Interview: Dr. Scott Genin, Head of Materials Discovery, OTI Lumionics

What are you most looking forward to at the Quantum.Tech conference?

I’m looking forward to sharing the exciting research and application development that OTI Lumionics Inc. had done in the quantum computing space. I’m also very interested in seeing what industry and academia think the challenges for adoption of quantum technology are and how we can solve those challenges.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the adoption of Quantum technology in 2019/ 2020?

Avoiding a quantum winter. If an expectation bubble is formed without delivering, investors and large companies will likely abandon investment within the quantum computing industry.

Looking ahead a year from now, how do you see the adoption of Quantum computing progressing?

There will be a few early adopters whose internal teams have found success applying quantum computing to their problems and they will positioned to take advantage of new hardware coming out next year, but I predict that in one year most organizations will still be trying to figure out how to use quantum computers to solve their industry specific problems. 

What is going to be the biggest area of focus for your organisation within Quantum over the next 12 months?

Developing new algorithms that use less quantum resources for accurate chemistry simulations.

For Solution Providers: Can you share an example of how your platform or application has been used by a new customer? Feel free to include any feedback or practical examples.

We develop algorithms to perform chemical simulations. Our development has focused on new algorithms that use significantly less quantum resources. Early on, we recognized that quantum chemistry simulations on quantum computers for industrially relevant molecules were not feasible using conventional theories and set out to develop our own. Our algorithms are capable of simulating OLED molecules that are of interest to our industry on available hardware with some advantages in more accurate property predictions.

Top tips: What is the best single piece of advice you can give to an enterprise looking to start their Quantum journey?

Jump in. There is a wealth of open and free resources to get started on understanding whether your problems can be solved better using quantum algorithms. Companies that are very early in their quantum journey should focus on translating the mathematics of their problems into language that quantum computers can understand.

Hear from Scott in Boston this September at Quantum.Tech: https://www.quantumtechcongress.com/speakers/scott-genin