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Anta Lamas, physicist: In a few years, quantum computing will simply be another programming language – EL PAS USA

Anta Lamas Linares in Austin, Texas where Amazon Web Services has a technology complex.AWS

Anta Lamas Linares, 47, was born in Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain. There she studied physics before going on to study at Oxford University and in California. Later she ended up in Singapore, leading the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Center for Quantum Networking.

In recent years she has dedicated herself to quantum computing, a field of study that is still in its infancy but promises to deliver unimaginable computational power (see box below).

Question. What is Amazon Web Services (AWS) doing in the race for quantum computing?

Answer. Since 2019, weve had a service called Amazon Braket. It allows anyone to submit a program and run it on a quantum computer in the cloud. Were also building a quantum computer at the Caltech (California Institute of Technology) campus. The latest initiative we have in the area of quantum information is the Boston-based center for quantum networks (the AWS Center for Quantum Networking).

Q. What network are you responsible for at AWS?

A. Were building the elements that allow quantum computers to be connected, kind of like a repeater to connect them over a long distance, or the quantum memories that are needed in the intermediate components. We develop the necessary hardware and software for when quantum computers will be up and running.

Q. Why is AWS entering this sector?

A. We believe theres a lot of potential in quantum technology. Amazon always thinks about whats going to be useful for its customers, even if its in the long-term. Computing, networking and other types of quantum technologies are expected to be very important in the future. Its basically an extension of the processors that do high performance computing, but in certain areas, its even more powerful. Quantum networks have immediate security implications and will eventually allow quantum computers to be connected to expand their capacity. Quantum networks will allow us to implement amazing capabilities

Q. Is a quantum internet possible?

A. Thats what were hoping for. It will be [possible] when all the capabilities of the quantum network are available. But there are several intermediate stages. The first [consists of] security and cryptography. Later, these networks will allow us to implement amazing capabilities, such as blind quantum computing, which basically [ensures that] no one can see what program youre running or see the results. In this way, if youre connected to the quantum computer with a quantum network, youre able to do the whole operation in a completely private way. But all this has many intermediate steps: we must have a quantum computer capable of doing these computations. At the moment, this doesnt exist. The [computers] that exist now are very basic; that is, they dont have many qubits and have a number of errors that dont allow several operations to be carried out in a row.

Q. What are the [quantum computers] available on AWS being used for?

A. There are several categories of users: a large part are academic researchers testing programs and comparing how they run on an ion-based quantum computer, or on a superconductor-based quantum computer. Then theres another group made up of researchers in the industry. For example, BMW uses [the computers] to optimize processes for a problem they could solve with supercomputers, but they reduce that problem to a simpler version and explore and learn.

Q. When will there be a robust and error-tolerant quantum computer?

A. We believe that, in 10 years, there will be quantum computers with interesting capabilities, but the possibility of error in that prediction is enormous. We may have a discovery tomorrow and speed it up by five years, or run into a roadblock that slows it down. In parallel, were developing the infrastructure to connect [the quantum computers] to each other and to the user. When we have that quantum network, all those capabilities that are now purely theoretical will be enabled.

Q. Will quantum computing ever be accessible without quantum knowledge?

A. Almost certainly, yes. If you think about how classical computing developed, early on, programmers had to understand circuitry. Now, in quantum computing, were still in that period the programmers are often physicists who know whats behind it. But in a few years, all of that will be just another programming language. Its still unknown what exactly the impact of quantum computing will be. Not all the possibilities are understood, nor is the effect of the intersection with artificial intelligence. In 1943, the president of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, said that he believed there was a market for five computers in the world. And now, as you can see, we all have a computer in our pocket. Companies like Amazon and others see the quantum potential, although we all recognize that this will be in the long-term.

Q. The technology world is suffering a wave of job cuts. Will this affect the development of quantum computing?

A. Investments in quantum technology are very long-term. Thats not to say that were immune to the general macroeconomic situation.

In conventional computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. A bit is binary in that it can only have one of two values: 0 or 1. Combinations of bits can provide computers with extraordinary capabilities, but in quantum computing, the basic unit is the quantum bit, or qubit. Its a quantum system that can have one of two states (0 and 1), or any superposition of these states. Superposition is the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time until it is measured. The use of qubits allows trillions of bit combinations and therefore infinite computing possibilities. According to CSIC researcher Alberto Casas, A quantum computer of 273 qubits will have more memory than there are atoms in the observable universe.

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URI to announce quantum computing initiative at April 14 symposium – University of Rhode Island

WHAT: As part of World Quantum Day, April 14, the University of Rhode Island will announce a new quantum computing initiative that will bolster research, student education and future workforce development in the growing field of quantum computing. Supported by $1 million in directed federal funds secured by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, the initiative includes a vital research partnership with IBM that will provide URI faculty and students access to IBMs cutting-edge quantum computing systems. The initiative will bring visiting faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students to the University in support of URIs masters degree and graduate certificate programs in quantum computing, while also launching additional outreach and summer research opportunities that attract the next generation of students. While in its infancy, quantum computing promises to revolutionize the way information is processed, performing calculations that even todays largest computers cant handle. Today, there are only a limited number of working quantum computers in the world, making URIs collaboration with IBM that much more important to student education and faculty research.

WHO: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed; Adele Merritt, intelligence community chief information officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; URI President Marc Parlange; Dean Jeannette Riley, College of Arts and Sciences; and Professor Leonard Kahn, chair of the URI Department of Physics.

WHEN: Friday, April 14, 1 to 1:30 p.m. (Speaking program)

WHERE: East Hall, 2 Lippitt Road. (Presentation will be on front steps of East Hall, facing the historic quadrangle.)

AN AFTERNOON OF EVENTS: A World Quantum Day symposium will run from noon to 5:30 p.m. in East Hall at URI, featuring prominent speakers from the quantum computing world. Speakers include alumnus Christopher Savoie, co-founder and chief executive officer of Zapata Computing; Christopher Lirakis, lead for quantum systems deployment at IBM; Charles Robinson, quantum computing public sector leader at IBM; Kurt Jacobs, deputy chief scientist at the Army Research Laboratory; Pedro Lopes, business developer at the computing firm QuEra; and Juan Rivera, senior engineer at Dell Computing and president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Club in Rhode Island. URI alumna Merritt will deliver the keynote address at 4:30.

TO MAKE COVERAGE ARRANGEMENTS: Contact Anthony LaRoche, URI Communications and Marketing, 401-874-4894, cell 401-837-8275, anthony_laroche@uri.edu.

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Podcast with Nir Minerbi, co-founder and CEO of Classiq – Quantum Computing Report

Transcript

Yuval Boger: Hello, Nir. And thank you for joining me today.

Nir Minerbi: Hey, Yuval. Its fantastic to be here.

Yuval: Its great to have you. So who are you, and what do you do?

Nir: So my name is Nir Minerbi. I live in Israel in Tel Aviv, a physicist by training. And for the past three years, Im a co-founder and the CEO at Classiq, a quantum software company. And we are pretty busy in making quantum software scalable, reachable for everyone, and an industrial tool rather than a scientific toy.

Yuval: Could you elaborate on that? What does scalable and reachable mean for Classiq?

Nir: Sure. So one of the fun things about quantum computing is, on the one hand, there is a lot of momentum and many large players working on every aspect of the stack, software, and hardware. But its very early, and many of the things that we take for granted in the classical stack are not available in the quantum stack.

So basically, when you want to develop software for quantum computers these days, you are limited. You are limited to developing software at the gate level. You really need to specify what quantum gate and building blocks to apply on each qubit. And thats pretty much impossible, both obviously for non-quantum experts but also for quantum experts.

It would be very challenging to find someone that can really develop software for more than 20, 30, 40 qubits, while industrial quantum software eventually will be on hundreds, thousands, millions of qubits. So what Classiq brings to this world is automation, design automation methods, and tools that were developed in the classical stack for 60 years.

This is what we bring to the quantum stack. And by bringing these methods of operating systems and compilers and high-level modeling, we allow quantum software to be much closer to classical software, more abstract, more scalable. It means that when you let automation do the hard work of gate-level design, so you can easily design circuits for many, many qubits.

We do that all the time. And also, this is really interesting, it allows you to be much, much more optimized than could be achieved otherwise in a manual way. So this is, in a sense, what we do. But eventually, this is a software platform that allows users to develop quantum software and applications. This is what we do.

Yuval: Many people today that develop quantum software use Qiskit. So do you see Qiskit at a different layer? Do you see Qiskit going away if Classiq continues to catch fire?

Nir: Yeah, great question. So Qiskit is a very good platform for gate-level design. Its Python, its convenient. And if you know pretty well what quantum gates to apply on each qubit and you know how to design the circuit, Qiskit is probably the best platform to do that.

The problem is its pretty much not scalable. It would be impossible to design complex circuits with Qiskit. And also, by the way, non-complex circuits in an optimized way. Because when you do that in these levels of abstraction, you need to take care of many design considerations like connectivity of the qubit and uncomputation of some blocks and so on and so on and so on.

And we are not replacing Qiskit, we are just one layer on top of Qiskit. Actually, Qiskit is one of our outputs, obviously, when we integrate on top of IBM and on top of other quantum clouds. So I see it more as the natural maturing of the quantum stack rather than replacing Qiskit.

Yuval: Abstraction layers always sound good, but people sometimes worry that you lose efficiency because the more you try to make something very general, the less and less it becomes hardware-specific. And so we see, for instance, hardware vendors today that try to be full-stack vendors.

They say, We wrote chemistry software that works particularly well on our hardware. Does that mean that Classiq could be used effectively today? Or are you more looking into the future and saying, Well, in two years, when therell be more qubits and more machines, this is where you really see the benefit of using the Classiq platform?

Nir: Sure. So, of course, the product, like I think everything in quantum computing, is dedicated for the next generations of quantum computers that could actually bring value. So the product was designed for creating complex circuits with many qubits with deep functionality.

On the other hand, and this is really the fun thing when we work with customers today, is pretty much in every use case, and I can give several examples, the platform, the automation really brings much better results, more compact circuits, fewer qubits compared to Qiskit and compared to any other software platform.

And this is because when you start from the model level, you leave automation much larger room for optimization. With Qiskit and with other software platforms, you have compilation. Compilation is automatic, you will never compile circuits manually. But the compiler is very limited because you give it a quantum circuit, its unaware of its functionality.

So, of course, if there are two H gates in a row, it will know what it should do with it. But if a qubit is an auxiliary qubit or not, if a block is used for this and that functionalities, its unaware. And when you create a model with the Classiq platform, so the synthesis engine is aware of what your functional desires and also what are the hardware constraints. So automatically, it can really generate much, much better results.

Yuval: Who are the target users for the Classiq platform? And when you work with commercial customers, what does this look like? Do they just get access to the software, and thats it? Or is there a significant service component? What does a project look like?

Nir: Great question. So basically, our target users and customers is everyone that wants to develop now or in the future applications for quantum computers. Today, obviously, there are several focus areas. One of them is working directly with enterprise customers with large banks, pharma companies, automotive and so on and so on. And there, you will find two groups. One is working with quantum teams of quantum experts. The other group is teams that have no experience in quantum computing whatsoever.

They are machine learning teams, software teams, and they are using the platform to onboard into quantum computing in the most easy and abstract way. And Ill elaborate on that in a minute. Another sector is service providers. We work with many of them as the platform of choice. So when they educate enterprises on quantum computing projects, they will do that with our platform.

And another sector, which is very important for us is academia, both for education and for research. So these are very different sectors, but all have the very same goal to develop sophisticated, complex, optimized circuits to run them on various back-ends. We are integrated on top of AWS Braket, Azure Quantum, IBM, and also directly with IonQ and other machines. So this is an end-to-end software platform that fits the needs of most users today.

Yuval: Well get back to the academia in a little bit. But since you mentioned working with customers, I wanted to ask you, is there an example you can give me, maybe a customer that youre particularly proud of the work? I dont know if you can mention the name, but at least the type of work and what the customer was able to achieve with the Classiq platform.

Nir: Yeah, definitely. So one of the customers I really appreciate is Rolls-Royce. The Rolls-Royce team is built of quantum experts, actually. And they are dealing with a very interesting problem, which is CFD. CFD is a computational fluid dynamic simulation. Is really a problem that pushes the boundaries of classical computing to the limit.

HPCs just choke with the size of the magnitude of the problem. And obviously, quantum computers, specifically with the HHL algorithm, bring a lot of hope to solve this problem in a much more efficient way. And what this team created with the platform is pretty much something that wasnt created so far.

And this is a full-scale implementation of the HHL algorithm from a functional model all the way to executable code. That was very, very impressive. And this is one type of customer that knows exactly what they want to achieve. They understand that creating real proficiency and assets in quantum computing is not something that you can do in two weeks of POC. It takes time.

And another type of customer, actually its more of a partner, HPE, also an investor. We are building together the quantum stack for HPC users. And part of the process is to onboard their team into our platform, into quantum computing. And there you see another type of users that are leading experts in their field but not in quantum computing yet.

So they use the platform in various use cases and algorithms in order to onboard into this field in the most easy and abstract way. So these are two different examples. But I think both are showing the strengths of abstraction, automation, and optimization in quantum software.

Yuval: I think that Classiq recently launched an academic version, and I think the rationale is probably people go to universities, and they learn about quantum, and then they go into the workplace. So why not catch them when theyre young and teach them how to use the Classiq platform? What does the academic edition look like? What does it mean for a student or a professor that is dealing with quantum?

Nir: Sure. So first, this is the same product, the same platform of course, that enterprise use. And what we decided to do, of course, and in this case, its in a deep partnership with Microsoft, is to launch a global academic program that is dedicated to bringing the most advanced quantum stack, our platform, on top of Azure Quantum and other back-ends of course to researchers and educators.

So indeed, the platform is already used in quite a few quantum computing courses teaching computer scientists, physicists, and other sectors to develop software for quantum computers. And the other sector is quite different, is using the platform for research. And there, its fascinating. You see so many different research aspects conveyed on the platform.

One researcher will want to develop large-scale quantum circuits, for example, the full implementation of Shors algorithm, which sounds familiar. We all know Shors algorithm. But I will be very surprised if you find someone that can actually develop executable code of this algorithm without automation.

So this is one kind of researchers. And the other kind of researchers, for example, they will want to optimize a small quantum circuit for a specific IonQ device in order to gain as much signal out of the noise. So these are really different use cases, but we support both kinds, which is nice. And, of course, for us as a company becoming the industry standard, part of that is becoming the economic standard. But its more than that.

I think its a good goal, and this is a good mean of advancing this quantum industry. I think, Yuval, you wrote several times about the shortage of talent, and we all feel that. And eventually, maybe not next year, maybe in a few years, but the world will need many, many more quantum software engineers. One way to do that is, of course, bringing more courses to the world. But the other way to do that is bringing to these people the optimal software stack for learning and researching.

Yuval: I wanted to ask for your read on the capital markets. We see that some quantum companies are laying off people. We see that the stock price of public companies has taken a dip. Some budgets seem to be moving from quantum to AI. Everything that has GPT in it is getting a lot of attention these days. How do you see it from your side, from the vendor side, the capital markets, and the interest of companies to invest in quantum?

Nir: So I think there are two types of quantum investors. And also, by the way, two types of enterprise quantum budgets. But lets focus on investors. One type, this is the type we are working with. And this is the type that understands the real value of quantum computing, understands that its a long play, its creating a new industry, a new era in computing, and the opportunity is huge.

You can really create the next Microsoft, the next Google, the next Intel in a new computing field, but it will take time. So if you invest in a quantum company, and after two months, you ask, Whats your ARR? You dont really understand the field because its in research; its not in production. So these types of investors are still super interested. We have seen some very impressive quantum investments in actually the last couple of weeks, of months.

The other type of investors are investors who are more affected by the hype. And, of course, there is hype. And I think we suffer from the hype. Its not good for the industry, its not good for anyone. But obviously, this source of money is now off. And obviously, the companies that were lucky and unlucky enough to be public are feeling it more than anyone.

But I think if you take a look at a company like IonQ, obviously the share price is important. But whats really important is they have a lot of money and a very good vision to develop quantum computers. And this is something that no one could take away from them. So I dont think that someone should invest in quantum to see ROI this year or next year. But in order to create the next giants of computing, this is pretty much a good investment still.

Yuval: Classiq is an important player but is just one player in the industry. And there are other, of course, hardware vendors, and you mentioned HPC providers and other types of companies. What would you like to see the industry doing more of that perhaps its not doing enough today, in your opinion.

Nir: I think we should all do this shift, a mind shift, at least from a very early stage exploration with very vague KPIs towards production. And it really doesnt mean that well see any quantum production soon. It will take time, maybe a short time, maybe a long time. But when you create quantum readiness within the enterprise, the goal shouldnt be to do some nice PR to design five qubit circuits and to run them on some machine and be happy about it.

The goal is to be ready. To be ready with the team, with the assets, with the IP, with the proficiency. And I think we see that more and more. And I think what I want to see, obviously Well, its easy, I want to see hardware vendors moving forward toward large-scale machines with less noise and more accuracy. So thats easy. But I think this attitude that we see more and more in the industry, this is what is really needed. And this is pretty much it, I think.

Yuval: As we get closer to the end of our conversation, I wanted to get back to the HPC, the high-performance computing part. Many algorithms are hybrid algorithms, variational algorithms, or machine learning that have a quantum piece and a classical piece. Do you think theres a missing link, an orchestration layer, or someone that pulls together both the classical part and the quantum part? Or do you think thats already covered by existing companies and platforms?

Nir: Definitely, there is a missing link, and we see more and more focus on it. By the way, its not only hybrid execution. Execution itself, many companies think or say they have integration with quantum clouds. But when youre actually trying to build this deep integration, the ability to design a quantum circuit and to seamlessly execute it and get meaningful results via quantum cloud or indirect integration, thats complex.

When you try to do that in a hybrid way, it gets even more complex. So I think we see more and more companies where IBM and HPE and AWS and Dell and others leaning towards this hybrid approach. And HPC is part of that. We see more and more HPC centers acquiring quantum computers, developing hybrid algorithms.

And, of course, for us as a company, that creates the standard in quantum software. So this is a great focus area, and this is the reason we are very privileged to be working with HPE. So I think there is a missing link, but there is enough time and focus to close it.

Yuval: And a hypothetical question, so if you could have dinner with one of the quantum greats, dead or alive, who would that person or those people be?

Nir: Well, Im not very creative in general, but I wont be very creative here as well. I would choose Feynman. I think what would interest me is to ask him. Im sure there is going to be a very nice dinner. But what I would like to hear from him is we all like to quote him and say that the original motivation for quantum computing was simulating nature.

And, of course, we see progress there, but we also see more and more algorithms in very different fields. I would really love to dive deep with him on what he sees as the optimal way to simulate nature with quantum computers. There are many good directions, but not a very good solution or answer. So that would be really interesting.

Yuval: And last, Nir, what kind of people would you like to contact you? What kind of partners are you interested in hearing from after this podcast?

Nir: I think anyone within the industry or outside the industry that is willing to take part in this exciting field. So I hope to be reachable. And please contact me over LinkedIn, email, or anything like that. That would be my pleasure.

Yuval: Excellent. Nir, thank you so much for joining me today.

Nir: Thank you so much, Yuval.

Yuval Boger is an executive working at the intersection of quantum technology and business. Known as the Superposition Guy as well as the original Qubit Guy, he can be reached on LinkedIn or at this email.

April 10, 2023

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The quantum revolution: The way the world is – Financial Times

This is an audio transcript of the Tech Tonic podcast: The quantum revolution: The way the world is

Madhumita Murgia By this point in our series on quantum technology, it should be pretty clear that when you travel into the realm of the very, very, very small, the subatomic level, things get pretty weird. Our common sense understanding of reality becomes warped and breaks down. Things are not as they seem, but weve kept one of the weirdest examples of quantum technology, the most mind-bending and confounding one to last. In this, our final episode in the series. So here goes.

It starts in Austria, early 2000s. Picture a bunch of seven or eight scientists at work in the dark on the shores of Viennas famous river.

Anton Zeilinger We were standing there on the banks of the river Danube during the night, and during the experiment that was kind of really fun, really nice.

Madhumita Murgia Thats the Austrian physicist, Anton Zeilinger, and I wanted to speak to him about this experiment because its really fascinating. Its an experiment that helped him win last years Nobel Prize in physics. An experiment in teleportation.

Anton Zeilinger You have a photon that you want to teleport, so you prepare it in a quantum state, and then you have a (inaudible) entangled state where one of them is kept by you, the sender, and the other one is sent across the river.

Madhumita Murgia Zeilinger was using the phenomenon known as quantum entanglement to transmit information from a particle on one side of the river to another particle on the other side of the river.

Anton Zeilinger The idea is that you transfer a quantum state of one photon or any other particle for that matter, or in principle, any distance using entanglement because the original loses its properties and the teleported one is completely identical with the original.

Madhumita Murgia When two quantum particles are entangled, they create a kind of spooky communication bridge between them. And using this bridge, Zeilinger was able to take the information about one particle, send it across the bridge, and construct a new particle carrying that information on the other side of the river. He was effectively teleporting the particle across the Danube, which makes it sound pretty dramatic, right? But this is actually one of many experiments that have demonstrated what is known as quantum teleportation. And you can do it over really large distances.

Anton Zeilinger The farthest we have teleported was between two islands, La Palma and Tenerife. Its a distance of 150 kilometres. Our Chinese friends have teleported quantum state from a ground station up to a satellite. So this is certainly farther than what we did.

Madhumita Murgia Bouncing information around between quantum particles like this is a perfect example of how our understanding of quantum physics is helping us develop new quantum technology. Because this kind of quantum teleportation is the basis for what could become a quantum internet.

Anton Zeilinger You could actually teleport the output of one quantum computer to the input of another quantum computer. And that is much better than just sending the normal information in bits and so on. Because you are not restricted by zero and one.

Madhumita Murgia A quantum internet could transmit information in quantum states rather than the zeroes and ones of classical computers. That could connect quantum computers together to create an ultra-secure, ultra-powerful communications system. But Zeilinger says the potential for this quantum teleportation doesnt stop at building a new internet. Things could get even stranger.

Do you ever see this happening on a larger scale, larger-scale object?

Anton Zeilinger For a large object, I suppose for molecules, et cetera, this can be done. If you ask about really big objects, amoeba for example or a virus, then this is a big challenge and I think it will happen someday. But nobody knows when.

Madhumita Murgia What Zeilinger is saying here that were on track to teleporting actual living organisms. Its kind of incredible. But no matter how counterintuitive all of this sounds, quantum technology like this is possible. Because at the fundamental level, this is how the universe really works.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

This is Tech Tonic from the Financial Times. Im Madhumita Murgia.

John Thornhill And Im John Thornhill. This season of the podcast is about the quantum revolution. Were asking if technology powered by quantum physics is going to change the world. Throughout this series, weve been looking at how quantum technology could have real-world applications, how quantum computers could help us do things we used to think were impossible and upend whole industries.

Madhumita Murgia But inevitably, weve also been thinking about the weirdness of quantum technology, how its based on a physics that no one fully understands and what it tells us about the world around us and the nature of reality.

Quantum technology holds a lot of promise. There are plans for quantum computers, quantum sensors and a quantum communications network. But some people think we should spend a bit less time thinking about the success of quantum technologies and a bit more time thinking about what quantum tech tells us about the true nature of our world. So I wanted to talk to someone whos asking the really tough questions, the ones that involve bold thinking and radical philosophical reflections.

David Deutsch No one should have to eat breakfast.

Madhumita Murgia I agree.

David Deutsch Sorry, Im currently eating biscuit. Im not speaking clearly now.

Madhumita Murgia Thats David Deutsch. Hes a professor at Oxford university, and hes a bit of a celebrity in this world of quantum research, known for his unusual work habits. I was reading the New Yorker profile of you, and it said that you eat your lunch at 8pm. So do you have a really long gap in the day?

David Deutsch Oh, well, unfortunately that was quite a while ago. Ive taken to getting up and going to bed at normal times. Much to my regret. (chuckles)

Madhumita Murgia Deutsch is regarded as the founding father of quantum computing. It started like this: in the 1980s, Deutsch decided to go over a famous paper written in 1936 by the English mathematician Alan Turing. In it, Turing outlined his idea of a universal machine, a hypothetical machine that could solve any mathematical problem. No one had built one. This was 1936, after all. But in that paper, Turing effectively invented the idea of the modern computer. Reading it again 50 years later, Deutsch pointed out that Turing had been working with classical physics without considering the new field of quantum physics. Deutsch is pretty nonchalant about his attempt to radically rethink computing as we know it.

David Deutsch I thought I would just update Turings paper, his 1936 paper, to take account of real physics rather than this imaginary restricted physics that he actually used. And more or less, the first thing I discovered was that a computer that operated on quantum physics would have a wider range of computations available to it.

Madhumita Murgia So Deutsch came up with the idea of the quantum computer, a hypothetical computer that operated according to the laws of quantum physics. And as a result, could do computations far beyond the capacities of classical computers. The paper that Deutsch wrote became a landmark. It opened up a completely new field and has inspired a generation of researchers in all sorts of disciplines to try and imagine what a quantum computer might be able to accomplish. And its set off this race to build a quantum computer among tech companies. But these days, Deutsch isnt too interested in the various efforts under way to build quantum computers or even what applications they might have for the world. What hes interested in today is what quantum computers tell us about the nature of the universe. And he says, they tell us something really strange. The thing about quantum computers is they seem to be able to perform calculations that according to the normal rules of computing, should be impossible.

David Deutsch With certain computational tasks, there exists a minimum number of Turing-type computational steps that would be required to get the answer, and this minimum number of steps could be enormous. It could be much, much bigger, say, than the number of atoms in the universe. And if you somehow made all the atoms in the universe into a computer, it wouldnt be able to scratch the surface of the number of parallel computations that even quite a small quantum computer could achieve.

Madhumita Murgia Take a really hard computational task, like factoring very large numbers. Thats the mathematical problem that underpins a lot of internet encryption. Its so hard that it would take a classical computer, even one as big as the whole universe, billions of years to do. But a quantum computer could, in theory, do it in minutes. And Deutsch says that theres no way to explain how thats possible within the limits of our known universe.

David Deutsch Supposing it works, supposing that you build a quantum computer and run that program and you get the answer and you know that nothing in the universe we see around us could possibly have discovered that, that means that theres more to reality, exponentially more to reality than just the states of the world that we see around us.

Madhumita Murgia Deutschs explanation is that quantum computers must be somehow accessing other realities in order to get the job done. Specifically, he argues, its accessing multiple parallel realities. The universe, he says, is in fact made up of multiple worlds, all existing simultaneously. This is known as the many-worlds interpretation. Its a bit out there. And its not just Deutchs explanation for how quantum computers work. Its also his explanation of how the world works.

David Deutsch Every physical object, not just quantum computers, not just electrons, but everything already exists in a range of universes. Most of the time, they dont affect each other. At least they dont affect each other in noticeable ways.

Madhumita Murgia The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics was first proposed in the 1950s. It paints a picture of multiple versions of reality being created by random events. So if you flip a coin, there are two new worlds created, one where the coin lands heads and a completely separate world where the coin lands tails. The people who support the many-worlds interpretation say that its a logical conclusion of quantum mechanics, and it not only explains how quantum computers can do impossible calculations, but it also helps explain some of the big mysteries of the quantum world. For example, it explains how we never see things in the state of superposition. Take the hypothetical experiment of Schrdingers cat, which we illustrated in episode three of the series. Theres a cat in a box that could be either alive or dead. (cat meowing) The many-worlds interpretation says that when you open the box to look, you create two separate realities that coexist. One where you see the cat alive and another way you see the cat dead. If you think thats a bit off the wall, youre not alone. Plenty of other physicists do, too. But Deutsch says the many-worlds theory has support, particularly among people working on quantum computers.

David Deutsch I should point out that a substantial minority of physicists find no problem with it, and this is especially true in certain fields of physics. Quantum computation is one of them. Because if you want to explain how a quantum computer works, or if you want to design a new algorithm or a new way of using a quantum computer, you have to engage in hideous circumlocutions if you want to avoid talking about multiple universes and in fact, you cant avoid it.

Madhumita Murgia He says that fundamentally, if you want to understand whats really going on inside a quantum computer, and by extension whats really going on in the quantum world, the many-worlds interpretation gives you the answer. But not everyone is convinced.

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David Deutsch is legendary in the world of quantum computing, and he is by no means alone in subscribing to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. But its also true that the majority of people in physics arent on board with it. And John, you spoke to one of them?

John Thornhill Yes. Hes a physicist called Carlo Rovelli.

Carlo Rovelli Everything is quantum. In this cap I have in my hands, which looks so solid and well-defined, is actually a wavy thing that is constantly disappearing and appearing.

John Thornhill If anyone has popularised the big philosophical ideas behind quantum physics, its Carlo Rovelli. Hes written several bestselling books about the topic, and in the past he has called the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics crazy. But he concedes that in the world of quantum mechanics, everything is a bit crazy.

Carlo Rovelli I dont take crazy in a negative connotation. I think that any attempt to make sense of quantum mechanics in that there is more than one, maybe the two or three taken more seriously by thinkers today, theyre all crazy. Whatever you do is crazy with quantum mechanics. Crazy because it challenges the usual understanding of the world in a very radical way.

John Thornhill Rovelli says you might not have to go as far as multiple realities to explain quantum mechanics, but the science does tell us that the world is very different to the one we experience in our everyday lives. And he says this was apparent from the early days of quantum mechanics nearly 100 years ago. Rovelli recently wrote a book called Helgoland. Its about Werner Heisenberg, a physicist who did some of the foundational work of quantum physics in the 1920s while he was living on a small, barren island called Helgoland out in the sea off the north coast of Germany.

Carlo Rovelli Werner Heisenberg was a 23-year-old young German physicist, a very young scientist. He was in this little island because he was suffering from hay fever. So for medical reasons, there is no pollen there. There are no trees, wind from the sea. So its perfect for somebody suffering allergies. And he wrote a paper. And this paper can be seen as the crucial stone on which quantum mechanics was built.

John Thornhill At the time, it had become clear to physicists like Heisenberg that Newtons classical physics didnt work when it came to the world on the scale of atoms. Some new physics was needed.

Carlo Rovelli People were trying new rules, new forces, new equations of motion, and nothing was working until this kid went to this island and alone there suffering hay fever came out with an idea.

John Thornhill Working deep into the nights on this barren rock in the North Sea, Heisenberg figured out that the only way to predict how atoms behaved was to change his approach. Instead of attempting to write equations describing what atoms did. He wrote equations that described what he could observe.

Carlo Rovelli Instead of writing how this electron move, Heisenberg said, forget what happens there. Lets only describe the way the atom affects me. What I see of the atom, the observable part of the atom. Remarkably, that was sufficient to write the mathematics is that suddenly everything went in place and he was getting the correct predictions of the behaviour of the atom.

John Thornhill These equations helped lay the foundations of quantum physics and totally changed the way we understand the physical world. But the quantum mechanical theories that came out of Heisenbergs work suggest something quite odd. It seems like particles only really existed when being observed. When they arent being observed, they just arent there until they pop back into existence when you next look at them. Particles or anything else for that matter, dont really exist in their own right.

Carlo Rovelli If I want to think of a particle like an electron, I cannot say the electron is there. Its a little stone in a position. Thats wrong. Its there with respect to me. But if its maybe somewhere else with respect to something else, its a relational object, its something that has properties only, as referring to something else.

John Thornhill And Rovelli says, this is true of everything in the world. Nothing exists on its own. And reality isnt really made up of things, but the relationships between things.

Carlo Rovelli So quantum mechanics tell us that we make a mistake if we think that a piece of nature or a particle or any object in nature, or a galaxy or a stone have a position, have properties by themselves. They dont have properties by themselves because when theyre not affecting something else, they dont have properties. So properties are ways in which one piece of nature affects other piece of nature, which means that we cannot describe nature in terms of isolated objects. Its properties, we have to describe nature by bringing the various pieces together and always something in relation to something else.

John Thornhill So what it suggests is something like there is no objective reality. The world out there isnt made of objects that hang around with independent physical attributes or properties. The world isnt made up of things at all. Its made up of relations between things. Is this more or less crazy than the idea that the universe is made of many worlds? Perhaps its a matter of taste. Theres no agreement among physicists.

Madhumita Murgia You might be asking why we even need to think about these things. Why we should spend our time worrying about the nature of reality. After all, whether or not were in some kind of multiverse, or whether the world is made up of objects or relationships between objects, none of it really changes our experience of everyday life. But if you really want to understand how quantum technology works and why it works, these are the questions you need to ask. Heres David Deutsch again, a pioneer of quantum computing.

David Deutsch Some people say that we cant and shouldnt try to understand. We need only predict. You simply apply the equations of quantum mechanics. Turn the handle. Dont ask what happens inside the computer. Just ask what the outcome is. But I think for most people and most people who work on this, that is unsatisfactory because they want to understand what to do to make the quantum computer do new things that we havent thought of before.

Madhumita Murgia For Deutsch, answering the big questions is important, and it could help us build better technology. What I find so interesting is that the recent advances in quantum technology are, in turn, shining a light on these fundamental questions of reality. Anton Zeilinger, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist you heard from at the beginning of the show, is pushing the envelope of quantum technology. But for him, the technology itself is somewhat beside the point.

Anton Zeilinger I am mostly excited by the fundamental questions. What does all this tell us about the nature of the universe? And what does it tell us about our role in the universe? I hope some young chip finds out what is really going on in quantum mechanics. What is the basic fundamental reason why we do have this theory, which is beautiful, extremely beautiful mathematically, extremely precise, but in a way, doesnt make sense. And I am sure there is a fundamental explanation, and that will be found someday, and I hope within my lifetime.

Madhumita Murgia In the series, weve been asking if and when quantum technology is going to change the world. Quantum computers could end up being revolutionary, ushering in a new quantum age where extraordinary computing power lets us do things that just werent possible before. But in the meantime, what makes this technology exciting is that it explains the nature of the universe in a way that nothing else can. Quantum computers often seem radical and out of this world, but the world is a quantum world, and quantum computers are just reflections of it.

John Thornhill Youve been listening to Tech Tonic from the Financial Times. This is the last episode in our season on quantum technology. You can listen to the previous episodes wherever you get your podcasts and make sure you subscribe for the next season due out in the summer. Tech Tonic was presented by me, John Thornhill.

Madhumita Murgia And me, Madhumita Murgia. Our senior producer is Edwin Lane, and our producer is Josh Gabert-Doyon. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Samantha Giovinco and Breen Turner. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FTs global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

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D-Wave Quantum Inc. Announces Date for Fourth Quarter and Full … – Silicon UK

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS), a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, and the only quantum computing company building commercial annealing quantum computing systems and developing gate-model quantum computing systems, today announced it will release its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 on Friday, April 14 before market open. The press release will be available on the D-Wave Investor Relations website: https://ir.dwavesys.com/.

In conjunction with this announcement, D-Wave will host a conference call on Friday, April 14, 2023, at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern Time), to discuss the Companys financial results and business outlook. The live dial-in number is 1-877-407-3982 (domestic) or 201-493-6780 (international), conference ID code 13738032. Participating in the call will be Chief Executive Officer Alan Baratz and Chief Financial Officer John Markovich. A live webcast and subsequent replay of the call will also be available on the Investor Relations page of D-Waves website at https://ir.dwavesys.com/events-and-presentations/.

About D-Wave Quantum Inc.

D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services, and is the worlds first commercial supplier of quantum computersand the only company building both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing today to benefit business and society. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Waves technology is being used by some of the worlds most advanced organizations, including Volkswagen, Mastercard, Deloitte, Davidson Technologies, ArcelorMittal, Siemens Healthineers, Unisys, NEC Corporation, Pattison Food Group Ltd., DENSO, Lockheed Martin, Forschungszentrum Jlich, University of Southern California, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which statements are based on beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: may, will, could, would, should, expect, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, project, potential, continue, ongoing, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, which are subject to a number of risks. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the date of its earnings release and the timing of the filing of its Form 10-K. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this press release will prove to be accurate. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, among others, various factors beyond managements control, including the completion of the external audit and the uncertainties and factors set forth in the sections entitled Risk Factors and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in the Registration Statement, as well as factors associated with companies, such as D-Wave, that are engaged in the business of quantum computing. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements contained in this press release prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In addition, you are cautioned that past performance may not be indicative of future results. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not place undue reliance on these statements in making an investment decision or regard these statements as a representation or warranty by any person we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

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Eviden Supports Post-Quantum Algorithms with Its Trustway … – HPCwire

LILLE, France, April 5, 2023 Eviden, the Atos business focused on digital, cloud, big data and security, today announced that its Trustway Proteccio Hardware Security Module (HSM) will soon support post-quantum algorithms, in collaboration with the startup CryptoNext Security, a leader and pioneer in next-generation post-quantum cryptography.

Faced with the possible emergence of a quantum computer, which would imply a collapse in todays cryptographic protection mechanisms, Eviden allows its entire ecosystem of customers to prepare for a migration towards hybrid encryption solutions. This major development in the Trustway Proteccio HSM enables the integration of algorithms from CryptoNext Security.

The Trustway Proteccio HSM, the only HSM to have received ANSSIs Reinforced Qualification (ANSSI QR), constitutes a benchmark security solution both in France and internationally. It offers a very high level of technological protection for managing keys and cryptographic operations to the benefit of critical applications in companies, government administrations, and financial service operators.

With the latest upgrade of its Trustway Proteccio HSM, Eviden has effectively implemented the ANSSI recommendations that push for a gradual, phased transition to post-quantum. The underlying goal is to progressively increase confidence in post-quantum algorithms and their uses, while ensuring that there is no regression concerning traditional (i.e. pre-quantum) security.

The collaboration of Eviden and CryptoNext will speed up the availability of post-quantum algorithms, and enable us to support our partners and customers with this major development in the world of cryptography. This work is part of our ongoing quest for innovation and the development of high-security systems, said Ren Martin, Director of the Trustway Business Unit at Eviden, Atos Group.

Jean-Charles Faugre, founder and CTO of CryptoNext Security added: This partnership with Atos, one of the world leaders in cybersecurity, removes a major barrier to the migration of infrastructures and applications to quantum-resistant cybersecurity in production. The choice made by Atos illustrates its recognition of CryptoNext Securitys expertise and technologies, of which we are proud.

We are fully committed to working alongside Atos in this long-term partnership of technological excellence, to offer our customers sovereign, concrete and operational solutions to the challenges of the post-quantum era, said Florent Grosmaitre, president of CryptoNext Security.

The upgrade of Trustway Proteccio in partnership with CryptoNext Security will be available in Q4, 2023.

Post-quantum cryptography is at the core of Evidens work, which is also launching the first post-quantum ready digital identity solutions. In addition, the Atos Group, through its Eviden business line, is a pioneer in quantum computing. The Group launched the first quantum emulator on the market in 2016 and now offers the most powerful quantum computing application development platform, coupled with a consultancy offering that accelerates real quantum applications through all-in-one capabilities and a best-in-class development environment.

About Eviden

Eviden designs the scope composed of Atos digital, cloud, big data and security business lines. It will be a global leader in data-driven, trusted and sustainable digital transformation. As a next generation digital business with worldwide leading positions in digital, cloud, data, advanced computing and security, it brings deep expertise for all industries in more than 53 countries. By uniting unique high-end technologies across the full digital continuum with 57,000 world-class talents, Eviden expands the possibilities of technologies for enterprises and public authorities, helping them to build their digital future. Eviden is an Atos Group business with an annual revenue of c. 5 billion.

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 111,000 employees and annual revenue of c. 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 69 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), and listed on Euronext Paris.

Source: Atos

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RRI signs MoU with Indian Navy for developing secure maritime communications using quantum technologies – The Hindu

Raman Research Institute (RRI) has joined hands with the Indian Navy to develop secure maritime communications using quantum technologies.

The Bengaluru-based institute inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Weapons and Electronics Systems Engineering Establishment (WESEE), the R&D establishment of the Indian Navy, last week.

RRI said that the MoU is five years, and under this agreement, RRIs Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) lab will lead the research efforts towards developing quantum key distribution techniques that the Indian Navy could leverage in the nations efforts towards securing free space communications.

Also read: Explained | The challenges of quantum computing

I am absolutely delighted that the Indian Science and Technology ecosystem has been opening borders in recent years that enable talented and world-class researchers in the academic research institutions to contribute to the growth of Science and Technology capabilities in strategic areas of national importance. The porosity of the perceived boundary between fundamental and applied sciences as well as Science and Technology, will bode well in the coming decades. RRI feels proud to partner with WESEE in cutting edge Science and Technology, said Professor Tarun Souradeep, director, RRI.

Professor Urbasi Sinha, Group Head, QuIC lab, said, This is a great opportunity for us to use indigenously developed science and technology knowledge to serve our nation. We are excited about the collaboration and believe that with our expertise in the domain of secure quantum communications, we will be able to help foster cutting-edge research towards identification of potential maritime use-cases for the Indian Navy.

This lab has been leading the countrys research in the field of secure quantum communication. Some of its major achievements include the development of an end-to-end simulation toolkit named qkdSim, ensuring safety in communication platforms; establishing secure communication, both between two buildings and, more recently, between a stationary source and a mobile receiver.

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Commerce awards $2 million to encourage innovative business and … – Washington State Department of Commerce

OLYMPIA, WA The Washington Department of Commerce today announced $2 million in grants to accelerate manufacturing job growth and economic opportunity across the state with a particular focus on rural communities. Six businesses and four innovation cluster organizations were awarded $200,000 each through the Evergreen Manufacturing Grant program.

These grants support the Building Economic Strength Through Manufacturing (BEST) Act passed by the Washington Legislature in 2021 to provide a framework for adding 300,000 new manufacturing jobs over the next 10 years.

Beta Hatch, Chelan CountyThe grant will be used for research, development and pilot projects in Wenatchee to expand the companys controlled environment agriculture and manufacturing of insect-derived products. Funds will support the retrofit of an existing structure and pre-construction design for the project, which will have a capital investment of $9 million and create 39 jobs.

EDGE Cluster (EDGE), King CountyIn partnership with Washington Maritime Blue, EDGE is launching Washingtons first private cellular network in the Tacoma tide flats. The grant supports the first phase of a project to provide coverage to multiple maritime manufacturers and is projected to create 96 jobs. Partners for this project include SAFE Boats International, Silverback Marine, Motive Power marine, Trident Seafoods, City of Tacoma, Tacoma Public Utilities, and 5g Open Innovation Lab. EDGE is in the first cohort of Commerces Innovation Cluster Accelerator Program (ICAP).

Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Cluster (EBIC), Spokane CountyEBIC is developing the Bioscience Innovation Building (BIB), a state of the art research lab for pharmaceutical and medical device development. The BIB will encourage new R&D and manufacturing with minimal capital investment, improve collaboration between companies and academic researchers, and provide a space for bioscience workforce training. The state grant will support a site selection study and additional building requirement and preliminary design work. Once completed, the 55,000 to 90,000-square-foot building is projected to create up to 384 jobs. Partners for this project include Greater Spokane, Inc., Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County, Impact Washington, and Port of Benton. EBIC is also in the first ICAP cohort.

First Mode, King CountyThe company will use the new funding to support construction of a new facility to manufacture hybrid hydrogen-battery power modules for large industrial vehicles. The project is estimated to generate over $17 million in capital investment and will create 70 new jobs over the next five years.

Inland Northwest Aerospace Consortium (INWAC), Spokane CountyINWAC is developing a statewide network of student-run manufacturing businesses as part of the states high school Career and Technical Education programs to produce workforce-ready graduates. Project outcomes include the completion of curriculum, materials and roadmap for a pilot program and eventual expansion. The program is projected to create 290 jobs. The grant is supported by $1.05 million in matching funds over four years.. Partners for this project include Greater Spokane, Inc., East Valley School District in Spokane Valley, NEWESD101, Optimal Talent Dynamics, and Wagstaff, Inc..

Ion Q, Snohomish CountyThe quantum computing hardware and software company will create a new research and manufacturing facility in Bothell, Washington to build quantum computers. Funding will support design and engineering work needed for their 2023 buildout. The project is expected to create more than 150 jobs and generate $7.1 million in new capital investment.

OCOchem, Benton CountyThe clean-tech startup company in Richland, Washington is building a new pilot production plant to manufacture renewable chemicals necessary for the agriculture and hydrogen sectors. Funding will support design and engineering work for electrolyzer equipment and additional site preparation activities. The project has matching funds of over $1 million and will create up to 200 jobs over the next five years.

Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy LLC (PNWRE), Grays HarborPNWRE plans a new manufacturing facility taking in waste forest biomass to create wood pellets in Grays Harbor County which is projected to create 53 new jobs and generate $155 million in new capital investment.

Sandstone Distillery, Thurston CountyFunding for this manufacturing project will allow the distillery to build a larger factory, including design, pre-construction activities, site preparation and permitting. Located in the Thurston Craft Brewing and Distilling Innovation Partnership Zone (IPZ), the project has a total capital investment of $1.2 million. It will create 10 to 15 new jobs and increase the production of locally grown agriculture products used in the distillerys products.

Washington VERTical, Benton CountyIn partnership with the Tri-Cities Economic Development Council (TRIDEC), VERTical is developing an Advanced Manufacturing Center focused on attracting technology companies critical to the Small Modular Nuclear Reactor supply chain, including large-scale Powder Metallurgy (PM), Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) and Electron Beam Welding (EBW). The grant supports conducting a readiness assessment and business and market analysis. Total job creation is estimated to be 50 to 100 jobs. VERTical is another member of the first ICAP cohort.

Washington state continues to invest in exploring and building new foundations for economic growth based on innovation, especially in manufacturing and clean energy, said Chris Green, Commerce Assistant Director for Economic Development and Competitiveness. These grants will help create opportunities in emerging technologies, build infrastructure, create jobs in new industries and drive economic benefits that strengthen communities for years to come.

We will use this grant to extend our efforts to convert captured CO2, water and clean electricity into value-added sustainable chemicals, fuels and materials, which will reduce the continued reliance on excavated polluting fossil fuels, said OCOchem CEO and co-founder Todd Brix. OCOchem is grateful to the Washington State Department of Commerce, TRIDEC and Energy Northwest for helping us accelerate R&D and engineering work toward building a large-scale carbon dioxide electrolyzer, which will move our company closer to realizing our vision of building out manufacturing efforts in Washington state.

This grant will enable the Inland Northwest Aerospace Consortium to take important next steps in growing the regions talent pipeline through the creation of a full-fledged manufacturing business at East Valley High School, said Staci Nelson, Executive Director. Providing opportunities to explore careers and gain employable skills before graduating will give students a leg up on their futures and provide the talent I-90 Aerospace Corridor companies need to grow and thrive.

The Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Building will provide startups, capital, manufacturing, research institutions, and professional service providers across Washington a home to collaborate, and help to ensure Washington state remains a leader in new bioscience technology innovations,said Andy Johnson, board member of Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Cluster (EBIC).

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France finally warms up to the Dutch in economic security push – POLITICO Europe

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France and the Netherlands suddenly have a lot in common as Europes economic security trumps older frictions ahead of French President Emmanuel Macrons visit to Amsterdam and The Hague this week.

Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte plan to announce several pacts to work together on semiconductors, quantum computing and nuclear energy as well as a so-called pact for innovation and sustainable growth endorsed by business organizations from both countries.

But the Elyse also sees the trip as showing its on the same page as the Dutch on championing European industry and being aware of security risks, including export controls of sensitive technology to China.

Our vision of things has become less of a caricature. Its not about The Hague being very open [trade-wise] and frugal and Paris being essentially protectionist and focused on solidarity. Things are more complex than that, said an Elyse official who was not authorized to be identified when speaking to reporters. There is a convergence between the two countries on economic files, the official said.

National security concerns have jumped to the top of the Dutch agenda in recent months. Bowing to U.S. pressure, the Dutch government said in early March that it would impose new export controls on advanced microchip equipment to China curbing sales by chips equipment supplier ASML, Europes highest-valued tech company in an effort to rein in Chinese chip-making efforts.

The Netherlands is also rolling out a new investment screening mechanism that would allow the government to scrutinize ownership changes at companies involved in sensitive technology. A Chinese bid for a Delft-based semiconductor startup could even get a national security review.

Macron will also be focusing on chips, attending a round table with representatives from ASML and STMicroelectronics on Wednesday.

Dutch officials describe the warming relationship as a reflection of new global challenges and not a sign that The Hague is suddenly buying into Frances views. Both have frequently been on different sides of draining European debates with the Netherlands one of the Frugal Four opposed to expansionary economic policy or collective EU debt.

This time, said a Dutch official who was not authorized to speak publicly, underlying the French and Dutch positions is the shared understanding that we need to secure our geostrategic position as the EU.

French officials see this as a welcome change of attitude. Dutch backing for the very idea of a European industrial policy was a narrative revolution in this country, probably the most obvious illustration that things are moving in The Hague, the Elyse official said.He warned that there were limits: We should not talk about [economic] interventionism of the Netherlands, we are not there yet.

Macron will outline his vision of European sovereignty and economic security in a speech at the Nexus Insitute in The Hague on Tuesday.

The term should resonate with the Dutch. In their own security strategy, published last week, economic security gets a name-check as one of the six national security interests. Dependencies, like Europes reliance on Russian gas, could threaten this economic security.The Dutch have been cautious on how far to go without harming industry, with Rutte warning in January that intervention should not endanger [chips] supply chains.

This love-in can only go so far. Despite the economic security rapprochement, the two countries still have plenty to disagree on, such as funding for the European Commissions upcoming European Sovereignty Fund. Paris has indicated that it wants fresh money for the fund, but the Netherlands has stuck to its frugal stance and insists on first spending existing funds such as the EUs post-pandemic recovery plan.

This article has been updated to correct a mistranslation of an officials comment to Paris being essentially protectionist and focused on solidarity.

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How to Reduce Risk in Cloud Computing – ITPro Today

Cloud computing is now being used in every type of industry by organizations large and small.

Related: How Cloud Computing Has Intensified Cybersecurity Challenges

In the earliest days of cloud computing, security was a top concern and it's still a concern today. As with any form of technology, cloud security is an issue that organizations need to take a proactive approach to stay ahead of risks. For financial services firms in particular, technology investments are often considered in terms of risk. To that end, the U.S. Department of Treasury released a 71-pagecloud report in February outlining the opportunities and challenges that face financial sector cloud adoption. The report provides direction that is useful not just for financial services firms, but for any organization using the cloud.

"The recent U.S. Treasury report shines a light on the challenges of engaging with critical third- and fourth-party providers, and the need for strong governance to manage risk and ensure operational resilience," Aly Farooqui, chief risk officer for IBM Cloud for Financial Services, told ITPro Today. "These are important considerations for all regulated industries that need to keep business operations up and running at all times not only financial services."

Related: What Happened in That Cyberattack? With Some Cloud Services, You May Never Know

The report puts the need to increase operational resilience front and center and is a reminder that minimizing downtime and closing gaps in the supply chain should always be at the top of an organization's priorities, according to Farooqui.

Overall, there is a lot to unpack when it comes to understanding what cloud risk is and what it isn't, as well as best practices for organizations in all industries to consider.

There are a number of common myths and misconceptions about risks in the cloud:

Shared responsibility model. One of the most common misconceptions of risk in cloud computing concerns theshared responsibility model. With the shared responsibility model, the cloud service provider (CSP) is responsible for some things, while users are responsible for others.

Security responsibilities between CSPs and cloud customers for each cloud service model.

The reason there are misconceptions about the shared responsibility model is because there is a lack of understanding as to what specifically the consuming organization is responsible and what the CSP is responsible for, Randy Armknecht, managing director of emerging technologies and global cloud practice leader at global consulting firmProtiviti, told ITPro Today.

For instance, many organizations fall into the trap of not realizing that CSPs determine what their responsibilities are on a service-by-service basis, he noted. With hundreds of services offered, it can be quite the endeavor for a community or regional bank to get a handle on. This leads to missing items in their governance programs, which may not be caught until a risk is realized.

"I've had clients misstep most often on resilience because while the CSP may be available, that doesn't necessitate that the client's workloads will be available," Armknecht said. "The same applies when the CSP has a particular compliance certification and a client misinterprets, thinking that the CSP is responsible for a larger portion of controls than they really are."

Data backup. Another misconception is that all data stored in the cloud is automatically backed up. Tyler Moffitt, senior security analyst atOpenText, told ITPro Today that while cloud providers may provide basic data backup services, financial services firms need to have their own backup and recovery processes in place to ensure that they can quickly recover data in the event of a disaster or attack.

Compliance. There is a misconception that certain types of industries or use cases will not work in the cloud due to regulatory compliance concerns. However, many cloud providers are certified and follow data privacy standards including General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ISO 27001, or SOC 2 and are compliant with other regulatory requirements standards as well, according to Sam Levy, a partner at technology-focused investment bankDrake Star.

Understanding the myths and misconceptions about cloud security is a good starting point for better management of risk, though there is more that can and should be done.

So what should IT professionals be doing to reduce risk in the cloud?

The U.S. Department of Treasury report suggests that financial institutions assess cloud services to ensure compliance, security, confidentiality, and safe operations. In addition, the Treasury report notes that financial institutions should "establish a range of internal and external (within the cloud environment) security and resilience controls, configurations, and monitoring for the cloud services."

For any type of industry, Scott Siegel, data and analytics expert atPA Consulting, suggests that organizations ensure data is backed up and recovered in case of an unexpected emergency.

Data in the cloud should be encrypted, but it shouldn't be locked into a proprietary format that will only run on a single cloud provider. Srujan Akula, CEO and co-founder ofThe Modern Data Company, suggests that however an organization is operating in the cloud, it's important to make sure the data is in an open format.

"In the chance that you need to egress your data elsewhere, you do not want to be locked in with the current provider," Akula told ITPro Today.

It's also critical for organizations to conduct thorough risk assessments using approaches such as theNIST SP 800-30 guide for conducting risk assessments.

According to Protiviti's Armknecht, risk teams need to ask themselves some core questions, such as: Do we have ownership, purpose, and classification defined of all our cloud assets? Do we have visibility into the health and security of each asset? Do we have a recovery plan in place for each asset? Do we understand the shared responsibility matrix of each asset?

"I see these as the foundation to understanding and then reducing risk within your cloud environment," Armknecht said.

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