Coordinator Dr Anna Christmann, MdB Marcel Emmerich and MdL Michael Joukov visit Innovation Center Ulm

DLR has created a cutting-edge research site in Ulm for quantum technologies, artificial intelligence and future energy storage. In our DLR Innovation Centre Ulm, we bundle these competencies and are bringing quantum computers into application, together with our industry partners and three DLR Institutes: AI Safety and Security, Quantum Technologies and Engineering Thermodynamics. We are proud of what we have built up in Ulm over the last few years and are delighted to be helping to shape the quantum computing ecosystem in southern Germany.

The DLR Innovation Center Ulm

9 hardware projects | DIAQ × DiNAQC × PiQ × REDAC × SQuAP × StarQ × SuNQC × UPQC × XQi
7 software & application projects | BASIQ, NeMoQC, TeufIQ, QCMobility , QLearning, Quant²AI, QuTeNet,
7 hardware contractors | Advanced Quantum, Anabrid, Diatope, planqc, QuiX Quantum, SaxonQ, XeedQ
Infrastructure | 590m² labs, 130m² workshops, 620m² office space, 242m² coworking space & Quantum Lounge
Ecosystem | DLR Institute for AI Safety and Security, DLR Institute of Quantum Technologies, DLR Institute of Engineering Technologies, QuantumBW, Universtität Ulm

On 26 July 2023, Dr Anna Christmann MdB, the Federal Government Coordinator for German Aerospace, Marcel Emmerich, Member of the Bundestag, and Michael Joukov, Member of the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament, came to see for themselves how far we have come in recent years. Klaus Hamacher, Deputy Chair of the DLR Executive Board, gave them an insight into DLR research.

During their visit to the DLR site in Ulm, our industry partner XeedQ presented their first NV centre quantum computer from the QCI project XQi. QuiX Quantum presented their project UPQC and a demonstrator of a photonic processor. Birger Horstmann at the DLR Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics then demonstrated the ways he simulates batteries using classical and quantum computers, for example in the QCI project BASIQ.

Shaping the quantum computing ecosystem

From left to right: MdB Marcel Emmerich, MdL Michael Joukov

XeedQ CEO Gopi Balasubramanian demonstrates the NV centre quantum computer XQ1i

XeedQ Managing Director Gopi Balasubramanian, Coordinator Anna Christmann, MdL Michael Joukov, and MdB Marcel Emmerich.

QCI project manager Michael Höse presents the NV Centre project XQi. In the foreground, a photonic quantum processor from QuiX Quantum.

Detail of the QuiX Quantum photonic quantum processor

Creating a quantum computer usable for industry is still a long way off. But research and industry are working closely together – for example at our DLR Innovation Center in Ulm – to overcome the technological hurdles and make quantum computers fit for industrial use.

It is all the more important now to bring continuity to the research and development of quantum computing. The DLR Innovation Center Ulm is an example of how this can be achieved: By bundling scientific competence, industrial expertise and the innovative power of start-ups in one place, offering new ventures and specialists an attractive environment and creating a long-term perspective for this promising technology in Germany and Europe. This is our approach to shaping the ecosystem of quantum computing together.