At 2024 Chicago Quantum Summit, leaders temper hype, hail momentum of global quantum effort

More than 600 people from across the nation turned out Oct. 21-22 for the seventh annual Chicago Quantum Summit to fuel what leaders said was the “first inning” of a multi-generational, global effort to shepherd quantum technologies from the lab to practical use, build the quantum workforce, and potentially transform fields from medicine to finance to airplane navigation.

“Someday people will say, ‘Look at the overnight success that’s occurred in quantum’— but [it will have been] a 20-year ‘overnight’ success,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told the packed auditorium at the University of Chicago’s Rubenstein Forum. “And all of you are at the very front end. We want to be in the front end: Illinois, Chicago, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and all the partners regionally and across the world.”

Speakers at the two-day event included the CEO of a quantum networking company that achieved continuous distributed entangled photons under New York City for more than two weeks earlier this year, government leaders who outlined how federal funding can help bring quantum technologies to market, founders of quantum startups who have collectively raised over $10 million in funding, and nine rising stars who presented the cutting-edge quantum research that earned them a 2024 Boeing Quantum Creators Prize.

“From Governor Pritzker’s rousing keynote to nuanced conversations about the challenges ahead, this year’s summit exceeded expectations on every level,” said David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at UChicago, a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, and the director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, which hosts the summit. “I was particularly encouraged to see glimpses of our future among the startup founders who spoke, the early-career researchers whose work was recognized, and the young people who attended the Quantum Game Night we hosted at Bowen High School on the summit’s second night. As our field continues to scale, curious and engaged people with a variety of interests, backgrounds, and experience will be crucial.”

Hard work, not hype

A measured but enthusiastic take on the field’s evolution permeated the discussions, as speakers promoted an optimistic prudence when talking about quantum technology’s future.

“We need to be careful about the timelines we project,” said Noel Goddard, the CEO of Qunnect, the quantum networking company that achieved continuous distributed entangled photons under New York City. “And I think as a community, we have to acknowledge the fact that it is very difficult to build innovation and also build the market at the same time … We shouldn't be ashamed that difficult things take time, and we shouldn't be ashamed of the fact that we need investment to do these things.”

Joe Altepeter, program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its self-described “designated quantum skeptic,” outlined the agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which will be part of the new Illinois-DARPA Quantum Proving Ground at the recently announced Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park on Chicago’s Southeast Side. The benchmarking initiative aims to rigorously test proposed quantum applications, helping the federal government to focus on the ones that can be proven to work.

“I get this question all the time: If in two years, we’ve proved that there's no real path to a useful quantum computer, are we really okay walking away?” Altepeter said. “The answer is yes. We just want to find out what's real and what's not. But I will say, as DARPA's designated quantum skeptic, I am more optimistic now than I have been at any point in the past 10 years.”

Katie Pizzolato, vice president for algorithms and scientific partnerships at IBM, urged people to remember that even though quantum “is a new technology that is going to be valuable and have an enormous impact,” it is important to remember that it is still in the early stages of development.

“We are pioneers in this journey,” she said. “And as a part of being a pioneer, we need to be ready for a twisty, not-straight line. I think sometimes when we jump straight to the end user, we don't think about the discovery and the research that needs to be done in the middle with the end user in mind.”

Scaling the field

A number of speakers talked about the importance of attracting new people to the field.

“We’ve got to have talent development, and universities and governments play an enormous role here,” said Charina Chou, chief operating officer of Google Quantum AI, citing the $50 million partnership between the University of Chicago, the University of Tokyo, and Google that was announced last year. “We've added over 100 roles to Google Quantum AI in this year alone, and oftentimes people think, ‘Oh, you know, it's research scientists, it's hardware engineers, software engineers.’ In fact, a lot of different skill sets are needed on our team, and we really welcome lots of different backgrounds.”

Nationwide data point to a shift in education requirements as quantum technology scales: according to a CQE analysis of job postings data maintained by Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C®) and the Quantum Computing Report, about two-thirds of quantum jobs in the industry sector are open to those with a bachelor’s degree or less. Many employers say curiosity, basic retraining, and skills developed in other fields often are the keys to getting hired for many roles.

“There's a much lower barrier to entry [into quantum] than I think people anticipate when they start,” Pizzolato said.

Two leaders in the field discussed opportunities to build an inclusive workforce: Walter Massey—who has led the National Science Foundation, Argonne National Laboratory, Morehouse College, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among other institutions, and now advises University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos—and University of Illinois Chicago Assistant Professor Thomas Searles, who founded the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center and currently leads a multi-year multimillion dollar consortium for quantum engineering education sponsored by the Department of Energy.

The two discussed their own journeys—Searles was a physics student at Morehouse College when Massey was president—and the importance of building academic programs at a variety of levels, including community colleges, and reaching young people.

One example of community outreach, Searles said, was the Quantum Game Night the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering’s STAGE Center, and partners across the region hosted at Bowen High School on Chicago’s Southeast Side just after the summit ended. The event featured family-friendly games to teach members of the community about quantum technologies.

“I'm … truthfully excited to be in a place like Chicago, and to be able to use this Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park as a beacon for young people to say, ‘Hey, I can have a pathway to really make a change in my life and my community,’” Searles told the audience a few hours before the Quantum Game Night began. “I'm 41 years old, I may or may not ever see a [utility-scale] quantum computer. However, when you all are at the Game Night tonight, you might meet … a fourth grader or fifth grader who will actually see this into fruition. So it's important to be excited about it, it's important to be real about it, but it's also an opportunity.”

Strengths of the ecosystem

The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park and the Chicagoland quantum ecosystem’s momentum were frequent topics of discussion, with keynotes by Shadbolt, CEO of PsiQuantum, which will anchor the park; Altepeter; and Pritzker, whose $500 million budget allocation helped make the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park possible. The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park is a first-of-its-kind park for quantum scale-up and related quantum and advanced microelectronics research and development.

“My level of excitement and commitment to the … continuation of our momentum cannot be overstated,” Pritzker said. “As governor, my priority is to foster growth and opportunity for our people. … This industry, this ecosystem, and the many causes that will benefit from it, have the potential to bring untold economic prosperity, tens of thousands of jobs, and billions [of dollars] in private investment capital directly to our communities. Quantum will end up being one of the most transformative technologies that has ever been developed.”

Kristi Dula, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said federal government support has also been key to region’s momentum, noting that part of the $500 million investment helps to match federal dollars.

“As I like to say, [federal support allows us to] make one plus one equal three,” she said during a panel in which government leaders shared perspectives on commercialization efforts. “Because the [federal government’s] involvement is not just the financial backing, right? It's the expertise, and it's the collaboration that makes a better ecosystem and environment for businesses who are here in the state.”

Searles sees the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park as potentially transformative both for the communities near the park and for the nation as a whole.

“Having the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park [means] … having something where there are Black and Brown and all shades and all colors … doing experiments and working at the Proving Ground,” Searles said, referring to the State’s joint program with DARPA at the Park. “I think that will not only transform the field, but hopefully it'll actually make a profound impact on America.”

—Adapted from an article first posted by the Chicago Quantum Exchange.