Leaders and researchers in the quantum industry gathered at UC Berkeley\u2019s California Memorial Stadium on Friday morning to launch Quantum California, a statewide private-public initiative to connect labs, universities, businesses and communities to advance California\u2019s position in the quantum industry, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom in a video played at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The initiative follows Newsom\u2019s Oct. 3 signing of AB 940. The bill, authored by East Bay Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, will provide new funding and establish a statewide strategy for California\u2019s research and work in the quantum industry. Newsom also announced a $4 million investment with state funding towards expanding the quantum research workforce training and industry partnerships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event was co-hosted by UC Berkeley, the UC Office of the President and the Governor\u2019s Office of Business and Economic Development, with a speaker panel featuring a variety of industry experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nani Coloretti, Newsom\u2019s cabinet secretary, opened the event and emphasized the need to \u201cmaintain\u201d California\u2019s \u201cadvantage and ecosystem\u201d as a leader in the quantum industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing (quantum) span in computing, sensing, networking and advanced chips, all of which are in a hybrid phase and which California is uniquely positioned to lead across the state at our universities,\u201d Coloretti said. \u201cUC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Caltech are partnering with companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon and achieving major quantum material breakthroughs together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theresa Maldonado, the Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCOP, emphasized the importance of these partnerships as the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, a partnership between UC and the Department of Energy, was ended by the federal government Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
UC Berkeley physics professor and chair Irfan Siddiqi then gave a simplified explanation of quantum, its real-world technological applications and an economic overview of the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuantum mechanics is entering a new era,\u201d Siddiqi said. \u201cThis is the era where we move from experiments on individual quantum systems to computing processes or sensors that test and use quantum mechanics at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to note that quantum technologies will be \u201cplaying a critical role\u201d in the future of California\u2019s \u201ctechnology-based economy\u201d and that this initiative will allow California-based companies to \u201cexpand their footprint\u201d in the industry.<\/p>\n
Industry experts from IBM, Google Quantum AI and Microsoft Quantum then discussed their companies\u2019 technological breakthroughs, many facilitated by partnerships with UC Berkeley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
IBM Quantum Technical Program Director Jamie Garcia described IBM\u2019s 2023 condensed matter physics experiment on campus that demonstrated quantum advantage, the ability for a quantum computer to solve a problem that non-quantum, or classical, computers could not. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Google Quantum AI\u2019s Chief Operating Officer Charina Chou, who received her PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2011, discussed Google\u2019s recent Quantum Echoes algorithm, developed in collaboration with UC Berkeley professor Ashok Ajoy\u2019s nuclear magnetic resonance lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The algorithm runs 13,000 times faster than classical algorithms, according to Chou, and is the \u201cfirst\u201d replicable quantum algorithm, with potential applications in drug discovery, battery development, fusion energy and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGoogle Quantum AI Technology, our quantum bits \u2014 qubits \u2014 are based on technology developed at UC Berkeley 40 years ago,\u201d Chou said, referring to the Nobel Prize-winning experiments by campus professor John Clarke. \u201cThat was fundamental research in physics to develop and demonstrate artificial atoms that now fund the basis of our quantum chips that would not be possible without UC Berkeley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campus physics professor Dan Stamper-Kurn, director of the Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation, said he attended the conference to gauge the interest of state, industry and venture capital in student-led quantum research.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stamper-Kurn said he hopes to create a minor degree in quantum science and technology on campus and then extend the degree across the UC and CSU systems in the next few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially now, as we\u2019re at this critical juncture, given the changing federal environment for supportive basic scientific research, there are real questions about how the state and the nation are going to keep funding that pipeline of basic scientific discovery,\u201d said California Government Operations Agency Secretary Nick Maduros during a speech at the event. \u201cThat\u2019s the pipeline for the future of the California economy and America\u2019s economy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders and researchers in the quantum industry gathered at UC Berkeley\u2019s California Memorial Stadium on Friday morning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[30644,30650,8487,30657,30645,7,30662,30642,27084,30660,30655,1821,30659,28118,457,14624,30652,30646,28194,30651,30654,7900,5055,30653,30648,30661,30658,150,143,145,144,30643,30656,30649,5247,149,30647,28424,1092],"class_list":["post-46623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ab-940","tag-alliance-for-renewable-clean-hydrogen-energy-systems","tag-amazon","tag-ashok-ajoy","tag-buffy-wicks","tag-california","tag-california-government-operations-agency","tag-california-memorial-stadium","tag-caltech","tag-challenge-institute-for-quantum-computation","tag-charina-chou","tag-csu","tag-dan-stamper-kurn","tag-department-of-energy","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-google","tag-google-quantum-ai","tag-governors-office-of-business-and-economic-development","tag-ibm","tag-irfan-siddiqi","tag-jamie-garcia","tag-john-clarke","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-quantum","tag-nani-coloretti","tag-nick-maduros","tag-nmr","tag-nobel-prize","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-quantum-california","tag-quantum-echoes","tag-theresa-maldonado","tag-uc","tag-uc-berkeley","tag-uc-office-of-the-president","tag-uc-santa-barbara","tag-ucla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}