ARTIQ: an open source physics experiment control system

Date: 30 March 2022 (Wednesday)
Time: 6-7pm
Venue: Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 978 4703 0753
Passcode: 345910
Title: ARTIQ: an open source physics experiment control system
Speakers: Mr. Sebastien Bourdeauducq, M-Labs

Introduction:

In 2013, the Ion Storage Group at NIST, then led by Nobel prize laureate David Wineland, identified key problems with experiment control systems that were significant obstacles to progress in quantum information research with trapped ions. They partnered with M-Labs Ltd in Hong Kong to develop a new control system that would address these issues, which became ARTIQ.

ARTIQ leverages FPGAs and compilers to provide high-level and user-friendly programmability while retaining the exquisite timing precision required by most quantum experiments.

Today, ARTIQ has become an important component relied upon by hundreds of physics research teams around the world. It reached beyond the field of quantum information, and some of its more exotic applications involve fundamental antimatter research and dark matter detectors. It is still growing and being developed as a commercial open source project, with a strong developer presence and major operations in Hong Kong.

Bio:

Mr. Bourdeauducq started studying FPGAs out of personal interest in 2007. He developed the first 100% open source system-on-chip RTL with GPU-style graphics acceleration, dubbed "Milkymist", and used it for a few VJ shows in Berlin clubs. The open-source components of Milkymist found many different uses, and even ended up in the international space station in 2012. This opened the door to the development of scientific instruments for research in physics, a topic that he always had been interested in. In 2013, he founded M-Labs Ltd in Hong Kong. The company are the main developers of ARTIQ.

Mr. Bourdeauducq is French, and holds an engineer's degree from Supélec and a MSc from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.