Ah shit, not ready in time for my FF draft…..to be Zoomed…. tomorrow night. Maybe I’ll live long enough to be able to someday employ the Quantum Draft Wizard? Hey 10 years ago who knew Zoom from zoo?
Joe Cahill On Business
August 26, 2020 05:03 PM updated an hour ago
A quantum leap for Chicago's tech economy?
A pair of big-money federal research grants give Chicago a ground-floor opportunity in a field many expect to transform computing.
Mike Procario/Flickr
Fermilab
Chicago was late to the digitization party, but now has a chance to catch the quantum computing wave.
A pair of big-money federal research grants give Chicago a ground-floor opportunity in a technology many expect to transform computing. As my colleague John Pletz reported Aug. 26, Argonne and Fermilab in suburban Chicago are among five national laboratories that will get $115 million apiece to study quantum computing.
The new technology uses atomic particles to process data far faster than today's computers using transistors. Quantum is also more secure than current technology.
Huge leaps in processing speed open up new vistas of potential applications, from rapid-fire drug development to earthquake forecasting to individualized consumer marketing. With so many commercial possibilities, big money already is flowing to quantum as companies and governments angle for an edge in the next big thing.
But real-world applications are still a ways off. First, quantum needs basics like standardized materials and processes.
That's where Argonne and Fermilab come in. Argonne's Q-Next initiative works with various laboratories, universities, and corporations like Boeing to develop communications standards and basic materials for quantum computing.
Fermilab, meanwhile, is applying its particle physics expertise to the new technology. The lab's Superconducting Quantum Materials Center will work to solve the unique challenges of atomic-level computing.
If all this sounds impossibly esoteric, it's also essential to realizing the promise of quantum computing. And those who master these basic challenges will have a head start toward bringing to market commercial applications that spawn new businesses and create 21st-Century jobs.
Thanks to Argonne and Fermilab, Chicago will become a repository of basic knowledge and expertise in quantum computing. We'll have a cadre of technologists who know how the technology works and what it can do. That's a critical first step on the path to commercialization.
The challenge, as always, will be hanging on to that knowledge and expertise. Our region has always been a hotbed of basic science: we split the atom, for crying out loud. But we also have a sorry history of standing by as others harvest the commercial fruits of our technological breakthroughs.
Insights developed and talent nurtured in our universities often migrates to either coast. The most painful example, of course, is Mosaic, the Internet browser developed at the University of Illinois but commercialized in California.
Other emigres include the brains behind Oracle, PayPal, YouTube, AMD and Siebel Systems .
That talent drain helps explain why Chicago has been an also-ran in the high-growth technology industries that created millions of jobs over the past 30 years while employment fell in mainstay Chicago industries like manufacturing. We have no major players in information technology, mobile communications, ecommerce or social media.
Where's our Apple, our Google, our Amazon?
I dunno, but piggies, screwdrivers and choo choos are still here.
"...Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation."
Perhaps the quantum computing work at Argonne and Fermilab is a slender reed to support hopes that such a player or players will rise in Chicago. It takes a lot of money, experience and infrastructure to turn basic lab research into big business.
Silicon Valley and other coastal tech hubs have more of all that stuff. They'll likely exert the same magnetic pull in quantum computing that they have in other technology sectors. Google, IBM and Intel already are pushing ahead in quantum.
Still, Chicago's tech community seems determined not to let this one get away. The University of Chicago, which manages Argonne and Fermilab, formed the Chicago Quantum Exchange three years ago in part to foster commercialization. David Awschalom, a Quantum Exchange director who's overseeing Q-Next, says Chicago has all the tools to capitalize on quantum brainstorms.
"You need a combination of excellence in physics, computer science, electrical engineering and materials science," he says. "Chicago is perfectly positioned for this. This is a moment where Illinois can become a leader."
Time will tell. But the opportunity is there.
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/joe-cahill-bu...-headline2
https://money.usnews.com/funds/etfs/technolog...m-etf/qtum
Joe Cahill On Business
August 26, 2020 05:03 PM updated an hour ago
A quantum leap for Chicago's tech economy?
A pair of big-money federal research grants give Chicago a ground-floor opportunity in a field many expect to transform computing.
Mike Procario/Flickr
Fermilab
Chicago was late to the digitization party, but now has a chance to catch the quantum computing wave.
A pair of big-money federal research grants give Chicago a ground-floor opportunity in a technology many expect to transform computing. As my colleague John Pletz reported Aug. 26, Argonne and Fermilab in suburban Chicago are among five national laboratories that will get $115 million apiece to study quantum computing.
The new technology uses atomic particles to process data far faster than today's computers using transistors. Quantum is also more secure than current technology.
Huge leaps in processing speed open up new vistas of potential applications, from rapid-fire drug development to earthquake forecasting to individualized consumer marketing. With so many commercial possibilities, big money already is flowing to quantum as companies and governments angle for an edge in the next big thing.
But real-world applications are still a ways off. First, quantum needs basics like standardized materials and processes.
That's where Argonne and Fermilab come in. Argonne's Q-Next initiative works with various laboratories, universities, and corporations like Boeing to develop communications standards and basic materials for quantum computing.
Fermilab, meanwhile, is applying its particle physics expertise to the new technology. The lab's Superconducting Quantum Materials Center will work to solve the unique challenges of atomic-level computing.
If all this sounds impossibly esoteric, it's also essential to realizing the promise of quantum computing. And those who master these basic challenges will have a head start toward bringing to market commercial applications that spawn new businesses and create 21st-Century jobs.
Thanks to Argonne and Fermilab, Chicago will become a repository of basic knowledge and expertise in quantum computing. We'll have a cadre of technologists who know how the technology works and what it can do. That's a critical first step on the path to commercialization.
The challenge, as always, will be hanging on to that knowledge and expertise. Our region has always been a hotbed of basic science: we split the atom, for crying out loud. But we also have a sorry history of standing by as others harvest the commercial fruits of our technological breakthroughs.
Insights developed and talent nurtured in our universities often migrates to either coast. The most painful example, of course, is Mosaic, the Internet browser developed at the University of Illinois but commercialized in California.
Other emigres include the brains behind Oracle, PayPal, YouTube, AMD and Siebel Systems .
That talent drain helps explain why Chicago has been an also-ran in the high-growth technology industries that created millions of jobs over the past 30 years while employment fell in mainstay Chicago industries like manufacturing. We have no major players in information technology, mobile communications, ecommerce or social media.
Where's our Apple, our Google, our Amazon?
I dunno, but piggies, screwdrivers and choo choos are still here.
"...Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation."
Perhaps the quantum computing work at Argonne and Fermilab is a slender reed to support hopes that such a player or players will rise in Chicago. It takes a lot of money, experience and infrastructure to turn basic lab research into big business.
Silicon Valley and other coastal tech hubs have more of all that stuff. They'll likely exert the same magnetic pull in quantum computing that they have in other technology sectors. Google, IBM and Intel already are pushing ahead in quantum.
Still, Chicago's tech community seems determined not to let this one get away. The University of Chicago, which manages Argonne and Fermilab, formed the Chicago Quantum Exchange three years ago in part to foster commercialization. David Awschalom, a Quantum Exchange director who's overseeing Q-Next, says Chicago has all the tools to capitalize on quantum brainstorms.
"You need a combination of excellence in physics, computer science, electrical engineering and materials science," he says. "Chicago is perfectly positioned for this. This is a moment where Illinois can become a leader."
Time will tell. But the opportunity is there.
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/joe-cahill-bu...-headline2
https://money.usnews.com/funds/etfs/technolog...m-etf/qtum
