ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today named Torsten Hoefler, a Professor at ETH Zurich, the recipient of the 2024 ACM Prize in Computing for fundamental contributions to high-performance computing and the ongoing AI revolution. Hoefler developed many of the core capabilities of modern supercomputers and defined key aspects of the algorithms for distributing AI models on them.

Using a 56-qubit quantum computer, researchers have for the first time experimentally demonstrated certified randomness, a way of generating random numbers from a quantum computer and then using a classical supercomputer to prove they are truly random and freshly generated. This could pave the way towards the use of quantum computers for a practical task unattainable through classical methods.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has selected FAU’s Hamming Quasi-Cyclic (HQC) algorithm for standardization in its Post-Quantum Cryptography project. HQC was chosen for its security, efficiency and practical implementation in secure key exchange, which protects digital communications and ensures safe encryption against future quantum computing threats. FAU is the only U.S. university involved among all the authors of the two, winning key-encapsulation mechanism schemes selected by NIST, highlighting its prominent role in the field of post-quantum cryptography.