Quantum Universe EXPO

Seiya Miyamoto 2nd-year PhD Student
Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University

In March 2026, we held a three-day workshop in Taiwan on quantum computing titled “Quantum Infinity for You in Taiwan 2026 (QI4U in Taiwan 2026).” In this report, I provide an overview of the event and some of the activities carried out during the workshop.

The QI4U event series was held not only in Taiwan, but also in Italy, Korea, Finland, Poland, China, and Peru, making Taiwan the seventh country to host the event. Another event in the United Kingdom had originally been planned for the following week, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the in-person event was suddenly canceled. As a result, the Taiwan workshop unexpectedly became the series' final event, which made us nervous. Nevertheless, we prepared carefully by incorporating as many successful ideas and lessons learned from previous events in other countries as possible.

In fact, this was not the first QI4U workshop in Taiwan. The event had also been held one year earlier with the cooperation of Professor Chia-Ho Ou from National Pingtung University (NPTU), who again co-hosted this year’s workshop. Last year, the event was held on the NPTU campus in Pingtung, located in southern Taiwan. This time, however, we chose Syntrend Creative Park in Taipei as the venue in hopes of attracting a larger, more diverse group of participants. As intended, many university students from the Taipei area joined the event. In addition, students from NPTU and even company participants attended, resulting in a workshop with participants from a wide range of backgrounds.

At the beginning of the event, I gave an overview of the entire workshop, followed by opening remarks from the president of NPTU.

The first day mainly consisted of talks and lectures on quantum annealing and combinatorial optimization problems. In the morning session, Professor Masayuki Ozeki gave a lecture introducing various social issues and applications of quantum annealing. Many participants likely had the impression that “quantum” was a difficult concept, but by seeing examples such as traffic control, chemical material discovery, and photomosaic generation, they were able to realize that quantum annealing can be applied to a broad range of fields.

Next, Professor Ou from NPTU introduced several of their previous research projects utilizing quantum annealing. In particular, he emphasized the importance of considering “what should be optimized” and “what constraints exist” when tackling combinatorial optimization problems. His phrase on the final slide — “Think in Objectives. Define by Constraints. Solve with Quantum.” — was especially memorable and has remained strongly in my mind ever since (see the photo).

After lunch, the afternoon session featured lectures on combinatorial optimization problems delivered by our student team members.

First, Akiyoshi-san and Okada-san gave a lecture using the knapsack problem as a basic example of combinatorial optimization, explaining how optimization problems can be formulated as QUBO problems. They also conducted a hands-on session using program code, allowing participants to learn through direct practice.

Next, I introduced scheduling problems as a more complex example and explained how such problems can likewise be formulated.

Finally, Shikanai-san gave a lecture focusing on “how to think about defining optimization problems” using the knapsack problem and route optimization problems as examples. Rather than merely explaining equations, he discussed how real problems can be organized and translated into constraints and objective functions through concrete examples.

With this, the first day of the event concluded successfully.

The second day focused mainly on group work. At the beginning, I announced the group assignments. Since we had conducted a questionnaire for participants the previous evening, I thought it would be interesting to perform the group assignment process in real time. Therefore, after the first day ended, I quickly formulated and implemented the group assignment problem myself. During the session, I projected the optimization process onto the screen and carried out the group assignment live using quantum annealing. It was a playful attempt inspired by the phrase “Only quantum knows the result.”

Afterward, we formed five teams of four to five participants each, with student members assigned to support each team, and began brainstorming ideas. In my team, one participant proposed a theme early, so the topic selection process proceeded smoothly. On the other hand, some teams struggled even at the stage of deciding what problem to tackle.

Even after choosing their themes, active discussions continued over how to formulate the problems and which constraints to consider. Each team went through repeated trial and error while implementing their ideas, and by the end of the second day, every team had at least established a problem setting and completed a basic implementation.

On the final day, participants presented the outcomes of their group work. During the morning session, they organized their formulation ideas and implementation results into presentation slides, and in the afternoon, each group gave a presentation. The themes of the groups were as follows:

• Group 1: Trajectory Optimization for Intercepting a Trans-Neptunian Object
• Group 2: Night Market Stall Layouts Optimization
• Group 3: Daily Activity Optimization — A Family Case Study
• Group 4: Route Optimization and Resource Allocation in Taipei 101
• Group 5: Surgery Scheduling Optimization

The presentations covered a diverse range of topics, from highly original problem settings to applications of existing optimization problems adapted to uniquely Taiwanese contexts. Although the working period was short, essentially only Day 2 and the morning of Day 3, it was impressive to see how efficiently each group divided responsibilities and progressed with their work. Furthermore, I was amazed that every group not only formulated their problems but also implemented optimization procedures.

At the end of the presentation session, we took a commemorative group photo, and Professor Ou gave the closing remarks, successfully bringing the event to a close.

For me, this workshop was the first opportunity to be involved as an organizer of such a large-scale event. Although I had many concerns, the event was successfully completed thanks to the support of Professor Ou and the staff members of NPTU, Professor Ohzeki, and Honda-san, as well as the student members Shikanai-san, Okada-san, Akiyoshi-san, and Yamada-san.

Both the participants and the Japanese team members faced challenges communicating in a language that was not their native tongue. Nevertheless, what stood out most over these three days was the participants’ strong enthusiasm and motivation, which greatly contributed to the workshop's success.