Moderator Highlights: Quantum.Tech Boston June 2022

Last month in June, we welcomed back the quantum community live in-person for the first time in over three years in Boston. With over 300+ attendees, we’re please to say the event was a huge success and provided the platform for the quantum community to learn, network and enjoy this conference.

There were panel discussions covering a wide range of subject areas including computing, cryptography and sensing from academia and government, corporate and solution providers leading the charge to quantum supremacy.

The conference provided our audience to learn from 80+ quantum experts, with star moderators leading the panels and discussions. We caught up with a few of our moderators at Quantum.Tech Boston to find out their key takeaways from the event.

Moderator: Doug Finke, Publisher and Managing Editor at Quantum Computing Report

What was your highlight of the event?

The highlight of the event was meeting people in person and getting a chance to chat with them over lunch or the breaks. I always enjoy hearing about new product announcements made at these events and it was good to hear about Quantinuum’s announcement that they have upgraded their processor to 20 qubits.

What was your favourite panel and why?

From “The Path to Commercialization” panel session, it was great to have the key execs from some of the top quantum companies together in a session. It was interesting to note that they were all working on different qubit modalities, but the thing I heard is that it will not be a winner-take-all market and multiple modalities will be used over the long term.

What do you think will be the ‘hot topic’ at Quantum.Tech 2023?

I am hoping the “hot topic” at QT 2023 will be that an end user working with one of the quantum providers has achieved “Quantum Advantage” and is using the solution on a daily basis as part of their normal operations. We close to that now, but I’m not sure anyone is using quantum on a daily basis in production yet. Most of the end users I talk to are still working on training or developing a Proof-of-Concept (POC).

Moderator: Najwa Sidqi, Knowledge Transfer Manager, KTN

What are your three key takeaways from the panel you moderated?

• The urgency for taking action related to understanding the possible threat of quantum computing to our cybersecurity and the importance for businesses and financial institutions notably to take action on engaging with quantum and training its employees on the latest software tools and algorithms out there.
• There is a big opportunity for future generations to benefit from technology advancement(including quantum, immersive, etc,..) and to shift the course of things especially that planet resources are being depleted.
• Quantum computing advantage has been demonstrated on machine learning with a big potential for business use such as backtesting financial models as demonstrated by Elton Zhu and al at the Fidelity Center for applied technology.

What was your highlight of the event?

Meeting several people of my network for the first time in person after so many online and virtual interactions. It was definitely great catching up with the community and enjoying friendly conversations.

What are your predictions for what will be the ‘hot topic’ at Quantum.Tech Boston in 2023?

The hot topic for next year’s Quantum.Tech Boston would be Quantum for net zero and how quantum can help address climate change problems.

Moderator: André M. König, CEO at Interference Advisors

What was your highlight at Quantum.Tech Boston?

For me the highlight of Quantum.Tech Boston was, of course, the privilege of me hosting the entire first day as well as two panels, the kick-off session of the conference as well as the closing one. As somebody who is not a scientist and who has been in quantum tech for only 4 years it is a challenge and honor to be able to stand on stage at this important event with all the luminaries that make our quantum dream a reality. While I still have much to learn, I take pride in the fact that I'm able to participate in and guide conversations on a vaste variety of topics and, hopefully, make my small contribution by showing that there is a place in quantum for people who do not have a scientific or academic background. We all can contribute if we work hard. These events start to feel like family and it is very gratifying to be a tiny part of it.

What are you looking forward to for the quantum industry in 2023?

I'm excited to be back next year and undoubtly we will see many more use cases that approach "business advantage" - this will be a fascinating conversation as we are getting closer and closer to a quantum breakthrough. I also expect quantum communication and sensing to take up not just a more important but also more formal, scheduled role, as it is in these fields that we will see the first success.