UTSA to co-host Quantum Collaborative Summit Dec. 12-13 at San Pedro I

DECEMBER 6, 2023 — UTSA, in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), will co-host the 2023 Quantum Collaborative Summit at San Pedro I on Tuesday, December 12 and Wednesday, 13. The Quantum Collaborative meets annually and is comprised of UTSA along with other world-class academic, research and industry professionals.

The summit represents a unique opportunity for quantum science experts to connect and discuss emerging quantum technologies. This event will feature presentations and interactive breakout sessions held over a day and a half to address the latest research and cutting-edge scientific practices while also engaging in promising new areas for collaborative development in the year ahead.

“The Quantum Collaborative Summit represents a unique opportunity for our members from around the country to secure a competitive advantage in their field by teaming up with fellow members from academic institutions, national laboratories, industry, and non-profits to develop pilot projects and other early concepts they can carry into larger proposals for federal and other major funding,” said Sean Dudley, executive director of the Quantum Collaborative.

“We are excited to be part of the Quantum Collaboration and co-host their first summit meeting.”

The summit will include attendees from peer academic institutions such as Purdue University, Tec de Monterrey Virginia Tech and others, researchers from national laboratories and industry partners, such as IBM, Dell Technologies and Cisco. Attendees will have opportunities to network and collaborate. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of dollars in seed funding, made possible through Quantum Collaborative partnership agreements, will be awarded in the weeks following the event.

Approximately 125 people will attend to ensure working sessions are focused and to allow everyone a chance to win a portion of the seed funding.

“This opportunity to secure seed funding for preliminary work is exclusive to our members,” said Dudley. “Attendees joining the Summit get to walk in knowing well more than half of them will be awarded through the event’s competition.

One new and notable emerging quantum technology is quantum computers. They have the potential to solve complex problems faster than state-of-the-art supercomputers, because unlike traditional computers which operate on bits (0s and 1s that represent on and off switches), quantum computers utilize qubits which are capable of being on, off, or some combination of both with a certain probability of being on and being off. This could allow quantum computers to exponentially reduce the time required to solve challenging problems.

Researchers are already exploring quantum computers for several industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to electric-vehicle manufacturers for chemical simulations related to drug and battery development. Additionally, quantum computing could drive the development of artificial intelligence, which relies on processing large amounts of complex datasets to create new algorithms that will allow for learning, reasoning and understanding.

Another quantum technology that holds significant promise is quantum communication, which researchers and organizations are using to establish extremely secure communication networks.

Quantum communication has the potential to mitigate threats posed by cyberattacks and better protect sensitive digital information through encryption methods that rely on qubits and their unique ability to be in two states at once. Development and implementation of quantum communication techniques is vital to the future of the public Internet as well as national security.

A third area of general interest is quantum sensing. Such sensors exploit the fundamental properties of atoms and light. Unlike quantum computers and communication, sensors that exploit quantum properties are already making a significant impact in a broad range of fields from mineral resource exploration to advanced manufacturing to neuroscience.

UTSA faculty members have already begun to incorporate quantum information concepts in their research and courses in computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mathematics and physics.

Since 2020, these faculty members have been meeting regularly under the umbrella of the quantum information science and engineering research interest group (QISE RIG) sponsored by the UTSA Office of Research.

A certificate in quantum information concepts is currently under development, for tentative launch in Fall 2024, and discussions regarding a master’s degree program have begun. To support these initiatives, UTSA has started to specifically recruit faculty with expertise in these areas.

“Expanding training and research in quantum information science and engineering topics is considered a national priority, with a rapid growing investment by federal agencies as well as private industry,” said David Silva, dean of the UTSA College of Sciences. “UTSA is in an excellent position to be a national leader in workforce development and education as well as such key areas as cryptosecurity, materials science, and drug discovery in the quantum era. We are excited to be part of the Quantum Collaboration and co-host their first summit meeting.”

The Quantum Collaborative is a nationwide collaboration powered by the State of Arizona and its partners. The collaboration seeks to connect top scientific programs, initiatives and facilities with leading Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) talent and prominent industry partners to advance the science and engineering of quantum information science, train the quantum workforce of tomorrow and drive U.S. quantum economic advantage.

— Ryan Schoensee