“Quantum-based solutions will certainly reach and impact our everyday lives”

There are increasing talks about Quantum technology; what is it exactly about?

Quantum Technology is used to refer to a variety of technologies which all share a key feature: having quantum particles at their core. Quantum particles are subatomic particles - think of the smallest particle of light, the photon, or the smallest particle of electricity, the electron. By utilizing these quantum particles, quantum technology harnesses the laws of quantum physics - these are quite different from the “classical physics” laws we are used to in our everyday lives - and provide significant advantages.

What are those advantages?

The three main types of quantum technology are quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing. Each of these allows us to access a new regime compared to their traditional counterparts: faster, more precise and efficient computing, more secure communication and sensing at an unprecedented scale and precision.

How should we imagine a world with quantum technology?

One important message to understand is that we will not buy a quantum computer and substitute our laptops with it. Quantum computers are highly specialized machines targeted to solving tough computational problems. Sending an email or browsing the web is not one of such problems! Quantum computers, with their specific hardware, will live in dedicated data centres, much like supercomputers already do today. Quantum-based solutions will certainly reach and impact our everyday lives through their applications.

We’ve heard about quantum for so long; is the global economy ready for it?

In the last few years, more companies have started to give serious consideration to quantum technologies and to assess the potential and risk that this technology might have on their sector. As a result, we have seen companies create dedicated quantum teams that have been experimenting with the still immature hardware of today - with a view to being able to swiftly implement useful algorithms as soon as the hardware scales up and becomes available to them. Governments around the world have all by now understood the impact that quantum technologies will have on the global economy and have developed dedicated national strategies to support their development.

Can you elaborate more on those risks?

There are concerns regarding security risks, particularly in encryption methods, which are also on the rise. Quantum computers have the potential to decrypt secret keys used in encryption rapidly, threatening secure communication methods. To counter this, the field of quantum communication is developing new quantum-safe cryptography methods that are resistant to such decryption attempts. Energy consumption is also a grey zone in this landscape because it is challenging to estimate the energy required for large-scale quantum computers. However, there are initiatives around the world looking to tackle this exact topic - one such initiative is the Quantum Energy Initiative “QEI”.

What business models are there in this field?

Quantum hardware providers typically sell access to their machines through cloud services or sell the machines directly to organizations to facilitate software validation and running algorithms and to governments with national security interests.

What are some of the applications of quantum technology and active projects?

Quantum computing holds significant potential in different industries by addressing optimization problems and simulations crucial for advancements in materials science and drug development. It can model and simulate molecules for drug creation, potentially overcoming the limitations of current computational methods that often lead to failures in clinical trials. We also expect to see applications in financial modelling and forecasting, logistics and supply chain management. There are thousands of projects ongoing around the world, some examples can be found here: IBM, QCI, National Quantum Computing Center, and Amazon.

Are there organizations already making money?

While the current focus is on scaling and refining products, there are already commercial products using quantum technology, especially in quantum sensors and communication devices. Large technology leaders such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and AWS are also focusing on developing quantum computing and are selling machines and access to them via the cloud.

While it is still early to see significant advantages of quantum technology over traditional methods in most industry sectors is expected that useful quantum advantage will be reached in the near future.

Will it be costly to deploy the technology for organizations?

This highly depends on whether the end user needs to purchase a machine or can simply access the machine through the cloud. Different end users will require a different level of access to the machines (the sensitivity of their data plays a role in this choice). Today, there are still multiple realizations of quantum computers, but they are all still small-scale machines. Collaboration will be essential to allow startups to access the machines to develop and test their solutions.

Will startups catch up with the pace of large organizations?

Players in this landscape are still experimenting, but startups have more room to innovate and develop cutting-edge solutions faster, especially in platforms where established players haven't fully solidified their dominance. Their agility and potential for disruptive innovation are their key strengths.

Should investors then be excited and invest in them?

Definitely, and there are more funds currently looking at quantum. Redstone VC is one of such investors. As part of its Quantum Strategy and through the newly launched QAI Ventures, it supports early-stage startups from their seed stage through to their series A rounds. Other investors include Quantonation in France, 2XN in London, and NL Participation in the Netherlands. We are also seeing Deeptech investors increasingly adding new investment tracks to include startups in Quantum. An example of this is Speed Invest. Quantum technologies are capital-intensive and require a long-term approach - this is not news in the deep-tech scene. However, it requires different expectations compared to traditional VC markets.

As a leading woman in this position, we see you as a role model. Do you see more women joining in the quantum movement?

During my academic career in Quantum, I have very often been the only woman in the room - in the lab - in the group. I think a large imbalance still persists today, and specifically at senior levels. I wish to see more women professors in quantum, more female founders of quantum startups and more women in leading positions in national labs as well as end-user quantum teams. Things are slowly starting to shift and more women are joining this exciting field.

(Ritah A Nyakato)