The QUINPHOS (Quantum Photonic Ising Simulator) project has been successfully completed, delivering significant advances in photonic computing technologies for solving complex optimization problems. Bringing together the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), the University of Crete, and industrial partners QUBITECH, UniSystems, and Nova, the project combined academic excellence with industrial expertise to develop innovative computing solutions at the forefront of photonics and quantum-inspired technologies. Implemented under the “Research Excellence Partnerships (SEA)” programme and funded through Greece’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, with support from the European Union – NextGenerationEU, QUINPHOS focused on developing Spatial Photonic Ising Machines (SPIMs)—specialized photonic systems designed to tackle computationally intensive combinatorial optimization problems more efficiently than conventional digital approaches.
A major achievement of the project was the successful design and experimental validation of new SPIM architecture, offering enhanced scalability, flexible connectivity, and high computational performance. The consortium also introduced the novel Spin Pair Encoding (SPE) methodology, enabling more efficient representation of complex optimization problems and expanding the capabilities of photonic computing systems. The developed technologies were successfully demonstrated on representative NP-hard optimization problems, including Max-Cut and Graph Partitioning.
Beyond hardware development, QUINPHOS delivered advanced optimization algorithms, an integrated software library for controlling and automating photonic experiments, and the architectural design of a future cloud-based QUINPHOS-as-a-Service platform that will provide remote access to photonic computing resources for researchers and industry. The project also established important scientific foundations for the next generation of quantum-enhanced photonic computing through the development of theoretical models and experimental techniques based on non-classical states of light.
Throughout its implementation, QUINPHOS actively disseminated its results through scientific publications, conference presentations and other outreach activities, strengthening the visibility of Greek research in emerging photonic and quantum technologies. By successfully meeting its scientific and technological objectives, QUINPHOS has contributed to advancing photonic computing as a promising alternative paradigm for optimization applications. The project’s results pave the way for future research towards photonic systems capable of exploiting quantum effects to address increasingly complex computational challenges.
