QuantumCAT: a research and industry hub for accelerating quantum technologies
A consortium of researchers — led by the Catalan Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and including the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) — and industry partners in Catalonia joins forces to develop the Quantum Technologies Hub.
At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists were developing the “modern physics” of quantum mechanics, which would provide new tools to explore and understand nature and its behavior. Today, with a much better comprehension of how the quantum world works, the current generation of scientists and engineers are searching for new methods tocontrol and manipulate particles and quantum phenomena to launch a new generation of digital technologies, offering unprecedented capabilities.
This wave of novel and disruptive technologies soon will create a change of paradigm, especially in cybersecurity and communication privacy via a new Quantum Internet. Worldwide governments and industries are dedicating resources and effort, betting for this novel scientific and technological trend, which will soon become a reality. Catalonia is not staying behind; in fact, it is establishing the QuantumCAT Hub, which brings together scientists, experts, and industrial partners willing to invest in advanced quantum technologies.
Coordinated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), QuantumCAT includes leading research institutions in Catalonia– ICFO itself, the ICN2, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech (UPC), the University of Barcelona (UB), the Fundació i2CAT, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) –, and theInsititute of High Energy Physics (IFAE) and the National Center of Microelectronics (CNM) as collaborators. It also includes various companies, such as Metempsy, Volkswagen Group, MemComputing, VetGENOMICS, BcnInnova, Keysight Technologies, Quside, AIA Group, Everis, and Telefónica I + D, among others.
The QuantumCAT Hub will focus its efforts on four main technological areas:
- Quantum Communication & Cybersecurity: building a secure digital society and the future quantum internet, completely secure against eavesdroppers, and compatible with existing infrastructures.
- Quantum Computation: developing a cloud platform that allows remote users to have access to quantum variational processors.
- Quantum Simulation: bringing innovative simulations solutions to artificial intelligence and quantum chemistry, accessible to quantum technologies.
- Quantum Sensing & Metrology: developing ultraprecise devices for applications in machine learning, IoT, and geosurvey; creating smart and portable atomic sensors for magnetic resonance diagnostics.
QuantumCAT has the potential to transform the vast knowledge in quantum technologies in Catalonia into concrete results, with an important socio-economic impact in the medium and long term. The Hub aims to drive discoveries from the research lab to industrially viable implementations and applications, which will also promote lab techniques and facilitate community-wide dissemination, and to carry out outreach actions, such as networking events and workshops.
As Dr Morgan Mitchell, scientific coordinator of the initiative, comments, “This is a very exciting time for quantum technologies. In particular, the support that QuantumCAT is receiving from the community in Catalonia proves it. Those who have been working in this field for many years are delighted to see that policymakers are supporting the acceleration of these technologies towards the development of innovative and relevant applications for industry and society.”
Source: ICN2. ICN2, QuantumCAT: a research and industry hub for accelerating quantum technologies…
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