Quantum Funding

UCLA computer scientists take key roles in $75 million quantum computing efforts

The NSF initiatives aim to overcome critical barriers between today’s quantum systems and practical computing

UCLA Samueli / UCLA Newsroom

Two UCLA computer scientists will help lead major national efforts to address some of quantum computing’s biggest challenges, serving as co-principal investigators for separate research institutes backed by five-year, $37.5 million grants from the National Science Foundation.

The two institutes are among eight NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes receiving more than $290 million in new funding to advance U.S. quantum science and accelerate the development of technologies with practical applications. UCLA Samueli School of Engineering professors Jason Cong and Jens Palsberg will each help lead one of the initiatives.

Cong is a co-principal investigator for the newly established Institute for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Systems, Architectures and Applications, led by Harvard University with UCLA Samueli and MIT as co-leads. Researchers will work to make quantum computers capable of performing useful calculations reliably despite the errors and noise that plague current systems. Cong will head UCLA efforts to develop software, algorithms and AI-based tools to improve their reliability and efficiency.

Palsberg, meanwhile, is co-principal investigator for the NSF Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation, a UC Berkeley–led research network that includes UCLA Samueli, UC Santa Barbara, Caltech and Stanford. Renewed with a five-year, $37.5 million grant, the institute will investigate the capabilities of quantum computation and develop new quantum technologies and applications. Palsberg, co-director of the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering at UCLA, and the UCLA team will focus on overcoming bottlenecks in current trapped-ion quantum computing systems and developing software that can compare different quantum technologies.

“Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that are out of reach for today’s computers, but we still have a lot of work to do to get there,” Palsberg said.

The UCLA researchers hope their work will help identify where quantum computers can ultimately make the greatest difference.

Source: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-computer-scientists-take-key-roles-quantum-computing.

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Background from the Daily Bruin:

...The federal government suspended $584 million in UCLA’s federal research grants in July 2025, alleging that the university allowed illegal affirmative action, “men to participate in women’s sports” and antisemitism. Chancellor Julio Frenk denied the federal government’s allegations... Hiring freezes across labs also reduced research opportunities for postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Some researchers who were already working in research labs lost their salaries until their grants were restored later in 2025. A federal judge restored most of the grants in August and September 2025...

“This grant really cements UCLA as a leading player in the whole quantum computing field,” Palsberg said. “Out of the eight institutes that are going in the second round of QLCI (Quantum Leap Challenge Institute), two of them have participation from UCLA. There are not so many universities that can say that.”

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/26/ucla-receives-75-million-in-nsf-grants-for-quantum-technology.

Parallel Blogs / Subscribing / Blog Song

We have been putting out this blog since 2009 under the heading "UCLA Faculty Association" using the link:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/

The blog site was originally created by the then-executive director of the Faculty Association. As such, yours truly does not have control of the site; he is simply a blogger on it. So when technical issues arise, that can be a problem. Given that issue, we have been adding a parallel site with the same blog entries since July 23rd:

https://danmitchellsblogcontinues.blogspot.com/

We will be running the two in parallel for the indefinite future. Possibly, at some point we will switch to the new link.

If you read the blog using the Facebook page of Yousee Elayemeriti, you can continue to do so:

https://www.facebook.com/yousee.elayemeriti

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Want to subscribe?

You can't subscribe directly. But you can subscribe indirectly to this blog via a service called Blogtrottr. Go to blogtrottr.com and fill in the URL for the blog:

https://danmitchellsblogcontinues.blogspot.com/ 

or

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/

and put in your email address. 

You will then receive an email at the email address you provided asking you to confirm. After you confirm, you will receive an email notification of new postings whenever they appear. If there are, say, three postings on a particular day, you will receive three notifications (one for each one). 

Note and full disclosure: There are ads on these notifications. 

==

And here's a little song, based on the information above, composed by Gemini:

"Sharp and Clever Pen":

Or https://archive.org/details/sharp-and-clever-pen

Verse 1

I scroll the screen looking for some light

A voice that cuts right through the noise

They talk about the taxes and the spin

But Dan Mitchell has a different kind of truth

He talks about the spending and the waste

The parallel blogs that keep us truly free

Independent channels are the only way to go

To find the analysis the mainstream never shows

--

Chorus

Get real economic facts!

Escape the corporate tracks!

Subscribe and find the key!

To keep your mind free!

Get real economic facts!

Escape the corporate tracks!

Subscribe and find the key!

To keep your mind free!

--

Verse 2

He analyzes policy with a sharp and clever pen

Decentralized and honest, standing on his own ground

You don't need their filters and you don't need their spin

Just some liberty and facts to help you really win

Bookmark the connection and let the truth begin to flow

A parallel alternative to the status quo we know

Fiscal sense and freedom are waiting on the page

The perfect antidote for a confusing modern age

--

Chorus

Get real economic facts!

Escape the corporate tracks!

Subscribe and find the key!

To keep your mind free!

Get real economic facts!

Escape the corporate tracks!

Subscribe and find the key!

To keep your mind free!

--

Outro

Yeah, find the facts for yourself

Dan Mitchell's blog is out there waiting

Just click and subscribe and see the difference

Get free and stay informed always. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 477

From the Harvard Crimson: Former Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana criticized the December 2023 congressional testimony of three university presidents on campus antisemitism — including then-Harvard President Claudine Gay — saying none of them could explain what a university is for. The remarks, delivered in a lecture at Cornell University last week, are Khurana’s most direct public comments on the backlash that ended Gay’s presidency and set off two years of federal scrutiny of Harvard.

Khurana delivered the Milton R. Konvitz Memorial Lectureship in American Ideals on Thursday, an annual Cornell lecture named for the civil liberties scholar who taught there for four decades. His talk — “From Institutional Mission to Administrative Means: The Bureaucratization of Universities” — argued that universities have grown too heavy with administrators and lost institutional legitimacy. Khurana earned his bachelor’s degree at Cornell...

He named one only as a school in Connecticut — an apparent nod to Yale University that drew laughs. Between 2003 and 2021, its human resources department jumped from 11 staff to 192, and its development staff spiked from 71 to 333, while the faculty went from 610 to 675...

Khurana said rising inequality had also reshaped how universities raise money, pushing them toward a small number of very large gifts... That arrangement held, Khurana said, only as long as donors asked for nothing in return — and it has not survived the collapse in public trust. Donors now style themselves as “impact philanthropists” who want a say in how their money is spent...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/21/khurana-criticizes-gay-testimony/.

Tempest in a Teapot? Still Boiling.

Blog readers may recall our earlier post on this matter of Sept. 4. From the Daily Bruin:

Seven current and former UCLA employees alleged in at least 22 separate whistleblower and retaliatory reports that the university’s head of strategic communications fostered a toxic work environment and mismanaged department funds, according to court documents. Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications since 2019, filed a lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents on Aug. 26 to block the release of an investigative report that she claimed would damage her reputation. The investigation – which was conducted by Grutman Law, P.C. and commissioned by the UC Board of Regents – includes details about Osako’s conduct and workplace relationships, according to court filings. 

UCLA posted in its whistleblower portal Feb. 20 that Grutman’s investigation substantiated multiple allegations brought forth in the whistleblower reports and that they forwarded the findings to Chancellor Julio Frenk’s office, according to court documents. Osako has remained in her position since... Paul Rigali, Osako’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement on behalf of Osako that the accusations are false and that Osako has not faced any disciplinary action. He added that Frenk’s support of Osako “speaks volumes.” ...

During the spring 2024 pro-Palestine encampment, Osako removed a team of strategic communications staff from UCLA’s emergency response center due to personal disagreements with other leaders, Wileen Wong Kromhout, associate director of operations in the strategic communications department, alleged in an April 2025 whistleblower report... “This directly impeded information flow and essential team coordination during a high-risk campus event that turned out to be one of the worst crisis in the university’s history,” Kromhout said...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/19/a-narcissist-ucla-employees-alleged-top-administrator-misused-funds-bullied-staff.

Although the reports leaking out are unclear, one wonders whether what occurred is connected to the campus events of 2023-24.

Straws in the Wind - Part 476

From the Brown Daily Herald: ...Brown students, faculty, staff and community members, gathered in Pembroke Hall for the inaugural Slavery and Justice Lecture. The event comes two decades after the release of Brown’s “Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice”, which examines Brown’s ties to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. 

Last year, the University ended the First Readings program, which included the Slavery and Justice Report as required reading for incoming first-years. Matthew Guterl, vice president for diversity and inclusion, said at the event that he was inspired to propose an annual lecture focused on the report after reading a column in The Herald, written by Herald Opinions Editor Clara Murray ’29, arguing that Brown should recommit to teaching the University’s role in slavery...

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/inaugural-slavery-and-justice-lecture-emphasizes-pursuit-of-truth-accountability-openness-20260917.

Entertainment

From the California Post: ...By last month, as it became increasingly obvious that major changes to UCLA athletics were necessary, [Chancellor] Frenk asked [Tim] Harris to take over the operation. Harris agreed to do so — on a pro-bono basis until a more permanent arrangement could be worked out. As he sat behind the desk in his corner office inside the Morgan Center this week, having taken over as CEO and athletics director, Harris unveiled his vision.

The idea is to reimagine his department as an entertainment company whose product is college athletics. If such a move sounds transformative, that’s exactly the point... Just as Frenk was drawn to Harris, the man who replaced Martin Jarmond realized his new boss would be a major asset in this reinvention. Harris compared Frenk to the new owner of a professional sports franchise that just got sold.

“This new owner is very engaged,” Harris said, “and this new owner values the student-athletes and this new owner values the coaches and this new owner values the entity and this new owner understands the value of what UCLA athletics is to the overall university in terms of a global marketing piece.” ...

Full story https://nypost.com/2026/09/20/sports/ucla-ad-tim-harris-intends-to-wake-up-the-giant-in-new-role/.

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRcLwHSmU80.

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Email notice recently circulated at a campus building complex:

We are pleased to announce that our new campus security camera system is now operational following a great deal of effort and time in planning and implementation.

This significant investment enhances campus safety and security by providing coverage at many primary building entrances.

Please note:

• Cameras are intended to support campus safety and security efforts.
• Cameras are not actively monitored. No one is routinely watching live camera feeds.
• In accordance with California law and university policy 133, footage is reviewed only in response to safety, security, or other authorized investigative matters.
• Recorded footage is retained for 30 days, after which it is automatically overwritten unless needed for an active investigation.
• Requests for footage must be processed through UCPD. Individuals seeking review of footage should first file a police report. Building Services cannot provide or review footage upon request.
• Camera locations were determined based on security priorities, infrastructure, and available project funding. While we understand there may be interest in additional camera coverage, the current system reflects the locations identified as providing the greatest overall security benefit to the campus.
• As a reminder, personal security cameras (including Ring cameras and similar devices) are not permitted on campus unless reviewed and approved through the established campus and UCPD process. Approved security cameras must be installed through the university and be accessible to UCPD in accordance with policy. This does not apply to cameras used for routine video conferencing, virtual meetings, or instructional purposes.

Thank you for your support as we continue our efforts to maintain a safe and secure campus environment.