Category Archives: Quantum Computing

Its oft said, but bears repeating: The money in the 49er Gold Rush was made by the suppliers much more than the miners. Enduring companies were built by selling picks, shovels and blue jeans.

The story plays out again today. Behind each breakthrough in quantum computing qubit-counts is a large collection of laboratory test equipment. Signal generators, arbitrary waveform generators, digitizers, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers and network analyzers are vital as quantum players coax ions, photons and superconducting qubits into calculating problems.

Thoughts along this line piqued our interest as we took part in the quantum computing portions of Keysight Technologies online Keysight World Innovate conference, held recently. Keysight, and competitors such as Anritsu and Tektronix, are busy coming up with tooling to scale the quantum cliffs.

Theres a lot of excitement about this technology and governments all around the world are investing in the research and development required to scale this up, Shohini Ghose, Ph.D., a quantum physicist at Wilfrid Laurier University, said in a keynote at Keysight World.

Its a very exciting time, [but] its not quite clear where this technology will go, she said.

Ghoses emphasis on large-scale investment is borne out by the numbers. Estimates of government and private efforts to spur quantum science and technology, according to Quantum Resources and Careers (QURECA), point to current worldwide investments reaching almost $30 billion, with the overall global quantum technology market projected to reach $42.4 billion by 2027.

Quantum R&D labs likely make up a small portion of the overall test and measurement market, which is expected to increase modestly from $27.7 billion in 2021 to $33.3 billion in 2026. But the market for testing tools used in quantum R&D labs will grow if the promise of quantum computing is to be successfully tapped.

A central part of Keysights test bed for development of quantum computers, sensors and network equipment is its Quantum Control System (QCS), which was introduced in June. QCS components support direct digital conversion of signals and include low-noise distributed clocking. A Keysight manager explained how that works and why it matters in testing.

QCS leverages FPGA timing and synchronizations for multichannel and multichassis operations, said Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president for Keysights Communications Solutions Group, speaking at the event.

Such traits are important as the quantum community looks to scale up its qubit counts. Important as well is software support, added Tardioli, who pointed to Keysights work to support QCS with Python APIs.

Keysights credentials for the quantum quest could not feature more vaunted lineage, as the company grew out of the original Hewlett-Packard test equipment that sprung from the Palo Alto, California, garage of Messrs. Hewlett and Packard in the 1930s. The garage is regularly cited as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.

Keysight has pursued quantum lab tech both organically (almost 100 scientists and engineers were involved in the creation of QCS) and through acquisition. Its quantum road map includes acquisition of modular measurement startup Signadyne in 2016, qubit control software maker Labber in 2020 and error diagnostics specialist Quantum Benchmark in 2021.

Although they still lag behind classical computers by most measures, quantum computers have made steady and perhaps increasing progress in recent years.

But many challenges lie ahead before quantum computers can be integrated into business operations, according to Patrick Moorhead, CEO and chief analyst, Moor Insights and Strategy, who spoke at Keysight World.

The biggest hurdle to jump over is error correction, Moorhead said, noting that a classic computer can do trillions of calculations before it gets an error, but such errors in quantum systems today tend to occur after about 100 to 200 calculations.

Much of Keysights quantum test focus these days is on understanding the impact of errors and how current techniques can remove or elude them. Its an important part of understanding just where the industry is on the road to quantum adoption.

For his part, Moorhead said his analyst firm is expecting a major breakthrough in error correction sometime this year. Even then, there is more prospective work ahead.

If error correction research is progressing at the rate we believe, it could take three to five years until it is usable in systems, he said.

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Keyed in to quantum computing lab testing at Keysight World - VentureBeat

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Quantum computing can soon address many of the worlds toughest, most urgent problems.

Thats why the semiconductor legislation Congress just passed is part of a $280 billion package that will, among other things, direct federal research dollars toward quantum computing.

Quantum computing will soon be able to:

The economy and the environment are clearly two top federal government agenda items.Congress in July was poised to pass the most ambitious climate bill in U.S. history. The New York Times said that the bill would pump hundreds of billions of dollars into low-carbon energy technologies like wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles and would put the United States on track to slash its greenhouse gas emissions to roughly 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. This could help to further advance and accelerate the adoption of quantum computing.

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Because quantum technology can solve many previously unsolvable problems, a long list of the worlds leading businesses including BMW and Volkswagen, FedEx, Mastercard and Wells Fargo, and Merck and Roche are making significant quantum investments. These businesses understand that transformation via quantum computing, which is quickly advancing with breakthrough technologies, is coming soon. They want to be ready when that happens.

Its wise for businesses to invest in quantum computing because the risk is low and the payoff is going to be huge. As BCG notes: No one can afford to sit on the sidelines as this transformative technology accelerates toward several critical milestones.

The reality is that quantum computing is coming, and its likely not going to be a standalone technology. It will be tied to the rest of the IT infrastructure supercomputers, CPUs and GPUs.

This is why companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise are thinking about how to integrate quantum computing into the fabric of the IT infrastructure. Its also why Terra Quantum AG is building hybrid data centers that combine the power of quantum and classical computing.

Amid these changes, employees should start now to get prepared. There is going to be a tidal wave of need for both quantum Ph.D.s and for other talent such as skilled quantum software developers to contribute to quantum efforts.

Earning a doctorate in a field relevant to quantum computing requires a multi-year commitment. But obtaining valuable quantum computing skills doesnt require a developer to go back to college, take out a student loan or spend years studying.

With modern tools that abstract the complexity of quantum software and circuit creation, developers no longer require Ph.D.-level knowledge to contribute to the quantum revolution, enabling a more diverse workforce to help businesses achieve quantum advantage. Just look at the winners in the coding competition that my company staged. Some of these winners were recent high school graduates, and they delivered highly innovative solutions.

Leading the software stack, quantum algorithm design platforms allow developers to design sophisticated quantum circuits that could not be created otherwise. Rather than defining tedious low-level gate connections, this approach uses high-level functional models and automatically searches millions of circuit configurations to find an implementation that fits resource considerations, designer-supplied constraints and the target hardware platform. New tools like Nvidias QODA also empower developers by making quantum programming similar to how classical programming is done.

Developers will want to familiarize themselves with quantum computing, whichwill be an integral arrow in their metaphorical quiver of engineering skills. People who add quantum skills to their classical programming and data center skills will position themselves to make more money and be more appealing to employers in the long term.

Many companies and countries are experimenting with and adopting quantum computing. They understand that quantum computing is evolving rapidly and is the way of the future.

Whether you are a business leader or a developer, its important to understand that quantum computing is moving forward. The train is leaving the station will you be on board?

Erik Garcell is technical marketing manager at Classiq.

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The world, and todays employees, need quantum computing more than ever - VentureBeat

DUBAI, United Arab of Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Breakthroughs in quantum computing will enable humans to cure diseases like cancer, Alzheimers, and Parkinsons as easily as we treat the common cold.

That was one of the major insights to emerge from the Dubai Future Forum, with renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku telling the worlds largest gathering of futurists that humanity should brace itself for major transformations in healthcare.

The forum concluded with a call for governments to institutionalize foresight and engrain it within decision making.

Taking place in Dubai, UAE at the Museum of the Future, Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Institute, criticized nations for being too pre-occupied with the present and too focused on creating white papers, reports and policy recommendations instead of action.

Nowism is a virus. Corporations and governments are infected, she said.

One panel session heard how humans could be ready to test life on the Moon in just 15 years and be ready for life on Mars in another decade. Sharing his predictions for the future, Dr. Kaku also said there is a very good chance humans will pick up a signal from another intelligent life form this century.

Dr. Jamie Metzl, Founder and Chair, OneShared.World, urged people to eat more lab-grown meat to combat global warming and food insecurity.

If we are treating them like a means to an end of our nutrition, wouldnt it be better instead of growing the animal, to grow the meat? he said.

Among the 70 speakers participating in sessions were several UAE ministers. HE Mohammad Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees and Managing Director of the Dubai Future Foundation, said ministers around the world should think of themselves as designers of the future. Our stakeholders are 7.98 billion people around the world, he noted.

Dubais approach to foresight was lauded by delegates, including HE Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, who said: What makes our city and nation successful is not natural resources, but a unique ability to embrace all ideas and individuals.

More than 30 sessions covered topics including immortality, AI sentience, climate change, terraforming, genome sequencing, legislation, and the energy transition.

*Source: AETOSWire

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Cancer to Be Treated as Easily as Common Cold When Humans Crack Quantum Computing - Business Wire

Alireza Najafi-Yazdi, founder and CEO at Anyon Systems is interviewed by Yuval Boger. Alireza and Yuval talk about Alirezas full-stack quantum computer company that tackles everything from cryogenics to qubits to software, how to keep quantum computers running without attaching a technician to them, and much more.

Yuval Boger: Hello, Alireza, and thanks for joining me today.

Alireza Najafi-Yazdi: Hi Yuval, thank you very much for the invitation.

Yuval: So who are you and what do you do?

Alireza: Well, Im Alireza Najafi-Yazdi. Im the founder and CEO of Anyon Systems, and we are a quantum computing hardware company located in Montreal. And we also have some satellite presence in the Waterloo region in Canada as well.

Yuval: And I apologize, but I want to say Id never heard a few before, but I only heard of you very recently. And then I found out that youve been out in the market, active for a number of years. Is that by design or is it just my ignorance?

Alireza: It is to some extent by design. We actually started in 2014 and really officially launched a company in January 2015. And in that regard, we are one of the oldest companies in the quantum computing market. I think older than us, perhaps Rigetti by a few months and maybe D-wave by quite a few years. And it was around that time that John Martinez and his team joined Google and the Google quantum effort started, and IBM also started their recent superconducting effort. So, were almost as old as the industry is.

Yuval: And I think youre building a complete system, both the hardware and the software and everything in between using superconducting qubits. Is that correct?

Alireza: That is correct. So we actually, we are pretty unique in some aspects, and that is we build every major component of a superconducting quantum computer in-house. We build all of our own dilution fridges, which Ive noticed shocks many people. They dont expect a quantum computing hardware company to be able to build its own dilution fridge. We build our own controlled electronics. We build and develop our own firmware stack and we kind of stop right at the SDK thats when we handed over to the client and other partners to build compilers or sophisticated algorithms and whatnot. So thats where were primarily focused on the harder and the peripheral of a quantum processor.

Yuval: That sounds like a major undertaking. I think there are very large companies who try to do full stack solutions. Can you give me a sense about the size of your company? How many people, or what kind of funding that make it possible to do a full stack solution?

Alireza: Sure. Were not too large a group. Were 25 people, but weve been at it for quite a long time now. Its more than seven years almost in December. Thats going to be eight years of working on this project so we have a nimble and very efficient team, but we also took some time to build all this stuff.

Yuval: And I think you have a quantum computer that actually works that youve sold a few. Is that correct?

Alireza: That is correct. So we have a system that we built for DRDC. This is a Canadian defense research establishment here in Canada, part of the department of the national defense. And thats a six-qubit machine. Thats the extent I can disclose. And we are now in the process of building a second unit. Its actually a very nice and commercial unit for data centers. And thats going to be installed sometime next year, hopefully the first half of next year at Calcul Quebec, which is a super computing center here in Canada. And that serves a number of universities here in Canada. So yeah, were in the process of building that system. And the first phase of that system, were going to install a 12-qubit chip. And the system is, as I speak to you, were almost all the major components, hardware components are either on the floor or theyre being integrated. So were going to start testing in the next couple of months.

Yuval: What makes your system different or better than other quantum computers and specifically other superconducting quantum computers? It doesnt sound like you have more qubits. Are they better qubits? Are they better connected? Are they designed for different use? Help me get the differentiation, please.

Alireza: There are two things, Yuval. So here at Anyon, our activities follow two prongs. One, we have our own internal R&D that is focused on a very particular type of architecture and superconducting qubits and a novel qubit architecture that were following. And the other stream of our work for the time being focuses on delivering near term intermediate scale machines, NISQ machines, to data centers and area adapters.

So these two machines that I talked about, they feature that NISQ architectures. They are transmon qubits. They are tunable transmon qubits with tunable couplers. To some extent, similar to the architecture that Google has followed, we followed the same philosophy in many aspects. We like that philosophy very much. Of course, on the control electronics level, cryogenics, all these are essential, and also even on the quantum processor, there are certain things that are very unique to ours.

What we have been striving to achieve is higher gate fidelity and minimal crosstalk. So on the crosstalk, we have really a state of art performance metrics. You could put the crosstalk, literally speaking, to zero, and performance metrics in terms of gate fidelities, consistently, were getting performance metrics, which you can call us among the top three players in terms of performance of the qubits. And theyre getting even better and better as time goes on.

And scaling up the number of qubits is no longer an issue. We can scale up to few dozens, lets say to 60, 70 qubit with the existing platform that weve developed. Its just a matter of check size of the client because building these machines costs a lot of money and somebody has to pay for it.

Yuval: I was looking at the website and some of your press releases. And it sounds like the two of the customers that are mentioned are the government or defense-related customers. Im guessing that these customers are not using it on a public cloud, like a Braket or Azure. Is that by design or is this just happened this way that the first two customers are government customers?

Alireza: Part of it happened by design. Its just a philosophy that we have in terms of how a eventual quantum computer would be used. We think a quantum computer is going to be a hardware accelerator. Its going to be sitting next to a classic high performance computing infrastructure. So I mentioned Calcul Quebec and the supercomputing center. So we are very excited because this machine that were building for them is going to be directly coupled into their existing HPC fabric to Narval, which is the largest public supercomputer here in Canada and the 81st or so largest supercomputer in the world.

So theres a lot of interesting integration work being done between the HPC and the quantum computing infrastructure were building. And because of that, lets say putting a machine on the cloud and having a TCP/IP API call, thats just slow. But we dont think thats how a machine would be eventually used.

We understand these are smaller-scale machines, perhaps mostly for education and trying proof of concept, but nevertheless, you want to really move toward the right direction. So thats why we didnt go directly into the cloud. And theres also when it comes to cloud, the business case has not been there, or at least Im personally not convinced about the cloud yet. Building a machine costs millions and millions of dollars of capital. And then you put it on the cloud and you charge the client a few cents a shot. And Im not sure if you get return on investment anytime soon. And at the end of the day, were a commercial company. Unit economy matters. And thats why it was so far has not been commercially attractive enough yet.

Yuval: How about uptime? When I look at computers on the cloud, theyre not up 24 hours a day. They have limited windows of operation. When you deliver a computer to a customer. Do you have to deliver a technician that tweaks the qubits every day? Or how are these computers maintained?

Alireza: Its a very good question. And this is one of the things that has been the subject of significant activities here at Anyon. Weve been working on developing automated calibration systems that, as you said, tweaking. Yes, you need some calibration. You need regular calibration, perhaps 24 hours or even shorter time intervals. And you dont want a technician next to the machine. You want this to be done automatically. So there are a lot of quantum control concepts. Software engineer concepts have gone into building the infrastructure to make sure that these things can be maintained without direct interference by sys admins or our technicians.

Particularly this one that is going to the supercomputing center. Theres a lot of interesting requirements in terms of maintaining it. The uptime should be 24/7 for long, long periods of time. So it is so far, weve run our machines for month and month without a problem. Typically, we have to just warm up to swap a new generation of chips. So weve been able to maintain these machines up for quite some time. And well continue to monitor and learn from that experience.

Yuval: Given that you are a full stack company, do you need any help from any other industry player? I mean, if you were controlling the quantum computing industry, what would you have people do that theyre not doing today or do to help you move faster?

Alireza: Well, were not definitely controlling the industry, but we were kind of controlling our fate and our technology. And thats been always the idea, but theres a lot of room for collaboration. As I mentioned to you, were so focused on the hardware that we strategically have decided to let others take care of algorithms, perhaps compiler optimization, and things of that nature. And I think this is a great area of collaboration. Benchmarking is another great area of collaboration. Those who have particular expertise in benchmarking. And they want to go from one hardware to another. Theyre more than welcome to talk to us. And we would love to hear from them as well. Thats another area of collaboration. And there is in between a lot of components that either we dont make, or we dont want to make anymore, that we love to see supply chain for.

A good example is a dilution fridge. For example, dilution fridge. When we started in 2015, there were just two companies at the time that you could call them commercial. One was Blue Force, and the other one was Oxford Instruments. And we were not sure if they were bought out by our competitors, but with these big giants, what would be our fate? So we decided at the time it makes both the strategic sense, and also for long term, if you want to go larger and larger number of qubits and build bigger and bigger systems to have our own dilution for systems, we are probably going to keep some of these very key equipment or key components internally and build them internally. But we are always on the lookout to see what others can do and take some load off our shoulders.

Yuval: And in terms of applications, do you feel that your computers are best for one particular type of application like optimization or chemistry or something else? Or really is the entire spectrum for you?

Alireza: We build whats called universal quantum computers. These are gate-based machines. And in theory, you can run any algorithm you want. Youre just limited by the coherence time of the qubits, and the gate facility is the same as you were running on, lets say, IBM or Googles machine. That being said, a good question is, whats the best application for a quantum computer?

And theres also some companies who are following application-specific quantum processes or architectures and an interesting discussion is what is it, what exactly is that? And how would that play out in the long term? So for the time being, we believe its good to remain as generic as possible. So were going to continue working on building gate-based universal machines and try to make the hardware more accurate, and dip our toes into fault tolerance and error correction. But this is, I think, a very active field of research and still, everybodys at very, very early stages of this.

Yuval: Alireza, how can people get in touch with you to learn more about your work?

Alireza: They can reach out to us through LinkedIn, through our website, through Twitter. They can, if they want to talk to me in person, Im both on LinkedIn and on Twitter and Im responsive.

Yuval: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.

Alireza: Thank you very much, Yuval.

Yuval Boger is an executive working at the intersection of quantum technology and business. Known as the Superposition Guy as well as the original Qubit Guy, he can be reached on LinkedIn or at this email.

October 9, 2022

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Podcast with Alireza Najafi-Yazdi, CEO of Anyon Systems - Quantum Computing Report

As we look at some of the future technologies that are shaping the world today, investors can turn to exchange traded fund strategies to capture these growing opportunities.

In the recent webcast, Invest in Tomorrows Disruptive Technology Today, Sylvia Jablonski, CEO and CIO of Defiance ETFs, noted that the global quantum computing market could be worth $949 million by 2025, compared to a global market value of $89 million back in 2016, projecting a growth rate of more than 10 times by 2025.

Jablonski argued that growth will only accelerate in the quantum computing space as the technology matures. For example, the quantum computing growth of quantum computing systems produced by organizations in qubits was only two back in 1998 but has jumped to 128 as of 2019.

Looking ahead, Jablonski estimated a 43% compound growth rate of the quantum computing industry from 2020 through 2030.

Many will continue to adopt the quantum computing algorithm due to its polynomial runtime, which decreases the time needed to solve complex problems. For example, a problem that requires 3,300 years to solve under a classical algorithm with exponential runtime would take only take 11 minutes under a quantum algorithm with polynomial runtime.

Quantum computing is already being applied. The banking and finance sub-segment is expected to have the fastest growth in the global market mainly because of the growing adoption of quantum computing.

To access this growing opportunity, investors can take a look at the Defiance Quantum ETF (QTUM), which offers investors liquid, transparent, and low-cost access to companies developing and applying quantum computing and other transformative computing technologies by tracking the BlueStar Quantum Computing and Machine Learning Index.

Along with quantum computing, Paul Dellaquila, president of Defiance ETFs, highlighted the growth potential of next-generation communication services through 5G networking.

Dellaquila noted that the global 5G services market size was estimated at $64.54 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit around $1.87 trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 44.63% during the forecast period of 2022 to 2030.

Looking ahead, Dellaquila anticipated 5G subscriptions to reach 4.4 billion globally by the end of 2027, or the majority of total global mobile subscriptions. More than 615 million 5G devices have already been shipped in 2021. Additionally, there will be an estimated 1.8 billion 5G connections by 2025, led by Asia and the United States.

Dellaquila also pointed out that 5G applications cover a vast swathe of global segments, including enterprises, consumer, and government sectors.

Investors can turn to something like the Defiance Next Gen Connectivity ETF (FIVG) for liquid, transparent, and low-cost access to companies engaged in the research and development or commercialization of systems and materials used in 5G communications.

In addition, Jablonski highlighted the first inverse blockchain ETF, Defiance Daily Short Digitizing the Economy ETF (IBIT), to serve sophisticated investors by offering a convenient and cost-effective way to short up to 80% of the blockchain ecosystem. IBIT aims to reflect the inverse performance of BLOK, the Amplify Transformational Data ETF, daily. IBIT may help reduce the drawdown of these underlying assets or simply benefit by going long with an ETF that captures the fall of the theme.

Financial advisors interested in learning more about disruptive technologies can watch the webcast here on demand.

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ETFs to Help Investors Capture Innovative Growth Ideas of Tomorrow - ETF Trends

Unhackable communications devices, high-precision GPS and high-resolution medical imaging all have something in common. These technologies some under development and some already on the market all rely on the non-intuitive quantum phenomenon of entanglement.

Two quantum particles, like pairs of atoms or photons, can become entangled. That means a property of one particle is linked to a property of the other, and a change to one particle instantly affects the other particle, regardless of how far apart they are. This correlation is a key resource in quantum information technologies.

For the most part, quantum entanglement is still a subject of physics research, but its also a component of commercially available technologies, and it plays a starring role in the emerging quantum information processing industry.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics recognized the profound legacy of Alain Aspect of France, John F. Clauser of the U.S. and Austrian Anton Zeilingers experimental work with quantum entanglement, which has personally touched me since the start of my graduate school career as a physicist. Anton Zeilinger was a mentor of my Ph.D. mentor, Paul Kwiat, which heavily influenced my dissertation on experimentally understanding decoherence in photonic entanglement.

Decoherence occurs when the environment interacts with a quantum object in this case a photon to knock it out of the quantum state of superposition. In superposition, a quantum object is isolated from the environment and exists in a strange blend of two opposite states at the same time, like a coin toss landing as both heads and tails. Superposition is necessary for two or more quantum objects to become entangled.

Quantum entanglement is a critical element of quantum information processing, and photonic entanglement of the type pioneered by the Nobel laureates is crucial for transmitting quantum information. Quantum entanglement can be used to build large-scale quantum communications networks.

On a path toward long-distance quantum networks, Jian-Wei Pan, one of Zeilingers former students, and colleagues demonstrated entanglement distribution to two locations separated by 764 miles (1,203 km) on Earth via satellite transmission. However, direct transmission rates of quantum information are limited due to loss, meaning too many photons get absorbed by matter in transit so not enough reach the destination.

Entanglement is critical for solving this roadblock, through the nascent technology of quantum repeaters. An important milestone for early quantum repeaters, called entanglement swapping, was demonstrated by Zeilinger and colleagues in 1998. Entanglement swapping links one each of two pairs of entangled photons, thereby entangling the two initially independent photons, which can be far apart from each other.

Perhaps the most well known quantum communications application is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), which allows someone to securely distribute encryption keys. If those keys are stored properly, they will be secure, even from future powerful, code-breaking quantum computers.

While the first proposal for QKD did not explicitly require entanglement, an entanglement-based version was subsequently proposed. Shortly after this proposal came the first demonstration of the technique, through the air over a short distance on a table-top. The first demonstrations of entangement-based QKD were published by research groups led by Zeilinger, Kwiat and Nicolas Gisin were published in the same issue of Physical Review Letters in May 2000.

These entanglement-based distributed keys can be used to dramatically improve the security of communications. A first important demonstration along these lines was from the Zeilinger group, which conducted a bank wire transfer in Vienna, Austria, in 2004. In this case, the two halves of the QKD system were located at the headquarters of a large bank and the Vienna City Hall. The optical fibers that carried the photons were installed in the Vienna sewer system and spanned nine-tenths of a mile (1.45 km).

Today, there are a handful of companies that have commercialized quantum key distribution technology, including my groups collaborator Qubitekk, which focuses on an entanglement-based approach to QKD. With a more recent commercial Qubitekk system, my colleagues and I demonstrated secure smart grid communications in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Quantum communications, computing and sensing technologies are of great interest to the military and intelligence communities. Quantum entanglement also promises to boost medical imaging through optical sensing and high-resolution radio frequency detection, which could also improve GPS positioning. Theres even a company gearing up to offer entanglement-as-a-service by providing customers with network access to entangled qubits for secure communications.

There are many other quantum applications that have been proposed and have yet to be invented that will be enabled by future entangled quantum networks. Quantum computers will perhaps have the most direct impact on society by enabling direct simulation of problems that do not scale well on conventional digital computers. In general, quantum computers produce complex entangled networks when they are operating. These computers could have huge impacts on society, ranging from reducing energy consumption to developing personally tailored medicine.

Finally, entangled quantum sensor networks promise the capability to measure theorized phenomena, such as dark matter, that cannot be seen with todays conventional technology. The strangeness of quantum mechanics, elucidated through decades of fundamental experimental and theoretical work, has given rise to a new burgeoning global quantum industry.

Nicholas Peters, Joint Faculty, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Nobel-winning Quantum Weirdness Undergirds an Emerging High-tech Industry, Promising Better Ways of Encrypting Communications and Imaging Your Body -...

For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent presentations, publications and honors include the following:

Erik T. Thostenson, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering delivered an invited presentation at the Gordon Research Conference onMultifunctional Materials and Structures. Gordon Research Conferences are a group of international conferences that cover frontier research in the sciences and their related technologies. The thematic topic of the 2022 conference was "Imparting Intelligence in and Through Self-Learning Materials and Structures."His presentation, "Scalable Manufacturing of Multifunctionalin situSensors," highlighted the recent research of his group on the processing of novel carbon nanotube-based sensors and their applications ranging from structural health monitoring of critical infrastructure to wearable garments for physical rehabilitation. Thostenson, who is a joint faculty member of UD'sCenter for Composite Materials, leads the Multifunctional Composites Laboratory. He has made pioneering research contributions in the processing, characterization and modeling of carbon nanotube-based composite materials. His scholarly research has been cited nearly23,000 timesin the scientific literature.

On Oct. 6, 2022, Sarah Trembanis, Associate in Arts Program professor of history, along with AAP graduate and current UD junior Haley Ryanpresented a talk at the Bethany Beach Fire Hall, entitled "Cat Hill Cemetery: An Investigation in Historic Sussex County." Their talk was based on research undertaken through a 2022 Community Engagement Initiative summer fellows grant and in partnership with the South Bethany Historical Society. Ryan ismajoring in history and minoring in both women and gender studies and domestic violence prevention and services.The project was the subject of a recent article in the Coastal Point newspaper.

Monet Lewis-Timmons, a doctoral candidate in the Department of English, successfully nominated the noted Delaware writer, teacher, suffragist, civil rights and peace activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson, for inclusion in the Delaware Women's Hall of Fame. At the induction event on Oct. 12, 2022, Lewis-Timmons provided the audience with a sketch of Dunbar-Nelson's life and accomplishments. Alice Dunbar-Nelson's papers are housed in the UD Library's Special Collections Department.

Jennifer Horney, professor and director of the Epidemiology Program within the College of Health Sciences, has published The COVID-19 Response: The Vital Role of the Public Health Professional. Published by Elsevier and geared toward graduate students in public health and those working in public health-adjacent fields, the book, available on Amazon, emphasizes the critical roles that the public health workforce played on the frontlines of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to bring visibility to the field. Public health is at a real pivot point, and we need to raise awareness of the breadth and depth of the roles of public health agencies and the workforce, Horney said. During the pandemic, a lot of people got wrapped up in the complexity or inconsistency of messaging from the CDC, but they didnt realize their friends and neighbors working in public health were responsible for standing up COVID test sites and vaccination campaigns in NASCAR stadiums or analyzing millions of COVID test results. The COVID-19 Response also delves into the disinvestment in public health following the 2008 financial crisis and pushes for a path forward that will be essential to meeting the future challenges and threats public health will undoubtedly face. Horney, who serves as core faculty for UDs Disaster Research Center, is also the editor for COVID-19, Frontline Responders and Mental Health: A Playbook for Delivering Resilient Public Health Systems Post-Pandemic, which covers the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 response. The book will be published by Emerald on Jan. 23, 2023.

Juliet Dee, associate professor of communication, is the coauthor of the chapter Religious Freedom versus Public Health: Discordant Legal Narratives in the Pandemic, 41-65, in Discordant Pandemic Narratives in the United States, edited by Shing-Ling S. Chen and Nicole Allaire and published by Lexington Books. She is also the author of an article on Fighting Back: Is Defamation Law a Double-Edged Sword for #MeToo Victims? in First Amendment Studies 55:2, 148-174 (2021).

Sarah Pragg, assistant policy scientist in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration's Institute of Public Administration, was presented with the 202223 University of Delaware Rising Star Award by the Delaware ACE Womens Network (DAWN). The Rising Star award is granted annually to one nominee from each institute of higher education in Delawarewho demonstrates the promise of future leadership.DAWN is the Delaware chapter of the AmericanCouncil on Education (ACE).The organization is committed to the advancement of women in higher education through developing, mentoring and promoting women leaders. Pragg acts as a principal investigator leading research projects that benefit Delaware's state and local governments; she supervises and mentors students providing them with real-world experiences; and she is a highly sought-after presenter and trainer.On Oct. 13, 2022, she was honored at the DAWN virtual celebration in celebration of her accomplishments.

Cameron Ibrahim, a doctoral student in theDepartment of Computer & Information Scienceswho is supervised by Ilya Safro, associate professor, received the Best Student Paper Award at the2022 IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing conference. Ibrahims paper "Constructing Optimal Contraction Trees for Tensor Network Quantum Circuit Simulation" was presented at the Quantum and Non-Deterministic Computing Session on Sept. 19, 2022. This conference, organized in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), is the largest of its kind in New England and features cutting edge work on AI, machine learning, graph analytics and quantum computing. Ibrahim's research is focused on algorithm design for speeding up quantum computing simulations and was funded by an Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award from the National Science Foundation, an area of research related to efforts taking place in UD's Quantum Science and Engineering graduate program. The complete list of coauthors includes UDs Ibrahim and Safro, Danylo Lykov and Yuri Alexeev from Argonne National Laboratory and Zichang He from UC Santa Barbara.

To submit information for inclusion in For the Record, write to ocm@udel.edu and include For the Record in the subject line.

Originally posted here:

For the Record, Oct. 14, 2022 | UDaily - UDaily

SCOTTSVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Castle Shield Holdings, LLC., a leader in Zero Trust and cybersecurity solutions, today announced that its Aeolus VPN solution now supports additional post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Last year, prior to the conclusion of the third round of the NIST PQC Standardization, we announced the successful integration of the Saber algorithm into Aeolus VPN. Reference our October 11, 2021, press release.

NIST has now selected two primary PQC algorithms for most use cases: CRYSTALS-KYBER and CRYSTALS-Dilithium. In addition, the signature schemes FALCON and SPHINCS+ were standardized as well. Kyber and Dilithium were both selected for their strong security and excellent performance, and NIST expects them to work well in most applications. Therefore, we have integrated Kyber (i.e., Kyber1024) and Dilithium (i.e., Dilithium5) algorithms into Aeolus VPN as well.

Aeolus VPN protects data between two or more network points. It offers a streamlined approach to privacy which results in more stability and lower latency that is a perfect addition to enterprise data-in-motion security for both classic and post-quantum computing environments. Aeolus VPN offers point-to-point asymmetric PQC and symmetric encryption for UDP and TCP on Windows, Linux and macOS platforms.

At Castle Shield, we are encryption agnostic. As NIST selects new PQC standards, we will add them to our suite of solutions that further demonstrates the cryptographic agility of our products. Our primary focus is to seamlessly integrate the best encryption algorithms available with our solutions to protect our customers data for today and tomorrow, said Dr. Milton Mattox, Chief Technology Officer at Castle Shield, Holdings, LLC.

Aeolus VPN with PQC continues to be available today for testing, proofs of concept, and production installations.

About Castle Shield Holdings, LLC

Founded in 2019, Castle Shield offers a complete range of enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions that protects enterprises and consumers against all internal and external cyber threats. Our quantum-resistant solutions (Fides) stand strong as the last line of defense for enterprise and consumer data in the emerging quantum computing threat landscape. Legion, our Security Information Event Management or (SIEM) product portfolio and Fides work together to strengthen your overall data security. We monitor and address threat vectors through our scalable, multi-tenant SIEM platform, protecting enterprise systems and data in an efficient, cost-effective manner. In addition, we utilize an advanced compliance platform (Senate) and expert analysis with an in-depth understanding of dynamic compliance standards and industry best practices to highlight cyber risk factors. Our Senate system provides comprehensive ratings for third party vendors based on technical risk scores, compliance, and financial impact in the event of a breach. Our 360 proactive security solutions are what sets Castle Shield apart independent of your IT backbone whether cloud, hybrid or premise based. For further information, please go to http://www.castle-shield.com

Excerpt from:

Castle Shield Holdings, LLC Updates the Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Algorithms for Its Data-in-Motion Aeolus VPN Solution - Business Wire

John Prisco, President and CEO of Safe Quantum, a quantum security consulting firm is interviewed by Yuval Boger. John and Yuval talk about the maturity of PQC, QKD, quantum networks, and their timing overlap, national and international testbeds for quantum security, successful case studies and more.

Yuval Boger: Hello John, and thanks for joining me today.

John Prisco: Hello, how are you?

Yuval: Im doing well. Who are you and what do you do?

John: Well, Im John Prisco, and I am the president of Safe Quantum and I consult in the areas of quantum key distribution and quantum internet.

Yuval: There have been a lot of buzzwords floating around: post-quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, and the quantum internet. Could you make some sense for me in these?

John: Yes, I think were in a very early stage in a number of areas that would be based on quantum. Obviously, quantum computers are just at the beginning of development, and they dont have very many qubits yet, but eventually, they will. And when they do, then well have something to worry about with having our encryption schemes broken that we depend on today. However, the work thats being done at NIST to develop post-quantum cryptographic algorithms will become quantum resistant. The hope is that these mathematically based algorithms will prevent quantum computers or at least slow them down in terms of being able to decrypt secret information.

On the other side of the equation is quantum key distribution, which doesnt depend on arithmetic or mathematical rigor. It is relying on quantum mechanics and physics principles. Its a very interesting technique, it uses keys that are made of individual photons of light, and because of the various quantum mechanical properties, youre not really able to even observe these keys without changing their state. Once the state has changed, the key no longer works, it no longer unlocks the secret information and therefore provides the protection that one would want when transmitting very secure and sensitive information.

Yuval: If Im an enterprise and I hear about post-quantum cryptography as an interim step, and then quantum key distribution is something that could be a little bit better and maybe about the quantum internet is the best thing, is it feasible for me to jump right to the best thing?

John: Well, unfortunately, its not at the moment, and thats because theres a lot of work to be done, actually, in all three areas. Jumping ahead to the quantum internet is probably a misnomer. We should probably first talk about a quantum network, which is not as far-reaching as the internet. And there are a number of test beds around the world that are today working in this area. And at this point, these systems are relying on creating quantum repeaters and using quantum memory. But at this point of development, the repeaters are repeating one photon of information. So when you consider gigabit per second type transmission rates, theres a long way to go before we could have a complete quantum internet.

But there are many advances going forward throughout the world on quantum networking. And one in particular that I follow closely because its right here in the United States, is a company called Qunnect. And what I find interesting about them is that theyre attempting to build quantum network, the basis for quantum internet, using room temperature apparatus. Which is terrific because when you try to commercialize something, its very difficult to commercialize a product that has a dilution refrigerator, which is a room full of refrigeration equipment to get superconducting properties out of quantum setup in milli-Kelvins of temperatures. When you have high vacuums, and very low temperatures, you have a long way to commercialization, so I like following companies that are trying to do things at room temperature because I think we get there sooner with that kind of approach.

Yuval: If we start from post-quantum cryptography, I understand that NIST has announced for finalists or candidates for standards, but some of them have already been cracked. How is that process going, and what do you anticipate will happen with it?

John: Well, its a long-term process. It started six years ago, and I think it started with something like 88 algorithms that were presented. NIST has been diligently working on looking at the veracity of each one of these algorithms, and theyd come up with four finalists. In addition to the four, there were others in the finalist category, and one of them was hacked a couple of months ago, I think in March. And then, more recently, another had been broken. But thats all part of the process working. It is open to the public so that people will try to, in some way, bypass the protections that the algorithm offers.

And when you look at an arithmetic approach, which is all of post-quantum cryptography, you have to understand that these algorithms will have a shelf life, just like the RSA algorithms are coming to the end of their useful shelf life. Well, post quantum cryptography may have a 30-plus year shelf life, but eventually, it will be cracked by something. So its very important to understand that that approach is a quantum-resistant approach. Im probably more in line with the QKD basing its protections on laws of physics, but I think you need both of them. I think its important to have a defense in-depth strategy, and I think its important to have two totally different approaches so that if one fails, its not likely the other will have the same failure mechanism and therefore, youd have more survivability.

But I do think post-quantum cryptography is going to require crypto agility just for the reasons we mentioned, you may be heading down the road with a finalist candidate algorithm, and then something happens where a mathematician comes up with an algorithm that defeats that approach. Well, you have to be able to turn on a dime and adopt one of the other algorithms that are in their golf bag, so to speak.

Yuval: I think quantum key distribution uses a side channel to transfer decryption or encryption keys to both parties outside the main channel. And I believe that a previous company that you were involved with did QKD as a service. If I understand QKD, what does as a service mean in that context?

John: Well, it means that you are providing a transmission pathway for a customer to secure data in motion. And that could be between two of the customer premises locations. It could be from a customer to the cloud. And when you say as a service, it means that you secure the fiber rights of way between points A and point B. You install the hardware, which is producing the keys and sharing the keys. And its a complete service, if there is maintenance required, you provide that as well.

And one of the most important things about this approach is that you can separate the encryption key from the data. Today we make it awfully easy for people to harvest information and the key thats used to encrypt that information. And even though they may not be able to break that key today, they can simply and inexpensively store the data and the key. And then in the future, when they have the means to break that key, like with a more powerful quantum computer then we currently have, now suddenly all that secure, sensitive information is subject to being read in plain text.

There are an awful lot of things to consider. The time it takes to convert from a classical encryption approach to a quantum encryption approach is measured in decades. The last time there was a conversion like this, it took over 20 years for companies to completely convert to the RSA algorithms. Its probably going to take more like 20 to 30 years this time around because we have so much more data that were storing and transmitting. What was happening in the seventies is much, much smaller than whats happening in the 2020s. This is not going to be an overnight plug-and-play kind of project, its going to take a long time. And you have to constantly be watching to see, are nefarious actors able to crack the new algorithms, and will our sensitive information soon be read by enemies?

Yuval: So its not a three-stage rocket where first you have PQC and then you move to the second stage with key distribution and then maybe to a quantum network, these are overlapping stages, if I understand correctly?

John: They are, and I think you know, have QKD today, which is probably the best approach to preventing harvesting attacks, because its available today, and it will give you the quantum mechanical security that boasts. PQC is probably two years away from being standardized for the first few algorithms. And then of course that conversion to PQC, which is an enormous task, will probably take at least 20 years.

But the quantum internet is going to require a fair amount of development. Today what we do is we entangle photons and then we try to swap that entanglement in a quantum repeater or quantum memory. And as I mentioned before, each photon is transmitted individually, and it has one bit of information, a one or a zero, could be polarization, could be phase whatever, but one and a zero. Now youre talking about having billions and billions of photons in order to complete a simple telecommunications transaction. And the hardware and infrastructure has to be put in place for this. But fortunately, we do have test beds springing up all around the world, and breakthroughs are being made on a fairly monthly basis. So well get there, but it will probably be on the order of 20 to 25 years before any substantial networks for substantial distances with substantial data rates will be prevalent.

Yuval: Youve probably consulted with a lot of companies and looked at many others, are there any examples that you could give of someone that you felt was doing a good job in preparing for this next type of risk?

John: Yes, in fact, Ive had the pleasure of working with a number of companies, JPMorgan Chase, for one. And what I really think they did right is that they hired quantum experts, their quantum business is run by a fellow named Marco Pistoia, came out of IBM and hes a friend of mine, and I always tell him that hes a quantum rockstar, and he is. We did a project when I was consulting for Toshiba that was based on securing a blockchain application. I think if you generalize this to companies and what they might do, I think its important to have people who understand what quantum is, what quantum science information technology is all about.

And then you have to start doing some proof of concept tests. Ive done a number of QKD proof of concepts. One of my first ones was, again, working with Toshiba and we did a Verizon 5G network security. This is all public, there have been press releases on both the companies Ive just mentioned. But thats really what you have to do, you have to get started, you have to make an investment. And theres an equal investment to understanding the PQC algorithms. And the first thing you have to do is take an inventory of your data, what data? Whats the shelf life of the data? Whats the sensitivity of the data? And you have to work from the most sensitive and longest shelf life to the least sensitive and the shortest shelf life. But just knowing that is going to take a long time in a large corporation. So getting started now is important.

The federal government is a totally different situation because the information is always very sensitive. And when you look at some of the executive orders that came out last month about when government agencies should be converted to quantum encryption, they were talking about 2032 to 2035. Now, what worries me about that is the harvesting attacks, thats going to be 10 to 13 years of people sniffing cables. Even the submariner cables crossing the ocean have been tapped. Its very difficult to know when youre tapping an optical fiber because you just simply bend it, and the light leaks out of the core and then you detect that light. The thing is that with conventional classical telecommunications, when you detect that light, you also get all the information thats being sent over that fiber. So you can imagine an optical fiber carrying tremendous amounts of data and all of it being recorded inexpensively and kept somewhere. And then eventually, when you can break that encryption, now all of these very sensitive bits of data are revealed.

I dont think we have as much time as people think that, Well, we can do this over 20 years, 25 years. Sure, it may take that long, but I think you have to take measures before that, especially if your information is a long shelf life and is extremely sensitive. And QKD actually is the only thing that can really protect you at the moment.

Yuval: You mentioned governments and security is obviously not just a corporate issue but also a national issue. Which countries, in your opinion, are ahead in quantum security? And which countries are perhaps behind?

John: Well, I think that the United States has caught up with China. We do some things better than they do. They do other things better than we do. But in terms of quantum computing, I think the US leads. I actually think that some of the QKD implementations in China lead the US. But theres a lot going on in Europe as well. Theres British Telecom thats now doing a metro scale network using Toshiba QKD and thats a very large project and very interesting in terms of seeing a large telecommunications company make that bet. The Netherlands is, and the group at Delft is doing a wonderful job on quantum networking, and theyre just a lot of things going on like Barcelona, Germany, theyre all doing a lot in the field of quantum networking,.

But this is going to be a public-private partnership in the United States, just like the moon launch was in the sixties. And thats the way to really win this race. And people, a few years ago, started to have that Sputnik moment where they said, Wow, look at Chinas just invested 10 billion in quantum. We better do something about that. And I think we have, and I think in fact that the NSF has been funding universities and a lot of basic research as well as the venture community funding startup companies. I think that combination is a winning combination. It won once before during the sixties and the Space Race, and I think itll win again.

Yuval: As we get close to the end of our conversation today, you mentioned a couple of test beds in Europe, I think in the US, I think theres a big one in Chicago. Are there others that people could get involved with or should pay attention to?

John: Well, theres Chicago Quantum Exchange, thats the one that you are referencing. And of course, that has Department of Energy laboratories working along with very fine universities and terrific researchers. Recently, NIST announced that theyre going to build a DCQ Network, a quantum network that will initially deploy quantum networking on the NIST campus, but then will bring to bear several other agencies like NASA, NSA, CIA. That will be an interesting one to watch. And there is all sorts of rumors about a network coming into Boston and another one coming into New York, and probably another on the West Coast. But none of that has really been publicly announced yet, so well see which ones of those occur. But I think its really important that we have these partnerships, test beds, that have universities involved and that have venture capital involved and government involved. Government is looking for the private sector to come with ideas. Many of these companies have been working on networking for a couple of years, three years, and they can bring to bear a lot of experience.

Yuval: Excellent, John, how can people get in touch with you to learn more about your work?

John: Well, you can go to my website, which is SafeQuantum.com, and all my information is there. I am leading the use cases TAC (technical advisory committee) at QEDC. And if youre a company that wants to join QEDC, I would recommend it. Theres a tremendous amount of knowledge within the group and its a very good place to learn. You can also look at me in Forbes Technology Council. I try to publish one paper a month there. Thats how you can find me. And LinkedIn.

Yuval: Thats perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.

John: Well, thank you.

Yuval Boger is a quantum computing executive. Known as the Superposition Guy as well as the original Qubit Guy, he most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer for Classiq. He can be reached on LinkedIn or at this email.

October 12, 2022

Continued here:

Podcast with John Prisco, President and CEO of Safe Quantum - Quantum Computing Report

CERN has joined a coalition of science and industry partners proposing the creation of an Open Quantum Institute. This institute will work to ensure that emerging quantum technologies are put to use to tackle key societal challenges. The proposal is being made through GESDA, the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation, in collaboration with leading research institutes and technology companies. Other founding supporters of the Open Quantum Institute include the University of Geneva, the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Lausanne (EPFL), Microsoft and IBM.

The proposal was launched at the 2022 GESDA Summit. During her address at the event, CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti highlighted the potential of quantum computing and other associated quantum technologies to help achieve key UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Asit did for the creationofCERN, Geneva can play a key rolein bringing science and diplomacy to recognise theimportance of working together,in order to develop real-world applications for transformative technologies, says Gianotti, who is also a member of the GESDA Foundations board. The Open Quantum Institute will benefit from CERN's experience of uniting people from across the globe to push the frontiers of science and technology for the benefit of all. We will work to ensure that quantum technologies have a positive impact for all of society."

CERN has long recognised the potential of quantum technologies. In 2020, the Organization launched the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI), which is exploring the potential of these breakthrough new technologies for particle physics and beyond, in collaboration with its Member States and other key stakeholders. Today, the initiative runs 20 R&D projects, many of which are carried out in collaboration with leading technology companies through the CERN openlab framework.

By the nature of its research and the technologies it develops, CERN is well positioned to make significant contributions to the quantum revolution, says Alberto Di Meglio, head of CERN QTI and CERN openlab. Building on the Laboratorys collaborative culture and proven track record of developing breakthrough technologies, CERN QTI provides a platform for innovation.

This platform builds on national quantum initiatives in CERNs Member States and beyond, fostering pioneering new applications of quantum technologies both for science and society, explains Di Meglio. Experience and knowhow from the CERN QTI will feed into the Open Quantum Institute, helping to fulfil its mission of maximising the societal impact of these technologies.

As the next step in the process, the GESDA Foundation will launch a survey to help shape the priorities of the Open Quantum Institute, which will begin its incubation phase in 2023. Members of the institute will work to engage further with UN organisations, quantum scientists and industry leaders over the coming months.

Find out more on the GESDA website. Full details on the Open Quantum Institute can be found in the announcement published by the GESDA Foundation today.

On 1-4 November, CERN will host a special conference on the use of quantum technologies to support particle physics. Find out more about this here.

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CERN joins with leaders from research and industry to propose an Open Quantum Institute - CERN