Quantum News Briefs May 23: Cisco joins the Chicago Quantum Exchange; “Quantum & AI can address complex grid problems”; Physicists demo metro-area quantum computer network in Boston; China replacing imported quantum computer component with domestic product;
Global internet technology company Cisco joins the Chicago Quantum Exchange
Cisco, a global manufacturer of technology that powers the internet, has joined the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) as a corporate partner. The California-based company includes Cisco Quantum Lab, which focuses on quantum networking and quantum-safe networking — two areas that are central to the CQE partnership.
The CQE community is home to one of the nation’s longest quantum networks — 124 miles and growing. Cisco develops sub-systems and systems for quantum communications through Cisco Quantum Lab and is actively involved in designing and constructing a practical quantum network. Cisco Research actively seeks proposals from academic researchers in this space and more details can be found on their website.
The CQE is based at the University of Chicago and anchored by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Northwestern University, and Purdue University. The CQE includes about 50 corporate, international, nonprofit, and regional partners.
In Other News: “Quantum & AI can address complex grid problems”
Utility Drive has published an article by Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid and Allison Schwartz is global government relations and public affairs leader at D-Wave, a quantum computing company, who explain “The U.S. needs an expanded transmission system, with new well-planned regional and interregional transmission lines. Emerging technologies, including quantum and AI, can help ensure that an improved system is able to meet our evolving energy needs.”
Extreme weather events, the changing resource mix, rising customer demands and geopolitical conflicts are increasingly straining the U.S. electric grid and exerting profound and unpredictable effects on the cost of and demand for energy.
Solving transmission problems must be a multi-pronged approach. Together, quantum and AI could expeditiously and efficiently meet new challenges facing the grid, such as updating obsolete electricity infrastructure, efficiently integrating variable clean energy resources and deploying the lowest-cost energy source.
Meeting these new demands will require every tool and technology available — and quantum computing is an important part of the solution.
In Other News: “Physicists demo metro-area quantum computer network in Boston”
Harvard physicists used existing Boston-area telecommunication fiber in a demonstration of the world’s longest fiber distance between two quantum memory nodes to date according to May 17 SciTechDaily.
The project was led by Mikhail Lukin, the Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor in the Department of Physics, in collaboration with Harvard professors Marko Lončar and Hongkun Park, who are all members of the Harvard Quantum Initiative, alongside researchers at Amazon Web Services.
The Harvard team established the practical makings of the first quantum internet by entangling two quantum memory nodes separated by an optical fiber link deployed over a roughly 22-mile loop through Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, and Boston. The two nodes were located a floor apart in Harvard’s Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering.
In Other News: Interesting Engineering reports “China claims to shake off US sanction shackle, produces key quantum module”
China will replace imported quantum computer component with domestic product immediately after US sanctions according to multiple sources including South China Morning Post and Interesting Engineering.. Chinese research company Origin Quantum announced it has created a crucial ‘high-density microwave interconnect module’ domestically. The development of the high-density microwave interconnect module marks a significant step towards reducing China’s dependence on other countries and achieving self-reliance in quantum technology.
China’s self-sufficiency goal becomes even more relevant as the tech war with the West intensifies. The development of the high-density microwave interconnect module marks a significant step towards reducing China’s dependence on other countries and achieving self-reliance in quantum technology. This news came days after the US expanded sanctions against China, adding 22 leaders in quantum research to its export control list.
