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With a quantum coprocessor in the cloud, physicists from Innsbruck, Austria, open the door to the simulation of previously unsolvable problems in chemistry, materials research or high-energy physics. The research groups led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller report how they simulated particle physics phenomena on 20 quantum bits and how the quantum simulator self-verified the result for the first time.

By Birgit Baustädter ZombieLoad and Store-to-Leak Forwarding impact on the security of Intel computer processors. The patches developed last year are ineffective, so new updates and security solutions will be necessary. ZombieLoad and store-to-leak forwarding are the names of the new exploits which have just been announced by TU Graz security researchers Daniel Gruss , Moritz Lipp, Michael Schwarz and an international team.

BeyondC research project with partners from Austria and Germany starts in March The recently granted collaboration project "Quantum Information Systems Beyond Classical Capabilities (BeyondC)" coordinated by the University of Vienna will exploit the unique features of quantum science to go beyond the capabilities of classical technology.

By Christoph Pelzl Since 2016 a team from TU Graz has been working on dependability in the Internet of things. After having achieved remarkable success, the eponymous research project is now going into the second phase. Smart systems are taking over the increasingly complex tasks of our private and professional daily lives.

Cryptographer Maria Eichlseder hides our messages from curious eyes that shouldn't read them. With her love of paper she defies the classical image of a computer scientist. The sun shines through the long roof window on the second floor of Inffeldgasse 16. It touches the concrete wall, makes the silver railings shine, and replenishes the large-leafed potted plants with energy.

Researchers determine the performance of multi-dimensional bits Quantum computers are more powerful than classical computers since they work with coherent "quantum bits" instead of ordinary zeroes and ones. But what if the laws of nature were different from what we think today - could there be even more efficient "science fiction computers"- Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna have now shown that this is not possible - as long as those machines satisfy the same construction principles as ordinary circuits and their quantum counterparts.

[ Florian Aigner At the TU Wien (Vienna), neural networks have been developed which make it much easier to create photorealistic pictures of a wide variety of materials. If computer-generated images are to look realistic, different materials have to be presented differently: The metallic sheen of a coin looks quite different from the dull gloss of a wooden plate or the slightly transparent skin of a grape.

The human brain has computing elements similar to the biggest supercomputers, but needs only a fraction of their energy. And it is constantly learning. Brain-inspired computing is for this reason an important topic of the future. 'Colleagues in neuroscience think that we basically know less today about how the human brain works than we did ten years ago,' says Wolfgang Maass.

String art is a technique for the creation of visual artwork where images emerge from a set of strings that are spanned between pins. Now, at TU Wien (Vienna) this work can be delegated to a robot - an example of a complex task that digital fabrication can solve. The basic idea of string art is simple: hooks distributed on a frame are connected by strings back and forth until they fuse to a perceptible image.

Researchers from TU Graz and their industry partners have unveiled a world first: the prototype of a robot-controlled, high-speed combined charging system (CCS) for electric vehicles. that enables series charging of cars in various parking positions. Pictures available for download at the end of the message.

How can quantum information be transferred from one atom to another? A team of researchers from TU Wien and Harvard University has proposed using phonons - the quanta of sound. Quantum physics is on the brink of a technological breakthrough: new types of sensors, secure data transmission methods and maybe even computers could be made possible thanks to quantum technologies.

In the new Christian Doppler Lab TU Graz develops methodologies for the quality assurance of cyber-physical systems. Together with corporate partner AVL List, this will be illustrated using autonomous vehicles as examples. From Smart Production and the Internet of Things to Robotics, cyber-physical systems combine electronics, software and mechanics and are linked together.

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are used for many computationally intensive tasks. Their aging process can be slowed by clever management, as TU Wien (Vienna) and University of California (Irvine) have now shown. Graphics processing units are not only used for displaying graphics. Today, they are frequently used for particularly challenging calculations - for example in scientific research or even Bitcoin-mining.

Quantum entanglement is a key feature of a quantum computer. Yet, how can we verify that a quantum computer indeed incorporates a large-scale entanglement? Using conventional methods is hard since they require a large number of repeated measurements. Aleksandra Dimić from the University of Belgrade and Borivoje Dakić from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna have developed a novel method where in many cases even a single experimental run suffices to prove the presence of entanglement.

An 10-strong international team of researchers - including researcher from TU Graz - has revealed two new vulnerabilities in computer processors: Meltdown and Spectre. PCs, server and cloud services are affected. A patch could help. Around the turn of the year speculation was rife about new, serious vulnerabilities that could affect all modern microprocessors.

Rowhammer attacks make use of hardware vulnerabilities in order to access computer systems. TU Graz researchers have discovered a new type of attack - and raise questions about protective mechanisms. "When a system is regarded as absolutely safe, our curiosity is awakened," explains Daniel Gruss from the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communication Technology working group, the researcher is occupied with the security of IT systems and in particular rowhammer attacks.

The Computer Scientist Matteo Maffei (TU Wien) is awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project "Browsec: Foundations and Tools for Client-Side Web Security" . He is working on a plugin that will make browsers safe - and is logically impossible to fool. We are hardly aware of the dangers we face when we are browsing the web.

Physicsts are developing quantum simulators, to help solve problems that are beyond the reach of conventional computers. However, they first need new tools to ensure that the simulators work properly. Innsbruck researchers around Rainer Blatt and Christian Roos, together with researchers from the Universities of Ulm and Strathclyde, have now implemented a new technique in the laboratory that can be used to efficiently characterize the complex states of quantum simulators.

Scientists at TU Wien and Würzburg University are changing our idea of the earth's magnetic field: iron alone cannot explain the concept of the geodynamo. The crucial ingredient is nickel. It only takes a simple compass to demonstrate that the earth has a magnetic field - but it is quite difficult to explain how exactly it is created.

By Birgit Baustädter Cooperative, autonomous driving on the motorway is the main topic of a joint project between TU Graz and the "Virtual Vehicle" competence centre. Embedded in the Campus Inffeldgasse, researchers are collaborating on developing control algorithms which calculate the right path and the right speed for selfdriving vehicles.