Achievements · Collaboration · October 31, 2024
FinQ × QCAS at ICCAD 2024
A workshop, a research paper and a practical question: how can quantum optimization move closer to problems people actually need to solve?
On October 31, 2024, FinQ showed up at ICCAD in a new way. At the Newark Liberty International Airport Marriott, we helped co-host the first Quantum Computing Applications and Systems workshop—and brought a FinQ-affiliated research thread into a conference built around the hard work of turning computing ideas into systems.
What FinQ helped make happen
FinQ supported and co-hosted the first QCAS workshop at ICCAD 2024. Yiwen Liu and Ke Wan were recorded as speakers, with the wider collaboration connecting FinQ, QCAS, ICCAD and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
This was not a generic networking appearance. It put FinQ inside a research-facing program: helping create space for people working on quantum algorithms, applications and systems to compare what was working, what was not, and what still needed to be built.
The technical question
The ICCAD special session “Exploring Quantum Technologies in Practical Applications” brought together contributions from JPMorgan, QuEra, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and FinQ Tech. Its focus was the gap between academic progress and industrial use, especially in quantum optimization.
FinQ-affiliated authors presented work comparing three ways to encode linear constraints in the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm: transforming the problem into an unconstrained form, introducing penalty dephasing, and using the quantum Zeno effect. The team tested the tradeoffs with the knapsack problem—a compact stand-in for constrained decisions that also appear in supply chains, energy distribution and financial modeling.
The point was not to declare a universal winner. Different constraints and use cases can reward different encodings. That is exactly why practical quantum work needs careful comparisons, not just bigger claims.
Why we remember it
ICCAD 2024 marked a transition for FinQ. The same community energy that had powered talks, journal clubs and meetups was now supporting a workshop, a citable research artifact and a conversation with established academic and industry groups.
It was still small, collaborative and a little experimental—which is how we like it. Thank you, ICCAD, and thank you to the organizers, authors, speakers and volunteers who made room for FinQ to contribute something real. The best conference stories are not about being seen. They are about leaving with a better question and new people to work on it with.