A new algorithm breaks down project scheduling into 30-qubit daily batches

Raul Martinez, Miguel Sánchez-Beato, Matilde Osa, Jorge Parra and Mario Calonge of the Quantum Technologies Department at ITECAM have simulated a variational quantum algorithm designed to tackle realistic, complex project scheduling. Their work addresses the multi-skill resource-constrained project scheduling problem, a notoriously difficult task where efficient distribution of work impacts not only productivity but also employee well-being. To accommodate the limitations of near-term quantum hardware, the researchers decomposed the scheduling problem into daily 30-qubit batches, and found that an entanglement-free approach produced feasible schedules at a fraction of the computational cost of entangled topologies. The results indicate that, for the instance studied, entanglement did not improve the solutions found by the algorithm. The algorithm manages complexity by dividing multi-skill project scheduling into temporal batches, each solved independently for a single day before propagating remaining workload to the next period. This decomposition technique allows the researchers to address a realistic Multi-Skill…