I’ve got places to go, people to see, and brand-spanking-new Alice & Bob swag to wear. For the record, The Quantum Dragon really wants his own t-shirt, but even he agreed that we wouldn’t want his wings to tear through Guillaume Gennet’s magnificent design. Even a firebreathing dragon doesn’t mess with Lord Vader.
This week’s IQT News:
This week’s premium content:
This week’s Friends of The Quantum Dragon:
“Technical leadership alone is no longer enough.” by Prof. June-Koo Kevin Rhee, Founder and CEO of Qunova Computing
In this edition:
“You do not need a background in quantum to apply.”
PhDs really do need to apply.
PsiQuantum’s blueprint to build a quantum computer.
Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief… I Mean an Electron”
Jerry Garcia worked at TOPTICA Photonics?!?!?
15 new companies, but only 6 are worth mentioning.
Shape the Security of Tomorrow
Uh-oh, it’s magic!
50% off qBraid credits
Quantum’s Big Money Moment
How much is it?
Going to the Chapel of Quantum in Barcelona
Not Roblox, too!
Others have notes...
Nu Quantum’s Distributed Borg Drone Computing
Brian Lenahan’s Poll Results - Rebranding FTQC
We’re… #73 in Sasquatch/astrology!
“Let us introduce you to Hafeez’s bunny!”
Becoming Deliberate
Quantum Noise Detector
“You do not need a background in quantum to apply.”
This is a job posting for a Deputy Head, Office for Quantum, for the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. You need to be “an exceptional leader with an interest in how government can thoughtfully steer the development of a critical technology in the national interest,” but a quantum background is somehow optional.
PhDs really do need to apply.
Diraq’s “PhDs Need Not Apply: How the Quantum Workforce is Maturing” is a notion that has circulated for at least a few years now, but in practice, PhDs are still very much in demand. What you really want is for your competitors to lower their respective bars while keeping yours high.
PsiQuantum’s blueprint to build a quantum computer.
This is a nice, digestible, 33-second visual explainer of what PsiQuantum’s got going on under the hood.
Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief… I Mean an Electron”
Prof. Marius Grundmann, CEO of SAXON Q, uses a featured image that is one dragon short of something I would definitely use. The article itself may not be for laypeople, but it’s a fascinating read for those with at least high-level familiarity with the various quantum computing modalities. This link may require a LinkedIn account.
Jerry Garcia worked at TOPTICA Photonics?!?!?
I don’t know if seeing The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia in a comic strip says more about the fine folks over at TOPTICA Photonics or if I need to keep a more watchful eye on The Quantum Dragon, but I’m sure science would indeed be a whole lot more fun with Mr. Garcia in your cleanroom. This link may require a LinkedIn account.
15 new companies, but only 6 are worth mentioning.
“Quantum Australia reveals $83.1M economic impact and 15 new quantum companies,” but congratulations are only in order for FeBI Technologies, QFactorial, Space CoLAB, Quantum Lock, Gridstate Photonics, and Cirnetiq. No one else made the cut for this article. Better luck next time?
Shape the Security of Tomorrow
The Baltic Dual Use 48-hour Non-stop Hackathon Sprint includes quantum as 1 of its 5 pillars. Interestingly, the website only lists post-quantum cryptography, ultra-sensitive quantum sensors, and secure communications. I can’t help but feel like something is missing….
Uh-oh, it’s magic!
What the heck is a “magic state?” If you don’t know, I’d say the best high-level explainer I’ve seen thus far is in Yuval Boger’s “Quantum Bits.”
50% off qBraid credits
Nanoacademic’s Nathaniel Vegh will talk about LatticeMind, an “agentic AI assistant for atomistic simulation,” and then demonstrate it live on the qBraid platform. qBraid will be offering a discount on credits, presumably so that you can play along. I don’t know about you, but given the opportunity, I always play along in real time.
Quantum’s Big Money Moment
The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of a recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report made it into last week’s IQT Sunday Edition, but Bill Bell’s “Enterprise quantum spending exceeds government spending for first time” makes a point that I don’t recall seeing in the WSJ coverage.
How much is it?
Marin Ivezic shared an interesting observation in “The Merchant QPU Market – Who Will Actually Sell You a Quantum Processor,” that QuiX Quantum actually published prices for its Alquor 2.0 8-mode, 20-mode, and 32-mode photonic QPUs. I’m not going to go as far to say that I’ve never seen pricing, but it’s definitely a rarity.
Going to the Chapel of Quantum in Barcelona
Thanks to Mike Kilroy of HKA Marketing Communications, The Quantum Dragon thinks that Qilimanjaro is operating an actual medieval chapel at Spain’s Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and he flew right out of his cave to go take a look. All I could do was scream after him, “Bring back some serrano ham!”
Not Roblox, too!
It may initially seem like a silly topic for The Quantum Kid; after all, don’t we have bigger things to worry about than gaming platforms? But if you pause for a moment and think about how much money actually passes through that platform, you may realize that we may be collectively overlooking some juicy targets for bad actors.
Others have notes...
Yuval Boger uses self-deprecating humor to promote that QuEra is looking to hire a Senior Product Marketing Manager. Personally, I would love to use more self-deprecating humor in this newsletter, but I’m just not funny. The Quantum Dragon is hilarious, though; you ask him! This link may require a LinkedIn account.
Nu Quantum’s Distributed Borg Drone Computing
Imagine a distributed quantum computing network as resilient as the Borg. Even if you lose a node, a QPU, the quantum information is preserved and can be recovered, allowing computation to continue and complete.
Brian Lenahan’s Poll Results - Rebranding FTQC
I have an answer to the question, “So, what can we call this magnificent achievement when it arrives?” We shall call it: “quantum computing.” How can I possibly know this? Well, I’m not typing this with a “fault-tolerant laptop,” ladies and gentlemen; I’m just using a laptop. Fault tolerance is implied, assumed, and taken for granted.
We’re… #73 in Sasquatch/astrology!
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal seems to be poking fun at the inverse relationship on social media between popularity and actual knowledge of quantum theory.
“Let us introduce you to Hafeez’s bunny!”
I don’t know how an outside-the-box rabbit is helping Iga Hafeez of Kampala, Uganda, study concepts in physics, but if the Global Quantum Mechanics Challenge adopts it and adds it to their website, I’ll add it to the Quantum Animal Registry. This link may require a Facebook account.
Becoming Deliberate
Thanks to Mark McGuire for sharing Noah Warren’s Substack. A recent graduate with a plan to found a quantum startup, he’s documenting his journey of building a lab in his apartment. It’s all short notes thus far, but it’s definitely a curious read as you scroll down, including tracking, for some reason, his hot beverage consumption.
Quantum Noise Detector
Alan Ho and Prof. Michael Biercuk inspired the Resuscitated Quantum Bullshit Detector, but the original(?) has resurfaced on Bluesky. It’s back to reposting a simple “bullshit” or “not bullshit,” so The Quantum Dragon will continue to monitor for challenges, controversies, and debates under this new name from Dr. Bob Sutor.
TechDefused’s “WiMi says its quantum AI can tell one handwritten digit from another” is refreshingly critical of an announcement, instead of simply regurgitating it.
The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park is under fire for a variety of reasons, including its impact on the environment, the needs of Chicagoans in terms of utility bills and the “displacement of longtime neighbors,” the appropriation of state and city tax dollars, the granting of county tax incentives, opposition to “military-backed billionaires,” and, of course, antisemitism.
https://www.deviantart.com/dreamer-in-shadows/art/Red-Dragon-Might-and-Magic-VI-Mandate-Of-Heaven-510159614
Image generated by an AI model provided by Microsoft Copilot.
I'd say hot beverage tracking is important for starting to build a quantum computer.
My wife and I had a tea podcast back when I was starting to build QuicklyQuantum and I'm sure it helped.