You could talk to Tillmann Kubis for hours. His laid-back demeanor
and desire for everyone to understand what he’s working on is so
compelling, it almost feels like you too could have a grasp on
quantum mechanics.
But sitting with Kubis, Purdue University’s Katherine Ngai
Pesic & Silvaco Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, it’s clear he’s on a different level than most. His
mind is constantly working at top speed, finding ways to completely
upend the world of quantum code libraries.
For more than two decades, Kubis has leveraged Purdue’s
resources in the undaunted pursuit of knowledge and innovation. But
what drives his decades-spanning dedication to changing the world?
His attraction to new ideas and exploration, of course, but there’s
something even more basic: to solve the fundamental problems people
experience.
FROM EUREKA TO REALITY AND THE RUSH OF
INNOVATION
While many of us may define innovation as the eureka moment —
that singular moment of ultimate clarity — Kubis sees it as the
enjoyable start of a longer process. “Those eureka moments are the
most enjoyable. I have the eureka moment and the idea in my mind is
solved. But the actual implementation and the proof that this is
the solution? It takes a long time. Often years.”
Kubis says these eureka moments offer him a rush, admitting the
feeling of uncovering a novel concept no one has thought of yet can
feel a bit like an addiction. He’s used that rush as a push to
pursue novel solutions throughout his career, chasing eureka
moments and developing them from concept to real-world
innovation.
KUBIS AND PURDUE BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN RESEARCH AND
REAL-WORLD APPLICATION
Innovators like Kubis seem to uncover eureka moments constantly,
but not every idea can become a reality. What differentiates a good
idea from a great innovation? In his mind, it’s a very simple
return to what drives him: a good innovation solves an actual
problem.
Kubis likens the process to the customer discovery that a
startup might go through, ensuring there’s a customer base in need
of its solution. After all, innovation for the sake of innovation
can’t save the world — or even guarantee funding. But Kubis has a
preternatural capacity for great ideas and Purdue provides fertile
ground for their growth.
“I have ideas in so many different realms,” said Kubis with a
smile. “What company would tolerate me and give such freedom while
also allowing me to remain the co-owner of my inventions?” Perhaps
no company, but Purdue University allows multifaceted inventors
like Kubis the space to explore and test their biggest ideas. It’s
led to groundbreaking innovations, again and again and again.
In this way, researchers like Kubis who take on the role of an
entrepreneur can see broader success, speaking to real-world
problems and presenting real-world solutions with a pre-existing
customer base. With the help of Purdue Innovates and
its Office of Technology Commercialization, the transition
from lab to life is more accessible than ever.
His undaunted pursuit of knowledge that solves a truly needed
problem has inevitably led him to a tipping point, the moment when
a brilliant innovation gains momentum and begins to change a whole
industry. Kubis is happy to find that tipping point in one of his
proudest projects, Rhino Sim.
NEW QUANTUM CODE LIBRARY GAME-CHANGER FOR ACADEMIA AND
INDUSTRY
Kubis’ singular focus on solving a customer’s problem — whether
in academia or industry — is perfectly exemplified in one of his
most recently activated ideas, Rhino Sim.
Kubis outlines the current dilemma: “When you have thousands or
maybe even hundreds of thousands of data samples, you must be very
careful not to waste costly resources. It’s very possible a complex
simulation could burn one million CPU hours, which could total
$100,000.” Many in academia and industry simply don’t have the
financial resources — or the capacity — to closely monitor such
massive, costly data sets. Any error could be a critical, extremely
costly mistake.
Rhino Sim is a modeling and simulation platform built on a
foundation of quantum code libraries, developed to accurately
simulate the behavior of new semiconductor designs on a quantum and
atomic scale, assembled atom by atom. Critically, this is not
quantum computing, but a simulation of quantum behavior; this means
much less time, energy and expense will be required for intensely
complex simulations.
Rhino Sim mitigates much of these costly endeavors and preserves
the hard work that’s already been done across academia and
industry. After all, Kubis explains, it’s hard to build off
foundational knowledge if some of the foundation’s blocks have been
lost to time.
For academia, Kubis envisions an open-source database where
collaboration can occur quickly and simply. It will also act as a
repository for knowledge so that vital work doesn’t get funded,
completed but ultimately lost when not properly archived. Kubis
notes such knowledge loss has set back research by decades, and the
reason why he’s passionate about using Rhino Sim to optimize the
reuse of data through FAIR principles (data should be findable,
accessible, interoperable and reproducible).
For industry, the same concepts apply. Rhino Sim promises a
bespoke system which allows for ideation and innovation more
quickly and cheaply than ever before. Current code makes it
possible for users to simulate initial semiconductor design all the
way through the “packaging” of multiple components, a growing focus
in the semiconductor industry. The potential of Rhino Sim, however,
goes far beyond semiconductors. Kubis envisions a system agnostic
Rhino Sim which can quickly and efficiently untangle massive data
sets from transportation to logistics to traffic jams to bird
migration patterns and beyond.
Like Kubis’ own mind, Rhino Sim applications are limitless.
A FUTURE WITH NOTHING BUT POSSIBILITY
Looking forward, Kubis sees nothing but possibility. From
accelerating Rhino Sim’s momentum to allow for re-application
across multiple industries to finalizing future projects nearly
within reach to continuing the pursuit of eureka moments, Kubis
shows no signs of slowing down.
In fact, when questioned about what’s next, the researcher
rattled off a litany of in-progress projects, of which just one
would mark a lifetime of achievement for most of us. Watch this
space, he lets the world know. More innovation is soon to become
available to industry partners and more eureka moments are sure to
follow.
For more information about licensing Purdue innovations, visit
the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization.
For specific questions related to Rhino Sim, contact Dipak Narula
(dnarula@prf.org).
Polly Barks
Purdue Research Foundation
765-588-3470
phbarks@prf.org