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Flashes of what may become a transformative new technology are coursing through a network of optic fibers under Chicago.

Researchers have created one of the worlds largest networks for sharing quantum information a field of science that depends on paradoxes so strange that Albert Einstein didnt believe them.

The network, which connects the University of Chicago with Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, is a rudimentary version of what scientists hope someday to become the internet of the future. For now, its opened up to businesses and researchers to test fundamentals of quantum information sharing.

The network was announced this week by the Chicago Quantum Exchange which also involves Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin.

People work in the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility, June 15, 2022, inside the William Eckhardt Research Center at the University of Chicago. The Chicago Quantum Exchange is expanding its quantum network to make it available to more researchers and companies. Quantum computing is a pioneering, secure format said to be hacker-proof and of possible use by banks, the health care industry, and others for secure communications. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

With a $500 million federal investment in recent years and $200 million from the state, Chicago, Urbana-Champaign, and Madison form a leading region for quantum information research.

Why does this matter to the average person? Because quantum information has the potential to help crack currently unsolvable problems, both threaten and protect private information, and lead to breakthroughs in agriculture, medicine and climate change.

While classical computing uses bits of information containing either a 1 or zero, quantum bits, or qubits, are like a coin flipped in the air they contain both a 1 and zero, to be determined once its observed.

That quality of being in two or more states at once, called superposition, is one of the many paradoxes of quantum mechanics how particles behave at the atomic and subatomic level. Its also a potentially crucial advantage, because it can handle exponentially more complex problems.

Another key aspect is the property of entanglement, in which qubits separated by great distances can still be correlated, so a measurement in one place reveals a measurement far away.

The newly expanded Chicago network, created in collaboration with Toshiba, distributes particles of light, called photons. Trying to intercept the photons destroys them and the information they contain making it far more difficult to hack.

The new network allows researchers to push the boundaries of what is currently possible, said University of Chicago professor David Awschalom, director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange.

Fourth-year graduate student Cyrus Zeledon, left, and postdoctoral student Leah Weiss, right, show senior undergraduate Tiarna Wise around one of the quantum science laboratories, June 15, 2022, inside the William Eckhardt Research Center at the University of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

However, researchers must solve many practical problems before large-scale quantum computing and networking are possible.

For instance, researchers at Argonne are working on creating a foundry where dependable qubits could be forged. One example is a diamond membrane with tiny pockets to hold and process qubits of information. Researchers at Argonne also have created a qubit by freezing neon to hold a single electron.

Because quantum phenomena are extremely sensitive to any disturbance, they might also be used as tiny sensors for medical or other applications but theyd also have to be made more durable.

The quantum network was launched at Argonne in 2020, but has now expanded to Hyde Park and opened for use by businesses and researchers to test new communication devices, security protocols and algorithms. Any venture that depends on secure information, such as banks financial records of hospital medical records, would potentially use such a system.

Quantum computers, while in development now, may someday be able to perform far more complex calculations than current computers, such as folding proteins, which could be useful in developing drugs to treat diseases such as Alzheimers.

In addition to driving research, the quantum field is stimulating economic development in the region. A hardware company, EeroQ, announced in January that its moving its headquarters to Chicago. Another local software company, Super.tech, was recently acquired, and several others are starting up in the region.

Because quantum computing could be used to hack into traditional encryption, it has also attracted the bipartisan attention of federal lawmakers. The National Quantum Initiative Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018 to accelerate quantum development for national security purposes.

In May, President Joe Biden directed federal agency to migrate to quantum-resistant cryptography on its most critical defense and intelligence systems.

Ironically, basic mathematical problems, such as 5+5=10, are somewhat difficult through quantum computing. Quantum information is likely to be used for high-end applications, while classical computing will likely continue to be practical for many daily uses.

Renowned physicist Einstein famously scoffed at the paradoxes and uncertainties of quantum mechanics, saying that God does not play dice with the universe. But quantum theories have been proven correct in applications from nuclear energy to MRIs.

Stephen Gray, senior scientist at Argonne, who works on algorithms to run on quantum computers, said quantum work is very difficult, and that no one understands it fully.

But there have been significant developments in the field over the past 30 years, leading to what some scientists jokingly called Quantum 2.0, with practical advances expected over the next decade.

Were betting in the next five to 10 years therell be a true quantum advantage (over classical computing), Gray said. Were not there yet. Some naysayers shake their canes and say its never going to happen. But were positive.

Just as early work on conventional computers eventually led to cellphones, its hard to predict where quantum research will lead, said Brian DeMarco, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who works with the Chicago Quantum Exchange.

Thats why its an exciting time, he said. The most important applications are yet to be discovered.

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com

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Chicago Quantum Exchange takes first steps toward a future that could revolutionize computing, medicine and cybersecurity - Chicago Tribune

While business leaders expect quantum computing to play a significant role in industry by 2030, some experts don't believe the tech is going to be ready for production deployment in the near future.

The findings, from a survey titled "2022 Quantum Readiness" commissioned by consultancy EY, refer to UK businesses, although it is likely that the conclusions are equally applicable to global organizations.

According to EY, 81 percent of senior UK executives expect quantum computing to have a significant impact in their industry within seven and a half years, with almost half (48 percent) believing that quantum technology will begin to transform industries as soon as 2025.

As for the naysayers who say quantum tech won't be ready for live deployment any time soon, the industry also suffers from a hype problem, with capabilities being exaggerated and even some accusations flying around of alleged falsification, as with the example of quantum startup IonQ that was recently accused by Scorpion Capital of misleading investors about the effectiveness of its quantum hardware.

Joseph Reger, Fujitsu Fellow, CTO of Central and Eastern Europe and Member of Quantum Computing Council of World Economic Forum, told The Register he is getting some "heat" for saying quantum is not nearly a thing yet.

"There are impressive advantages that pre-quantum or quantum-inspired technologies provide. They are less sexy, but very powerful."

He added: "Some companies are exaggerating the time scales. If quantum computing gets overhyped, we are likely to face the first quantum winter."

Fujitsu is itself developing quantum systems, and announced earlier this year that it was working to integrate quantum computing with traditional HPC technology. The company also unveiled a high performance quantum simulator based on its PRIMEHPC FX 700 systems that it said will serve as an important bridge towards the development of quantum computing applications in future.

Meanwhile, EY claims that respondents were "almost unanimous" in their belief that quantum computing will create a moderate or high level of disruption for their own organization, industry sector, and the broader economy in the next five years.

Despite this, the survey finds that strategic planning for quantum computing is still at an embryonic stage for most organizations, with only 33 percent involved in strategic planning for how quantum will affect them and only a quarter have appointed specialist leaders or set up pilot teams.

The survey conducted in February-March 2022 covered 501 UK-based executives, all with senior roles in their organisations, who had to demonstrate at least a moderate (but preferably a high) level of understanding of quantum computing. EY said they originally approached 1,516 executives, but only 501 met this requirement, which in and of itself tells a tale.

EY's Quantum Computing Leader, Piers Clinton-Tarestad, said the survey reveals a disconnect between the pace at which some industry leaders expect quantum to start affecting business and their preparedness for those impacts.

"Maximizing the potential of quantum technologies will require early planning to build responsive and adaptable organisational capabilities," he said, adding that this is a challenge because the progress of quantum has accelerated, but it is "not following a steady trajectory."

For example, companies with quantum processors have increased the power of their hardware dramatically over the past several years, from just a handful of qubits to over a hundred in the case of IBM, which expects to deliver a 4,158-qubit system by 2025. Yet despite these advances, quantum computers remain a curiosity, with most operational systems deployed in research laboratories or made available via a cloud service for developers to experiment with.

Clinton-Tarestad said "quantum readiness" is "not so much a gap to be assessed as a road to be walked," with the next steps in the process being regularly revisited as the landscape evolves. He warned businesses that expect to see disruption in their industry within the next three or five years need to act now.

According to EY's report, executives in consumer and retail markets are those most likely to believe that quantum will play a significant role by 2025, with just over half of technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) executives expecting an impact within the same time frame. Most respondents among health and life sciences companies think this is more likely to happen later, between 2026 and 2035.

Most organizations surveyed expect to start their quantum preparations within the next two years, with 72 percent aiming to start by 2024.

However, only a quarter of organizations have got as far as recruiting people with the necessary skills to lead quantum computing efforts, although 68 percent said they are aiming to set up pilot teams to explore the potential of quantum for their business by 2024.

Fear of falling behind because rival companies are working to develop their own quantum capabilities is driving some respondents to start quantum projects, while the applications of quantum computing anticipated by industry leaders would advance operations involving AI and machine learning, especially among financial services, automotive and manufacturing companies. TMT respondents cited potential applications in cryptography and encryption as being the most likely use of quantum computing.

While the EY report warns about companies potentially losing out to rivals on the benefits of quantum computing, there are also dangers that organizations should be preparing for now, as Intel warned about during its Intel Vision conference last month.

One of these is that quantum computers could be used to break current cryptographic algorithms, meaning that the confidentiality of both personal and enterprise data could be at risk. This is not a far-off threat, but something that organizations need to consider right now, according to Sridhar Iyengar, VP of Intel Labs and Director of Security and Privacy Research.

"Adversaries could be harvesting encrypted data right now, so that they can decrypt it later when quantum computers are available. This could be sensitive data, such as your social security number or health records, which are required to be protected for a long period of time," Iyengar told us.

Organizations may want to address threats like this by taking steps such as evaluating post-quantum cryptography algorithms and increasing the key sizes for current crypto algorithms like AES.

Or they may simply decide to adopt a wait and see attitude. EY will no doubt be on hand to sell consultancy services to help clarify their thinking.

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Businesses brace for quantum computing disruption by end of decade - The Register

In the hype-tastic world of quantum computing, consulting giant McKinsey & Company claims that the still-nascent field has the potential to create $80 billion in new revenue for businesses across industries.

It's a claim McKinsey has repeated nearly two dozen times on Twitter since March to promote its growing collection of research diving into various aspects of quantum computing, from startup and government funding to use cases and its potential impact on a range of industries.

The consulting giant believes this $80 billion figure represents the "value at stake" for quantum computing players but not the actual value that use cases could create [PDF]. This includes companies working in all aspects of quantum computing, from component makers to service providers.

Despite wildly optimistic numbers, McKinsey does ground the report in a few practical realities. For instance, in a Wednesday report, the firm says the hardware for quantum systems "remains too immature to enable a significant number of use cases," which, in turn, limits the "opportunities for fledgling software players." The authors add that this is likely one of the reasons why the rate of new quantum startups entering the market has begun to slow.

Even the top of McKinsey's page for quantum computing admits that capable systems won't be ready until 2030, which is in line with what various industry players, including Intel, are expecting. Like fusion, it's always a decade or so away.

McKinsey, like all companies navigating if quantum computing has any real-world value, is trying to walk a fine line, exploring the possibilities of quantum computing while showing the ways the tech is still disconnected from ordinary enterprise reality.

"While quantum computing promises to help businesses solve problems that are beyond the reach and speed of conventional high-performance computers, use cases are largely experimental and hypothetical at this early stage. Indeed, experts are still debating the most foundational topics for the field," McKinsey wrote in a December 2021 article about how use cases "are getting real."

One could argue the report is something of a metaphor for the quantum industry in 2022. Wildl optimism about future ecosystem profitability without really understanding what the tech will mean and to whom--and at what scale.

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McKinsey thinks quantum computing could create $80b in revenue ... eventually - The Register

Those in the field of quantum computing have long been working on pushing forward developing quantum processors, of course, but the prospect of quantum RAM just popped onto the scene, thanks to new research into so-called time crystals.

As Toms Hardware (opens in new tab), which spotted this, points out, the idea of time crystals is not a new one, and they were first theorized a decade ago by Frank Wilczek, a theoretical physicist who scooped a Nobel.

Then in 2016, two groups of scientists laid claim to creating the first time crystals, and now, in a new paper published via Nature (opens in new tab), researchers from the Aalto University in Finland have successfully experimented with a pair of coupled time crystals, and this could potentially point the way to the creation of quantum RAM as mentioned.

What exactly is a time crystal? Its a quantum system with particles in a periodic pattern of motion which repeats and is sustained in perpetuity, without burning or creating energy.

In other words, this is a system that achieves a stable state of motion without energy yet still obeys the laws of thermodynamics. Theres no work carried out in the system, or energy that can be tapped from it.

The researchers created their system of two coupled time crystals in helium-3 in a superfluid state (achieved by cooling to just a tiny amount above absolute zero), using a laser to create the time crystals (pumping energy into them).

In this experiment, the time crystals movement continued not indefinitely, but for almost 17 minutes, although that really is an absolute age in quantum computing (where coherence times are measured in milliseconds, and not even seconds let alone minutes).

And its long enough to prompt the speculation that time crystals could eventually be the key to unlocking the quantum computing equivalent of RAM, acting as a system with the potential for lasting storage that the quantum processor can access. Whats more, the researchers have also theorized that this system of coupled time crystals could be made to work at room temperature (rather than having to be cooled to very nearly absolute zero, as is the case with this experiment, which is not very practical of course).

In short, there seem decent prospects that this idea of quantum RAM made with time crystals could eventually see the light of day; although in reality, theres still a whole lot of road to travel down (and thats true enough about the broader world of quantum computers, of course).

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Never mind DDR5, quantum RAM could be a thing thanks to time crystals - TechRadar

Recent incidents of electric vehicle (EV) catching fire has shocked the Indian ecosystem and hindered the broad adoption of these vehicles. Before March of this year, there has been a substantial rise in the demand for electric vehicles and rapid advances in innovation and technology. Improvements in the battery technology, through increased efficiency and range, have made the EVs more accessible to the mass public, as the sector is currently dominated by two-wheelers and three-wheelers in India. According to Mordor Intelligence, Indias electric vehicle market was valued at $1.4 trillion in 2021, and it is expected to reach $15.4 trillion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 47.09% over the forecast period (2022-2027). Since March, the challenge in EV has shifted from affordability, charging, and range anxiety to safety. Safety has been of prime importance and an EV catching fire has led to dire consequences and even fatal.

The question is, why is this happening?

A report by the Defence Research and Development Organisations (DRDO) Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety points it to the EV batteries. The issues highlighted includes poor quality cells, lack of fuse, issues with thermal management, and battery management system (BMS).

The highlighted issues cause the batteries to experience Thermal Runaway problem, leading to the fires. This phenomenon occurs when an increase in temperature changes the conditions in a manner that causes further increase in temperature, often leading to a destructive result. The issue highlighted by the DRDO report are all potential causes of thermal runaway. Lets explain why.

Local atmospheric temperature directly affects the operating temperature of battery. For efficient performance, batterys operating temperature should be around 20-35 C. To keep the battery at this temperature, EVs need battery thermal management system (BTMS). Now, with rising temperatures in our cities, the BTMS are being challenged and possibly due to the poor thermal management system of EV batteries, thermal runaway is being caused.

Another cause for the thermal runaway, is possibly due to the rapid battery charging. With the evolution of battery technology, charging technology is also advancing. While the fast charging can greatly improve the convenience of EVs, it increases the risks related to batteries. Fast charging an EV can overheat the battery system, enough to melt the electrical wires and cause short circuits, leading to explosive consequences, as already seen by several charging-related incidents.

While hot weather conditions and inadequate thermal management systems of the battery can negatively impact performance and shorten life, they alone cannot cause thermal runaway. As mentioned by DRDO report, inefficient, or even absence of, fuse as a fail-safe mechanism is a missing component causing thermal runaway.

The causes of thermal runaway highlighted above could be due to either inefficient design or not enough testing by EV manufacturers. But the manufacturers cannot spend more time on increased testing due to time-to-market constraints.

Whats the solution?

As stated, design and testing phase are very important phases of any product manufacturing. Since the era of industry 4.0, all design and testing have moved digitally and carried out on large-scale powerful computers through what is called Engineering Simulations (referred to as Simulations hereafter). Simulations can be of various types some of which are thermal (studying the effect of heat and temperature on object), structural (studying effect of objects strength, stress, and failure), fluid (studying effect of flow in and around an object), and electrochemical (studying effect of chemistry on electricity). Thermal runaway is a complex engineering problem, entailing all the types of simulations mentioned above. With the right simulation tools, simulations allow to mimic every possible physical condition, rising temperature, fast charging, or fuse placement and find areas of problem. After identifying, it can also aid in testing different solutions and hence avoid thermal runaway all together.

The question then becomes why are we seeing the news at all?

Biggest issue EV manufactures have with performing numerous simulations is the duration of time. To run a series of simulations, it can take months to obtain results with minimal flaws and defects (high accuracy simulations). Manufacturers cannot afford this as it greatly hampers the time to market. Thus, companies opt for simulations that can provide solutions but with several minor flaws and defects (low accuracy simulations) to them, leading to large mishaps like EV explosions, system failures, and affecting human lives. In addition, if the companies do find some time to perform these simulations with minimum flaws and defects (high accuracy simulations), the cost that manufacturers incur is very high due to the need for supercomputers whether on-premises (setup and maintenance cost) or on cloud (due high duration time of the computing).

So the real issue is the computing technology bottleneck. This is where the next-generation computing technology of Quantum computers can step in and revolutionize the industries like EV and Battery Design. This new technology is much more powerful, enabling exponential abilities to these industries.

Prospect of Quantum-powered simulations

The power Quantum computers is showcased by its ability to perform the same simulations in much less time compared to classical supercomputers. Hence, this technology can significantly help EV manufacturers in their time to market.

Moreover, the ability to obtain high accuracy from simulations is vital in using them in the product development process. Since high accuracy simulations took lot of time before, making them prohibitive, quantum-powered simulations can now enable the manufacturers to perform accurate simulations at reasonable time, in hours instead of months. Added accuracy will not only help companies create more efficient designs and improve the reliability of their vehicles, but also help in saving something invaluable, i.e., Lives. In addition, the speedup from Quantum computations enables lower computing usages, decreasing the overall cost and making it affordable for EV manufacturers.

Whats next?

In the computing sphere, Quantum Computing is the revolutionizing system, changing our understanding of computations and shows tremendous potential as shown by various use cases. While the prospect of Quantum-powered simulations offers the advantage of Better, Faster, and Cheaper, the development is very challenging as the Quantum computers work in entirely different ways.

Good news is that companies are already developing & building Quantum-powered simulation software, which can solve problems of thermal runaway and optimization of BTMS. Quantum Computing is here and now!

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Quantum computing can solve EVs safety woes - Times of India