Solving the Traveling Salesman Problem Using D-Wave Annealers

Event

Quantum Computing Meetup

Date

May 6, 2023

How can quantum computing help find a route that visits every stop and returns to the starting point? In this meetup talk, I use the Traveling Salesman Problem to introduce quantum annealing and compare it with classical approaches to optimization.

I walk through expressing the problem as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) model, then demonstrate running it on D-Wave Leap with Python and the Ocean SDK. The session covers interpreting probabilistic results, checking for valid solutions, and the practical challenges of applying quantum tools to routing problems.