Quantum Workforce Training Aiming at Fast-Moving Target
Key points…
+ What points to a much faster maturity cycle for QIS versus classical computing, Frantz [Terrill Frantz, Professor of eBusiness and Cybersecurity at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology] said, is all of the “serial” development that was required for the latter – including the laborious development of hardware and software. “In quantum, however … the hardware, the software, the workforce, even on the demand side of quantum computing and technologies … are all being developed in the same parallel,” he said.
“The main thing that we don’t want to get wrong … is have a mismatch of supply and demand,” Frantz said. “If we train people too early … people will find other things to do.” And that uncertain timeline, he said, makes it difficult for universities to ramp up QIS programs with confidence.
+ Speaking at the same event, NIST Deputy Director Carl Williams said QIS workforce training is also being helped by private-sector companies that are creating internal projects to target their own QIS demands. Those include companies in the finance and airline industries, he said.
+ QIS tech training, he said, may also evolve to focus on specific applications rather than the underlying science “where optimization is the key piece.” Under that scenario, people “don’t have to fully understand what is going on in the back end … but they do have to understand that something special is going on there.”
+ While the science underlying the still-nascent field of quantum information science (QIS) is well established, timelines for other key milestones in the development of QIS remain big question marks – with none bigger than the development of a QIS tech workforce that can meet increased demand for the technology in the coming years.
Source: MeriTALK. John Curran, Quantum Workforce Training Aiming at Fast-Moving Target…
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