SMU Receives More than $1Million in New Research Grants for Anametric for Quantum-Related Research

(DFW.CBS) SMU’s Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security has received more than $1 million in new research grants from Anametric, Inc. for quantum-related research.
Anametric, Inc., is an Austin-based company developing new technologies and devices for chip-scale quantum photonics, with a focus on cybersecurity. Anametric got its start from a conversation the founder had with SMU researchers Dr. Mitch Thornton and Dr. Duncan MacFarlane years ago.
Thornton and MacFarlane will use the grants to investigate new theoretical approaches to enhancing cybersecurity using quantum information and to leverage these approaches to build quantum photonic integrated circuits.
These integrated circuits are designed to control individual particles of light in order to generate high-quality entropy – a string of random numbers that serves as the foundation of all modern cybersecurity. This work could pave the way for advances in quantum computing and other quantum-related applications.
“The long-term goal is to build quantum computing devices. But we have to take baby steps, and this first grant is focused on quantum-based cybersecurity devices,” Thornton said. “We will focus on circuits that support important cybersecurity applications for quantum data, including next-generation encryption, to protect quantum information as it is being transmitted over a network or processed in a quantum computer.”