quantum world congress 2024

This transcript is machine generated. Excuse errors. 

Speaker 1: Welcome to this special edition of Deep Pockets podcast. Unlike our usual episodes where I interview a person in the intersection of emerging technologies in the government, this one is recorded at the Quantum World Congress and adjacent events in September 2024. My name is Petra Söderling. 

Our theme song is by New Orleans jazz icon Leroy Jones and audio editing by Chris Elliott. Since 2022, the world's quantum ecosystem has gathered to bring a quantum ready future into focus. Quantum World Congress is the world's premier gathering for quantum technology leaders, innovators and visionaries. The 2024 event took place in Greater Washington, uniting global experts from industry, government and academia to explore the latest breakthroughs and trends. I attended the full event, including a precursor on Sunday that was organized by the Embassy of Finland in Washington, DC, together with Johns Hopkins Science Policy and Diplomacy Group, as well as the International Forum on Monday, with a microphone in hand. These following interviews are recorded in demanding live situations. 

Despite of Chris's magic, please excuse any roughness there might be in the audio quality. First, let's start our world tour from North America. We'll hear a bit of introduction by Andre Koenig of GQI. He's a veteran in the quantum market and business intelligence space. 

He is followed by Team USA with experts and visionaries who are looking at quantum from the State Department, universities as former IBMers, this Colorado and a really great interview on what NASA is doing with quantum. Then we'll jump across the border to Canada, followed by Australia. Our European section includes representatives from the governments of Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Our world tour ends back in Washington, DC, with closing remarks from America's Quantum Industry Consortium QEDC, and then of course George Thomas, the president of Connected DMV, who is the organizer of Quantum World Congress. 

He will have the final word. Happy travels! This time we come here with Andre Koenig from GQI Global Quantum Intelligence. This is Andre, the third time you're at Quantum World Congress. How is it going? 

Speaker 2: Very well. It's a lot of quantum and we love that. I started out at the left-of-the-field entry on the conference circuit three years ago, the library in downtown DC. It's now probably the second largest conference in quantum and of course it's the most global, like Global Quantum Intelligence, my company. It's a quantum world congress, so it attracts more global attendees than anyone else. 

Being where it is surrounded by many government, federal, independent agencies, very unique and intriguing questions that go beyond the human performance and the latest hon-prace, which is the big value of the QWC. 

Speaker 1: This is Lincoln Carr. We met a few years ago when I was working with the Finland-Toronto MOU and you were somehow involved in that. Can you refresh my memory? What was your role during that time and what it is that you do now? 

Speaker 3: Sure. I've been a quantum researcher for about 25 years. I think I didn't imagine that in the middle of my career quantum computers would become a reality or a soon-to-be reality. 

It's a very exciting moment. As far as what I did with the Finland-Colorado MOU, this was a precursor to the U.S. Finland MOU. And at that time I was a Jefferson Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine with the U.S. Department of State. And the state wanted to support this lead-up by sending me out to Colorado to be the U.S. government representative. So it's one of the few times in my life when I sat in a panel as the representative of the U.S. government. I was delighted to do that in my home state and meet lots of great colleagues in Finland. I must say I've been to Finland a couple of times and it's truly one of my favorite countries on Earth. I personally plan to build a Finnish sound. 

Speaker 1: That's terrific. Thanks. So what about now? What are you doing now? 

Speaker 3: I do a lot of things. I'm a broad researcher. I consider myself a complexity scientist. One of the exciting questions for me about quantum information systems is the possibility of answering what are the origins of the complexity that we see around us. Right now physics does not predict life, the universe, everything. It does not predict the complexity side of things. It doesn't really predict things of higher scale. Now you might say why would we use quarks to predict geology or why would we use electrons to predict consciousness. But actually this concept of complex systems developing emergent phenomena at different scales has been thought to be classical or biological but not quantum. So my interest has been in showing that whatever complexity is out there, whatever the origin theory of complexity including living systems, thought, human systems, it must actually include quantum mechanics at a fundamental level. 

Speaker 1: Okay, we're here at the Quantum World Congress. How's it going for you so far? 

Speaker 3: Great. I'm very impressed. In the space of Erech's erection, in the space of possible ways to have feedback between a quantum system and its environment, which after all is what nature is doing. Nature is not working in isolation. 

Nature is always working with an environment. In that space there are many new advances here and that is leading to new kinds of logical qubits. We will see how much the promises come to fruition by 2029 because what every company is saying, I think DARPA is more like 2033. But I still think it is really going along now. It used to be about quantum computing, maybe no. And then it was, well, maybe yes. And now it's just when is it going to happen? Yeah, so that's an exciting transition. 

Speaker 1: Thank you. This is Corbin Tilleman. Dick, tell us what is Elevate Quantum? 

Speaker 4: Elevate Quantum is a consortium of over 150 organizations dedicated to securing the mountain west as a global leader in quantum. We were founded in April 2023 as a result of the tax method program put out by the Department of Commerce. In the last instance we were selected as the only quantum tech company to receive federal funding. So we now have $130 million to chase that goal and to hopefully help build a global quantum ecosystem that has the impact that we all look for from the context. 

Speaker 1: That is terrific. How is the quantum world progress between the two? 

Speaker 4: It's been extremely effective both from an Elevate Quantum perspective and from my own company, Made on Quantum. So I chair the board of Elevate Quantum but also have a quantum infrastructure company that builds cryogenic systems, acquiring other things like that. And the number of world leaders from government organizations trying to build the quantum industry, from companies trying to build the quantum industry who are here, you know, engaging with each other, solving problems, putting together consortiums, trying to put together the pieces of this messy nascent industry is outstanding. The sessions are one thing but the hallway of the conference space is the meeting is on the side. That's where I've seen the most value. 

Speaker 1: Here we go. This is Dr. Bob Souter at Quantum World Congress. So how did the session go yesterday? 

Speaker 5: First of all, Petra, thank you for joining us here in Washington at the Quantum World Congress. We had a session, a workshop on our phrase, why quantum computing needs an Apollo space program. 

And not that I really think people should go back and view exactly what people did in the 1960s. But look, this was considered a very hard problem. This day we still talk about moonshots. So the workshop was really composed of three parts. 

One was a review of what really happened with Apollo. Now I must admit, I love space. A lot of people love space, rockets and things like this. 

There are a lot of lessons you can learn about the different phases. We didn't just build a rocket and go to the moon. We looked around, we tried lots of alternatives and we buckled down in the Gemini program. We did the must do things. We didn't know how to walk in space. 

We didn't know how to dock things. It's new science. It's new engineering. 

They need to be developed. Eventually we got to the moon. It actually came back. Although one of the missions was a little... Apollo 13 was a little quite vulnerable. Almost did. Then we were joined by someone from NASA who wrote it all forward to talk about how NASA manages very large programs today. 

Such as the James Webb Space Telescope. It was delayed, but it's brilliant. Everyone's seeing these. I asked him right toward the end, how many companies were involved with this? It seems like something smaller than Apollo. 

I believe this answer was 8,000. You look at all these little quantum companies and really my message to them is you're not going to do it alone. You're not going to do it without something top level for me. 

The second section was really much more technical. We had four people who are either CEOs or former CEOs start-ups in the quantum area. These are true believers. These are people who put their lives on hold. Invested their own finances in the sense of what they're trying to do. We asked them some very hard questions. What will really be necessary? 

I know you love your technology, but come on. What else has to come together? Right toward the end of that, I said, imagine there's a big brick wall out there that the quantum industry is going to hit. You think about it. These are your nightmares when you're trying to fall asleep at night. These things you think about. They gave us some ideas and solutions because that's where the start-ups were really shining. Finally, we put a great big picture over everything to say, but how are we actually going to do this? Do we need industrial policy? 

Do we need something like the Apollo program? These national or regional programs, EU, UK, whatever. By the way, talent has to go across borders. Which borders? 

All these types of things. So I think we wrapped it up and gave people at least a strong analog for how quantum needs to develop into an honest-to-goodness program that isn't a series of disconnected science projects and actually produces something with practical quantum fantasy. 

Speaker 1: Thank you, Dr. Sewer. 

Speaker 6: Alright, the afternoon continues. I'm with Omid Neroza from NASA. A lot of our listeners are probably very curious to understand what NASA is doing with quantum technologies. 

Speaker 7: Yes. NASA is a very large organization and it's been actually developing quantum technologies for decades now. And you might not be aware because some of those technologies were not labeled as being quantum technologies. For example, single photon detectors are an area of need for NASA astrophysics missions because of the sensitivity required for these astrophysics astrophysical instruments. But yeah, it's an area that's becoming more essential for NASA's future. 

Obviously, in terms of sensing, measurements, NASA would like to include the sensitivity of its instruments who are science observations in astrophysics, earth science, heliophysics, and biological and physical science, which are before science disciplines in NASA. So, you know, there is the typical classification of quantum technologies into quantum sensing, quantum networking, or communication, and then quantum computing. And I would say that quantum computing is an area where NASA has been less active in, but more so recently, especially as the capabilities of quantum computers is increasing. 

And it's become now much more apparent after this honorable Congress meeting that they possibly see that there are potentially applications for using quantum computers and for NASA, things such as climate modeling and computational fluid dynamics, two areas of high interest for NASA. And then in terms of sensing, like I said, single photon detectors have always been an area of need for NASA. But now we also have other missions, other needs, such as gravity measurements. There's a question called the concept mission called the quantum gravity radiometer, and that's why your mission is to monitor with high precision the changes in gravity around our planet and do hydrology measurements with high precision. And there's also a need for atomic clocks for NASA. Deep space missions require autonomous navigation, and in a way, we need better and more capable clocks in space. So these are some of the areas that I would say NASA is interested in working with academia, industry, other public agencies. 

Speaker 1: That's great. Thank you, Ovid. What about the Quantum World Congress? We've been here for three days. How do you find the Congress? 

Speaker 7: Yeah, so it's been a fascinating event. I've really enjoyed it. I think it's been, in fact, too much for me to absorb. There's so many interesting talks and panels happening. And I think it's become more apparent to me that quantum, in particular quantum computing, is really going to have an impact in the future. 

And we're getting closer to potentially useful quantum computers in this, potentially in this decade. So yeah, I've loved the events. I love the mix of government representation, industries, academia, all in the same place. And at the context of Washington, DC, which is the policy environment, so important. Things like the National Quantum Initiative are crucial for the future of this field. And so we have had representations of all these domains in this event, which has been fantastic. 

Speaker 8: I'm now with Rajat Ghosh, National Quantum Strategy Secretariat, Government of Canada. Rajat, tell us what Canada is doing in quantum body science. to our natural quantum strategy? 

Speaker 9: So our national quantum strategy is to support three different missions across quantum technologies to create an industrial, vibrant quantum ecosystem. Sensing, communications, and photography, as well as from computing and quantum algorithms. To do this, we're supporting the targets. We're giving support across the entire innovation continuum. For basic research, through the commercialization, procurement, and adoption, we involve a number of different departments and programs I think over 14 at this point, including portfolio partners from our basic research programs, such as INSERC, National Research Council. We have other parallel strategies for our departments to support researchers, academics, as well as other modern networks. 

Speaker 1: OK, this is the point of conference 2020. How is this experience? 

Speaker 9: I think it's been very interesting. There have been a number of different esteemed panelists that are speaking and touching very different facets of quantum technologies. In general, quantum technology is as you discussed at a very technical level. Most discussions centers around basic research. However, this conference still seems to be a unique opportunity to look at the intersection between policy, government, industrial efforts, as well as the basics. So I think in that sense, there's a unique value. 

Speaker 1: Yes, I'm here with Arvind Ratnam from Q-Control. We are from World Congress. Please introduce yourself and your company and how are you finding the conference for Congress? 

Speaker 8: My name is Arvind Ratnam. I'm the Chief Strategy Officer of Q-Control, a leading quantum software company. They're based at Sydney and we have approximately 140 employees across Sydney, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Oxford. 

We do, we are well known in our area. One thing that we do, which is quantum patrol, specifically error suppression, we improve the performance of quantum computers. We also have a world leading program in quantum sensing. And we are developing and delivering strategic capability to the US and its allies. And we are already supplying to the Australian Navy. 

In addition, we also have an international class fund education initiative. And with over 20,000 users, including the government of the UK and the US. This shows that quantum performance of Congress in Washington DC is fairly unique for its audience. It's a good mix of government decision makers, private companies, startups, and even educational institutions and everything in between. And this is where you see the intersection of policy and how policy galvanizes innovations. It makes that vital connection between innovation that's happening at the small companies, large companies, and how government is able to influence direction and even cover areas of national security because quantum is a critical technology. So this conference is quite different than others. And it's a good audience. I'm very happy to be here. 

Speaker 1: I'm here with Dr. Andreas Mathur. He is the head of quantum initiative from the Swiss Academy of Sciences. We are here at the Quantum World Congress, and I wanted to ask you about the Swiss approach to quantum. Do you have a national quantum strategy? What's in it? How did it become reality? And so forth. 

Speaker 10: Thank you very much, Peter. We do have a national initiative quite recently compared to most of the other countries around here since two years on a federal level, or decades of research. And as part of that, yes, we have strategic recommendations. So we take the word strategy on a national level quite careful traditionally in Switzerland. It's a very federal and decent country. But yes, we have that and also formulating about a 100 million investment strategy for the next four years. 

Speaker 1: How has the Congress gone for you so far? 

Speaker 10: Very interesting. We had a few technical meetings here with colleagues around, but mostly feeling and hence on seeing the political engagement. Five, six embassy meetings this week, the industry politics around the world, and the motion of the like-minded countries. That is a very valuable in-person to experience and contribute to that in Washington. 

Speaker 1: OK, I am here with Thomas Andersson. He is the senior research officer at Swedish Research Council. Welcome to Deep Pockets. I have a question about the Swedish national strategy. What can you tell us about Sweden? 

Speaker 11: Well, we have prepared for this, you can say, because the community and the different people and the companies being interested in this together with the authorities made a quantum agenda in 1922. And now we've got a mission from the government at the Swedish Research Council to prepare for proposal for an agenda. And that should be delivered by the 7th of October. 

Speaker 1: OK, very soon. So even though you don't have this strategy here, I do have a question on what do you think 

Speaker 12: that your strategy will focus on mostly? Do you think it's more about industry and business growth as number one or number two, ensuring leadership in science or perhaps as the third option to protect your public and private securities? 

Speaker 11: And then I guess my answer would be all of them because I think, but this is personal. I think it's too early to make a choice. And we are still discussing internally, so I don't know, I'm not the one deciding, but it's probably too early to make a choice. But all of these are very important. 

Speaker 1: Excellent answer. Thank you, Thomas. I'm here with Hina Ordenskilden from the Mobil Nordis Foundation. We're here at the Women in Quantum Luncheon. Don't ask Lina about the Danish strategy and ecosystem. So, Lina, tell us how Denmark is approaching quantum strategy and what you're doing over there. 

Speaker 12: So first, the Danish government made a mapping of the status of quantum in Denmark. Based on this, a national strategy was formulated a strategy which promotes both research, talent development, innovation, commercialization, and also security of these sensitive technologies. So in the strategy, actually, the strategy is followed by allocations on the fiscal law, which is important. It's not just empty words, it's actually followed by real money. Also from the Nordis Foundation, where I serve as senior vice president, we, of course, invest heavily into the Danish ecosystem. 

So the activities which are being promoted are, of course, fundamental research in terms of, say, open to competition, research centers, but also innovation and translation, formation of incubators, which will form viable quantum companies, but also uptake in large enterprise, because we need the large enterprise to adopt the quantum technologies as they serve for both the development of the quantum technologies. Also, being from a small country, Denmark is quite clear. We cannot do everything. We will lead, and this is very natural for us. We actually appreciate the global collaboration. So we find our share where we can contribute, and then we collaborate closely with trusted partners. So overall, over a five-year period, the foundation and the government has invested in the order of one billion euros into quantum. 

So we're a capital that makes us one of the most investing in the region, so I would say. Yes, so we overall, we are quite ambitious within quantum. And I think one of our strong posts is our ability to work across several stakeholders in public enterprise structures. So I think this may be an advantage of a small and agile concept. 

Speaker 1: That's great, thank you. This time I'm here with Yara Mosareva. He's the Council General of Finland in New York, and we've just come out from the Quantum World Congress's International Forum, where we spent three hours with our fellow governments from around the world. So I want to ask Mr. Ambassador, what are your feelings now after three hours? 

Speaker 13: It was a very interesting discussion, showing that while there's still a lot of creative destruction ahead of us, and that will take many, many years, there's an expectation that one day the investment scene will be ready for takeoff for quantum industries. I was actually looking at this year's program of Slush during the meeting, and while AI is bound to be yet another central theme at this year's Slush, I did not see much anything about quantum quite yet. 

And I think that's natural, but there will be a day when there's going to be the same kind of thrust around quantum as we have seen around AI. And then we need to make sure that the companies and the technologies that will be emerging as winners, that they are in Finland, and that their ownership is in Finland, because we, as a country, we need to grow wealthy. 

Speaker 1: I'm here with Petri Koikalan, and he is the science counsellor of Finnish Embassy in Washington, DC, and we just walked out from the international forum here at the Quantum World Congress. So I want to ask Petri, what are your, what are the feelings now? 

Speaker 14: Well, yes, of course we talk quite a lot about the technological advancement in quantum and the sort of possibilities for researchers and companies. But what strikes me the most with the government official is the willingness for collaboration, bilateral, multilateral, not only governments like Finland and the United States, but what's striking me is the regional operators, states here in America, also like sub-state, counter-level engagement. So I think we are seeing a much more multifaceted world of collaboration done in traditional diplomacy in many cases, and that's something fascinating. 

Speaker 1: Next one here, I have Fikri E. Selen Okatan, who is the mastermind from business Finland behind the Global Quantum Strategies Overview Event here at Johns Hopkins. We've just finished the whole agenda. How do you feel now? 

Speaker 15: I feel wonderful because we had a fantastic event and it's a very happy event also. And seven minute flash talks are so interesting. You can take in so much information, but it's also very upbeat and we have people from all over the world coming here together. And it's a love fest, as you said. It's a love fest of sorts, an annual one. That's what it has become. So I'm really happy about the turnout and the interesting speakers we could bring together and who sprinkled all of our Finnish superstars into the lineup, which was fantastic for Finland, quantum from Finland, and that's all we had in mind with this. 

Speaker 1: Exactly. And now we can go and enjoy some of the Finnish delicacies that you have arranged us. Thank you so much, Fikri. You're welcome, my pleasure. And here with Selen Morsbacher, the head of QEDC, the world congress 2024, how has the congress been for you, Celia? 

Speaker 16: Thank you, Petra. It's great to be here and it's wonderful to see everyone. When I think back of what happened just in the last year, it's very exciting to see the system developers making progress on their roadmaps, to see the community that's developing and growing, to see the researchers partnering with developers. And the full stack from the software teams all the way down to the suppliers of the critical components, all making rapid progress. So I'm really pleased to see that this year. And I look forward to being here again next year. Thank you so much. 

Speaker 1: I'm with George Thomas. He is the president of Connected D &B. What are you feeling, your feelings now? 

Speaker 6: Thank you. It's day three of the third point of world congress. And it's been 27 months since we opened the first one. The first one. And it's been a tremendous and an amazing experience to see the ecosystem, not just accept but congregate and make the mission forward. Talk about everything from policy and ethics to commercialization, to export controls, to brand new announcements made on stage, going to the announcement of the quantum view for us, the quantum satellite, what did we make in six? 

There were 26 startups that pitched in a row. It's been incredible. One thing from a feeling perspective, why perspective that I've noticed on the floor is there seems to be a sense of options to talk from the students and all of the discussions on the floor, far more so than the first year. First year there was a little sense of hesitancy that I had always picked up. And this year it's the sense of optimism. I don't know whether I'm seeing it with the glass half full, but I really do feel that there seems to be a sense of momentum for the audacity and it's up to us to kind of continue to show results as the collective has a national proof that the funding flows, the policy calls into the right place, et cetera. But I'm very hopeful and I'm very humbled that people are choosing to come here. And I'm very hopeful and positively looking forward to progress in the market industry. 

Speaker 1: You've listened to Deep Pockets with Petra Söderling. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, tune in and Alexa, iHeartRadio or any other podcast platform. The beautiful music you heard is by Leroy Jones, an iconic New Orleans jazz hall of fame trumpetist. 

You can find this and other Leroy Jones tunes at your favorite online or offline music store. For more stories and discoveries about the symbiotic relationship between emerging technologies and governments, please go to PetraSöderling.com. Thanks for listening and be sure to subscribe, like, rate and share our episodes. It means a lot to me and to my guests. Thank you.