NVIDIAs AI expertise.

Following up, Huang announced that this new DGX Cloud supercomputer design in AWS, codenamed Project Ceiba, will serve as NVIDIAs newest AI supercomputer as well, for its own AI research and development.

Named after the majestic Amazonian Ceiba tree, the Project Ceiba DGX Cloud cluster incorporates 16,384 GH200 Superchips to achieve 65 exaflops of AI processing power, Huang said.

Ceiba will be the worlds first GH200 NVL32 AI supercomputer built and the newest AI supercomputer in NVIDIA DGX Cloud, Huang said.

Huang described Project Ceiba AI supercomputer as utterly incredible, saying it will be able to reduce the training time of the largest language models by half.

NVIDIAs AI engineering teams will use this new supercomputer in DGX Cloud to advance AI for graphics, LLMs, image/video/3D generation, digital biology, robotics, self-driving cars, Earth-2 climate prediction and more, Huang said.

DGX is NVIDIAs cloud AI factory, Huang said, noting that AI is now key to doing NVIDIAs own work in everything from computer graphics to creating digital biology models to robotics to climate simulation and modeling.

DGX Cloud is also our AI factory to work with enterprise customers to build custom AI models, Huang said. They bring data and domain expertise; we bring AI technology and infrastructure.

In addition, Huang also announced that AWS will be bringing four Amazon EC2 instances based on the NVIDIA GH200 NVL, H200, L40S, L4 GPUs, coming to market early next year.

Selipsky wrapped up the conversation by announcing that GH200-based instances and DGX Cloud will be available on AWS in the coming year. You can catch the discussion and Selipskys entire keynote on AWSs YouTube channel.

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Embracing Transformation: AWS and NVIDIA Forge Ahead in ... - Nvidia

This editorial is based on When AI meets Quantum Computing which was published in The Hindu Business Line on 22/11/2023. It discusses the potential applications and challenges of combining artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, two of the most promising technologies of the 21st century.

Quantum Computing (QC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are two of the most transformative technologies in our era, pushing the boundaries of computation and cognition. Although they may seem to follow separate paths at first, QC redefines the limits of speed and parallelism while AI reshapes our understanding of intelligence and automation. However, when these paths intersect, the potential outcomes become extraordinary and formidable. The convergence of Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence amplifies the strengths of each, offering a symbiotic relationship that transcends the limitations of traditional computing.

The intersection of quantum computing and artificial intelligence represents more than just a technological advancement; it marks a profound leap forward. This convergence fundamentally alters the landscape of computation, scientific exploration, and ethical governance. The interdependence between these fields holds the promise to redefine our digital future, providing answers to challenges that were once considered insurmountable.

Drishti Mains Question:

Analyze the ethical considerations associated with the integration of quantum computing and AI. How can these concerns be mitigated?

Q. Which one of the following is the context in which the term "qubit" is mentioned?

(a) Cloud Services (b) Quantum Computing (c) Visible Light Communication Technologies (d) Wireless Communication Technologies

Ans: (b)

The rest is here:
Quantum Computing and AI in Symbiotic Harmony - Drishti IAS

As we approach the end of 2023, its important to reflect on significant steps that have been taken by businesses to reach net zero. While some of the sustainability hype has fallen off the agenda, at Digital Catapult, I often engage with business leaders across multiple sectors including manufacturing, engineering, transport, and the creative industries to understand their pain points and priorities.

From these discussions, one thing is clear; sustainability is still an incredibly high priority amongst IT and technology leaders, and this is not going to change. With 26 years to go on the journey to net zero, we have positioned ourselves well to meet this target, but there are challenges that lie ahead next year, and IT leaders must be prepared to overcome these obstacles with sustainable innovation.

This responsibility will in part lie with the advanced technology sector to demonstrate how sustainable innovation can benefit businesses of all sizes.

This past year, we have seen businesses paving the way in terms of tackling some of the IT sectors biggest sustainability woes, including e-waste. One example from this past year is the availability of remanufactured laptops from Dell, Lenovo, HP as well as the dramatic drop in the price of these units. These devices are now available at an affordable price, and play a significant role in reducing the amount of e-waste generated by the IT sector more broadly.

More efficient graphic processing units (GPUs) that launched this year offer their own huge sustainability advantages too. In August, Nvidia launched The RAPIDS Accelerator for Apache Spark, which is a game-changer that could cut both costs and carbon emissions by up to 80%.

Nvidia is a key partner of Digital Catapults, supporting startups on the MyWorld programme in Bristol, which looks to develop and support startups in the West of England by awarding each participating company with up to up to 50,000 in funding.

Seeing Nvidias commitment to sustainability this past year has been both exciting and affirming. Its so important that others follow Nvidias lead in 2024 and focus on both assessing the climate impact of their products and sharing this information with IT leaders, to empower them to make the most sustainable decisions possible.

This demonstrates the importance of testing new products that will appeal to technology leaders within businesses across the country, maintaining levels of interest in sustainable innovation.

I have also seen some great stories on IT symbiosis this year as well, where organisations and businesses have further identified how they can leverage sustainable innovation to appeal to technology leaders across the country. For example, there is a growing trend around datacentres being deployed next to swimming pools which allows excess heat from the servers to warm the water in the pool, while the water simultaneously cools the datacentre. This results in huge energy savings for both the business operating the datacentre and the organisation that manages the swimming pool.

This type of out-of-the-box thinking is not only saving huge amounts of money in terms of energy costs for both parties but is significantly improving the carbon footprint of the organisations too.

Whats interesting is that swimming pools are not the only facilities that can benefit from the excess heat generated by storing and processing data. There are also examples of datacentres being used to power homes and businesses across Europe, and this level of urban planning and innovation will result in not only significant carbon reductions, but brand new revenue streams for the IT sector.

We still face countless challenges regarding sustainability, with the next big challenge on the horizon likely to involve Quantum technology. We are already seeing huge demand for quantum technologies and Digital Catapults recently launched Quantum Technology Access Programme was hugely oversubscribed, with participants from the transport, infrastructure and energy sectors.

The oversubscription is testament to demand amongst leading UK businesses for quantum solutions that will sharpen their competitive edge. The dawn of quantum must however be welcomed by businesses with a simultaneous commitment to sustainable innovation too.

Quantum computing presents huge opportunities not just in things like processing power and cyber security but also in addressing a whole variety of solutions that traditional computing cannot comprehend today. This is why there is increasing demand for quantum solutions amongst IT leaders in the UK.

The challenge we need to solve is once again related to cooling. Quantum Computers require incredibly cold environments in order to work, close to absolute zero in fact. To keep systems in a quantum state, designers need to minimise the risk of anything disrupting the fragile position.

We need to find more sustainable ways to cool quantum computers to both take advantage of the positive power that quantum can offer, without causing a huge increase in energy requirements. This will require a wide range of experts, from quantum hardware experts, who work directly with the qubits, engineers who design the cryogenics systems that cool the hardware, as well as the control systems that program the qubits, and researchers who study thermodynamics, to come together to solve some of these challenges.

Once this team is in place, more IT leaders will have the toolkit they need to further embrace this level of sustainable innovation and emerging technology, to bolster growth and cut their carbon emissions.

While its great to see the impact of sustainable innovation over the past year, its important for IT leaders to respond to and prepare for challenges that may present themselves in 2024. Im excited to see more IT leaders embrace new solutions that will improve efficiencies while cutting carbon emissions.

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IT Sustainability Think Tank: IT leaders must prepare for green ... - ComputerWeekly.com

Private sector IT buyers will see a long-term boost to their budgets after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, announced that a policy allowing the cost of IT equipment to be written off against tax will be made permanent.

The so-called full expensing policy was first announced as a short-term incentive in the Budget in March, but Hunt said in his Autumn Statement it will now be made a permanent measure. It means money spent on IT equipment, plant or machinery can be deducted from taxable profits for any organisation that pays corporation tax.

The UK IT sector is likely to benefit from a number of other announcements revealed by Hunt today (22 November).

Changes to research and development (R&D) tax credits will see more companies eligible to make claims supporting innovation. Two existing schemes, the current R&D Expenditure Credit and SME schemes will be merged from April 2024 onwards, and the government estimates that around 5,000 extra small businesses will qualify for an enhanced rate of relief. The changes are expected to offer 280m additional relief per year by 2028-29 to help drive innovation in the UK.

In support of previously announced moves to encourage UK pension funds to invest more in tech startups, the government will commit 250m to two successful bidders in the Long-term Investment for Technology and Scienceinitiative. According to HM Treasury, This will create new investment vehicles tailored to the needs of pension funds, generating over a billion pounds of investment from pension funds and other sources into UK science and technology companies.

Two existing startup support schemes, the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts, will also be extended to 2035.

To support the governments ambitions in establishing the UK as a leader in artificial intelligence (AI), Hunt announced a further 500m over the next two years to help establish two more compute innovation centres, bringing total investment to more than 1.5bn. These investments will allow researchers and SMEs to develop new foundation models and maximise the UKs potential in AI, enabling, for example, the discovery of new drugs, according to the Treasurys full Autumn Statement report.

In support of the National Quantum Strategy, announced in March, the government has identified five quantum missions intended to achieve a series of specific outcomes to encourage further UK developments in this emerging technology area.

These missions aim to establish UK-based quantum computers supporting one trillion operations, by 2035; the worlds most advanced quantum network, also by 2035; and by 2030 allowing every NHS Trust to benefit from quantum sensing-enabled solutions; quantum navigation systems to be deployed on aircraft; and mobile, networked quantum sensors that can unlock new situational awareness capabilities in the transport, telecoms, energy and defence sectors.

Creating the UKs own quantum computing infrastructure is key to our future on the world stage, said Rashik Parmar, chief executive of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Quantum computing needs to be embedded across businesses and driven forward by many more highly skilled computing graduates and apprentices.

To boost skills, Hunt also announced funding of 50m over the next two years to pilot ways to increase the number of apprentices in engineering and other key growth sectors. He also revealed three additional investment zones in addition to the 12 announced in March focused on advanced manufacturing in the West Midlands, East Midlands and Greater Manchester.

Together, local partners expect these will help catalyse over 3.4bn of private investment and 65,000 new jobs, said Hunt.

The government has accepted the recommendations of a review by its chief scientific adviser, professor Angela McLean, to encourage pro-innovation regulation so that industry regulators, such as communications watchdog Ofcom, can adapt to enable the safe and rapid introduction of beneficial emerging technologies more easily.

A consultation has been launched to evaluate methods for smarter regulation by Ofcom and other industry regulators such as Ofgem and Ofwat, aiming to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and encourage investment and innovation.

The government also published its Future of payments review report alongside the Autumn Statement, which looks to build on developments in open banking and the UKs leadership in the fintech sector to improve the use of digital payments. The report calls for a National Payments Vision and Strategy to create a world-leading payments environment.

A 960m Green Industries Growth Accelerator fund will look to support emerging technologies in clean energy and the transition to net-zero.

The best universities, the cleverest scientists and the smartest entrepreneurs have given us Europes most innovative economy, said Hunt in his speech to the House of Commons.

This Autumn Statement for growth will attract 20bn of additional business investment a year in the next decade, bring tens of thousands more people into work and support our fastest-growing industries.

Responding to the chancellor's statement, Julian David, CEO of trade body TechUK, said the package of measures relating to the tech sector was "bigger than many expected".

This statement has significant potential to boost investment from the tech sector. However, with low growth forecasts, there is no room for mistakes and no time to lose. The government needs to work at pace alongside the tech sector to put these policies into action and get growth going, said David.

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Chancellor offers spending boost for IT buyers alongside AI and ... - ComputerWeekly.com