NY City College of Technology Researchers Couple Existing Internet/Data Transfer Telecom Lines with Quantum Encryption/Computing Hardware

(FinanceYahoo) A New York City College of Technology (City Tech), professor and his then-undergraduate research partner have been granted a patent that may revolutionize quantum technology and cybersecurity. Their work has the potential to provide the missing part of the ultimate quantum technology: coupling of existing internet/data transfer telecom lines with quantum encryption/computing hardware.
The utility patent was awarded to the City Tech team of Dr. German Kolmakov, chair of the college’s Physics Department, and then City Tech undergraduate student Shaina Raklyar. With the support of the US Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation (NSF), The City University of New York (CUNY) and prospective New York State funding, a quantum interconnect enabling the coupling of existing internet/data transfer telecom lines with quantum encryption/computing hardware has been designed by the City Tech team and is now being prototyped for testing by US quantum computing companies. Until now, the absence of this quantum interconnect has been a significant obstacle to the deploying of quantum computing.
The potential for this breakthrough work is profound. With quantum encryption enabled by the team’s patent, Twitter and other social media would never be hacked again, personal data would never be leaked and private conversations would be immune to eavesdropping. With quantum acceleration of computations, new vaccines could be developed in weeks. This technology also has the potential to reduce energy costs for data centers by 50%, and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint – a reduction equal to half of the carbon footprint of global aviation.
To facilitate the commercialization of this technology and attract private funding, Raklyar established a Brooklyn-based, woman-owned, woman-operated startup company – Next Generation Quantum Corp (NGQ). With the support of the NSF, the team led a “customer discovery” session, interviewing 130+ decision makers, top officers and technology experts from the nation’s leading high-tech companies, including IBM, AWS, D-Wave, Intel, and Google, as well as potential adopters of the technology, including Lyft, Uber, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. The interviews underscored the importance of the prototyping now being done and an angel investor has come forward to fund its development.