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The Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) has performed a study of over 5,000 quantum job postings that were made on the QED-C and Quantum Computing Report websites in the 2018 to 2023 time frame to ascertain what educational levels the hiring organizations were looking for. Although some my believe that one needs a PhD in order to work in the quantum industry, the CQE study found that this was not the case. By examining the job postings, they determine when a particular job required a PhD, Masters, BS, Associates or other form of education. The CQE study also talked to some hiring [...]

The world's first integrated quantum communication network (2021, January 6) Figure Credit: University of Science and Technology of China By Amara Graps New trends are appearing in China’s quantum technology strengths. A Decade of Quantum Communication Leadership For a decade, China has been a world leader in Quantum Communication-Networks, with a scorecard of successes, as seen in QCR’s article: Quantum Communication- Large Activity but Small Investments. For example, China operates the world’s largest QKD network, with an original 2000 km, longitudinal backbone, which connects metropolitan QKD networks.  Its QKD networks, additionally, include hundreds of kilometers of transverse backbones, and two satellites, [...]

by Amara Graps Quantum Network Testbeds Near You “Where are the Quantum Internet pilot projects nearest to my home?” -might have been one of your questions when you read success stories in the Quantum Computing Report last May, such as the  Harvard and AWS' Quantum Network, which utilized a Quantum Memory component,  or the earlier April story about the Quantum Network that ran 15 days uninterrupted under New York streets. A good place to find your answer is inside the list of 44 Quantum Network Testbeds in: QCR’s  Where are the Worldwide Quantum Networking Testbeds? Quantum network and communication developments are [...]

At the Quantum World Congress event, Quantinuum has unveiled its quantum processor development roadmap, with a goal of providing systems that can provide users with a quantum advantage in the next few years. Their roadmap builds upon the continued progress they have made with the H1 and H2 generations of processors and the roadmap extends for three more generations through 2029. Quantinuum has a demonstrated track record over several years of continuing to increase qubit count and qubit fidelity starting with the original H0 processor introduced in 2019. Going forward, they are building upon the latest results of their 56 qubit [...]

Rendering of a Q4S Satellite Containing Entanglement Swapping Device. Credit:Boeing One of the key components that will be needed in a future quantum internet is a device that performs a process known as entanglement swapping. This is a device can start with two pairs of entangled photons and swaps the entanglement such that a photon from the first pair becomes entangled with a photon from the second pair. As an example, in the diagram below, the process starts with Photon 1 entangled with Photon 2 and also Photon 3 entangled with Photon 4. By performing a Bell State Measurement between Photons [...]

At this week's Quantum World Congress, Microsoft made three announcement on advancements and developments in their quantum program. The first is continued advancement in its error correction research in partnership with Quantinuum. In April, we reported that this team has created a circuit that creates four logical qubits from 30 physical qubits on Quantinuum’s H2 processor. Now they have implemented a [16,4,4] tesseract code that is more efficient an can encode four logical qubits with only 16 physical qubits. They have leveraged this code to demonstrate three different circuits that implement 4 logical qubits on Quantinuum's 20 qubit H1 processor and [...]

by Amara Graps The BB84 protocol In 1984, Brassard and Bennett presented their 4-page, conference paper,  which described the BB84 algorithm, thus fixing in history the first quantum cryptography protocol for the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) concept. The BB84 algorithm is still in-use today. See BB84’s roots to physics principles in the first words of their Abstract: When elementary quantum systems, such as polarized photons, are used to transmit digital information, the uncertainty principle gives rise to novel cryptographic phenomena unachievable with traditional transmission media […]  --Brassard and Bennett Given that QKD distributes cryptographic keys produced by quantum techniques across terrestrial and [...]

D-Wave Quantum Inc., a leading provider of quantum computing systems, software, and services, has joined the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) as a corporate partner. This collaboration aims to advance quantum education and industry adoption efforts. D-Wave, which serves various industries by solving complex computational problems in optimization, research, and artificial intelligence, plans to engage with the CQE community on materials science research, quantum education, and practical optimization use cases for manufacturing and logistics. David Awschalom, a professor at the University of Chicago and director of the CQE, emphasized the potential of quantum computing to address significant societal challenges and the importance [...]

by Amara Graps What Will Be Quantum Technology’s First ‘Killer App’? Quantum researchers have addressed this question since 2019 in their research articles, in a variety of (sometimes surprising) ways. O'Brien et al., 2019 proposed the answer was quantum chemistry with a focus on the FeMoco molecule, while von Burg et al., 2021 agreed that quantum chemistry, in particular, the calculation of quantum electronic energies in molecular systems, was the killer application. Lau et al., 2022 pondered the question, but didn’t have an answer. Instead, they offered a comparison timeline for classical computers to demonstrate their effectiveness, including the period when [...]