What’s up at QED-C? 2020 Year in review and looking ahead

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QED-C has made great strides since our founding in 2018.  Looking back over the last year alone, the consortium has built a solid foundation and embraced numerous activities and projects with a goal to enable and grow the quantum industry and its supply chain.  In 2020, QED-C released its fee-based membership agreement, signaling the next phase of the organization, and enrolled 134 founding members.

  • To date, more than 150 corporations—from large multinationals to early-stage startups, academic institutions, national laboratories and other entities have signed our membership agreement.
  • In 2020, four QIST (Quantum Information Science and Technology) workshops were held on topics including cryogenic technologies, understanding materials-based sources of loss in superconducting qubits, quantum-enabling laser technologies, and electronics and RF/microwave controls for quantum systems.
  • The technical advisory committees (TACs) have been busy. Examples of the TAC activities and accomplishments include:
    • The Use Case TAC, with support from Google, sponsored a baseline assessment of the quantum computing market.
    • The Enabling Technology TAC oversaw the workshops listed above.
    • The Standards TAC launched a project to implement a suite of algorithms to serve as “proto benchmarks” of quantum computing performance.
    • The Workforce TAC undertook a survey to identify jobs that the industry will fill in the next five years, as well as the associated skills, knowledge and degrees for each.
    • The Quantum for National Security TAC was launched in mid-2020 and is focusing initial efforts on enabling technologies related to quantum positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).

Looking ahead, much more is on the way. Our activities are driven by our members’ needs. This year’s focuses include:

  • Quantum research projects are being launched, first focusing on advancing cryo technologies.
  • A model and tool for prioritizing laser technologies based on technical risk and market potential is in development.
  • A program to expand research use of quantum computing resources in partnership with government, which is already taking shape.
  • 2021 workshops are planned on intermediate representation requirements, photon sources and detectors, quantum network infrastructure, quantum PNT technologies and more.
  • Identifying approaches to accelerate development of a quantum workforce pipeline and enhance workforce diversity are being explored.

QED-C members get many benefits, including online access to information. On the member website you can find:

  • Contacts at each member organization
  • Information about funding opportunities
  • A database of students interested in internships or full-time employment
  • Presentations and reports from meetings and workshops
  • Reports on a variety of subjects

And we’re launching the QED-C blog—some will be public and some for members only. Here, we will post short pieces on topics of interest—for example, summarizing lengthier QED-C reports, recent or upcoming happenings, or updating progress and trends in quantum-related areas. We hope you enjoy them.

And remember, you can follow us on Twitter @The_QEDC.

Here’s to a very quantum 2021!

Celia Merzbacher

QED-C Deputy Director