Unlocking the Future of Quantum: A Conversation with Dr. Stephanie Simmons
Ahead of Quantum.Tech USA in Washington D.C, we caught up with Dr. Stephanie Simmons, Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic Inc., discusses her work in building large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers using an Entanglement First™ architecture. She highlights quantum computing’s potential to revolutionize industries, the importance of error correction breakthroughs like SHYPS codes, and the urgent need for post-quantum cryptographic standards. She also emphasizes the role of collaboration in advancing quantum technologies and preparing for their transformative impact on cybersecurity, AI, and beyond. As a leader in the field, she advocates for proactive planning to maximize quantum’s benefits while mitigating potential risks.
Please give us a little introduction on your current role and what you do.
My name is Dr. Stephanie Simmons, and I am the Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic Inc. I work with a team of amazing people across the globe and together we are building large-scale, fault tolerant quantum computers that will achieve quantum’s promised exponential speedups. We’ve designed an Entanglement First™ architecture, based on photonically-linked silicon spin qubits to enable modular, distributed quantum computing and networking. I’m also fortunate to be an Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University, co-chair the advisory council for Canada’s National Quantum Strategy and act as a Canadian representative to NATO for quantum.
Where does your organization sit within the quantum ecosystem?
In terms of the general categories of quantum, we are building scalable quantum computers, with a technology that also enables quantum networking. Our qubit modality is a colour centre, specifically, the T Centre in silicon. We selected this platform because it enables the best of both silicon spins for computation and memory, and photonics for communication. These are all crucial requirements for large-scale, distributed quantum computing. As a company, we are prioritizing delivering the architecture that will get us to commercially relevant, scalable, distributed quantum computing. Our Entanglement First™ Architecture truly unlocks the potential of quantum. It will revolutionize the way we do so many things and make inroads on these tough, and currently intractable, problems. We are also collaborating with Microsoft to integrate quantum computing & networking capabilities into everyday operating environments.
This year is the International Year of Quantum. How do you see the role of quantum technology in shaping the future?
Quantum technologies are definitely going to be disruptive technologies. The role I hope they play, provided we have the right preparation, is extremely beneficial to us all. Once quantum technologies reach a threshold level of scale and reliability, they become massively powerful computational tools for highly impactful problems that just can’t be solved with classical systems.
We are just starting to see the potential of quantum, and we won’t yet be able to predict its full impacts. This has been the case with every branch of physics that has been commercialized. At the outset, there are predictions, but in hindsight, correctly identify the highest impact use cases in advance proves challenging.
That said, we know that some of the world’s most pressing challenges addressable by quantum systems are found across materials science, drug discovery, climate change, and security, as a starting point. It is an exciting time to be in quantum, as we start to unlock some of these challenges. Quantum computers are a hugely enabling technology.
On a related note, there is also a role, maybe a responsibility, for preparing people for the possibilities once we get to large scale quantum. We need to consider how we can best communicate this potential to people to facilitate planning – at all levels from individuals to infrastructure to global policies. If an inevitable technology has the potential to change things significantly, on a dime, planning for its arrival with urgency will reduce uncertainty around that event if it were to arrive suddenly.
Do you see any breakthroughs in error correction this year?
One of the biggest breakthroughs that has already happened this year was the unlocking of Quantum Low Density Parity Check (QLDPC) codes in February. For decades quantum computing has relied on surface codes, but we’ve also known that there were much more efficient ways to do error correction. QLDPC codes were introduced over two decades ago, but physicists and mathematicians had been unable to crack the code to implement them for logic.
I’m so proud to say that in an industry first, Photonic introduced a family of QLDPC codes called Subsystem Hypergraph Product Simplex (SHYPS) codes that can perform both quantum computation and error correction with lower physical qubit overheads and equal or better performance than surface codes. Our team used one of the most complete simulations to date to rigorously stress test them, showing that they work in practice, not just theory.
Fast and lean, SHYPS codes can run all quantum algorithms using up to 20x fewer physical qubits compared to the traditional approaches to error correction. Excitingly, QLDPC codes more broadly are available to any architecture that allows for high connectivity between qubits. We shared these codes with the quantum community with the belief that they will help us build large-scale, logical quantum computers sooner and using fewer resources. These milestone results have moved the goalposts for useful quantum computing 20x closer.
How do you think quantum will impact on cyber-security? Do enterprises need to be approaching this challenge now, or is that hype?
Quantum computers will be so powerful that they will be able to break all asymmetric encryption that we use today. For years my advice to government and enterprise has been to act now. A key step is the international adoption of the new post-quantum cryptographic standards. It is so important to determine a date by which all countries and organizations will move to these new standards. The US has set a date of 2035, and Australia is even more ambitious at 2030. Transitioning with urgency will allow quantum to thrive. It will enable the adoption of quantum to be beneficial, rather than threatening.
Quantum networks are yet another layer of protection against quantum threats – one that we should be considering as a additional, physics-based layer of security to support the mathematics-based codes known as post-quantum cryptography. Quantum computers will not be able to “break” the cryptography of quantum networks.
As a leading sponsor at Quantum.Tech USA this April, what are you looking forward to?
It is so important to bring people together to move quantum forward. There is great value to the overlap of science, industry, policy, and innovation – all in one place. We know that commercially relevant quantum technologies are imminent, so it is great to have scientists, engineers, government, and other organizations collaborating to really start looking at how we can be systematic about the development and deployment of quantum technologies. Being able to share the stage with representatives from different roles gives everyone a chance to learn and advance the technology, policy, and understanding of next steps.
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