Quantum mechanics is talked about a lot, in fact it is coming into our lives faster than we thought: we use it in lasers, magnetic resonance or computer chips. Its transformative potential is enormous, according to data from the Boston Consulting Group, the economic impact of its applications is quantified in tens of millions of euros in the next five years. In the near future, quantum computing will geopolitically and economically revolutionize society, potentially impacting different areas of our lives: health, finance, cryptography or security, among many others. At least in the company Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech they are very clear and work to achieve this by developing both software and hardware in the field of quantum computing.
Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, members of the QuantumCAThub and the Quantum Industry Consortium , is a company derived from three high-level research centers, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center ( BSC ), the Institut de Física d'Altes Energies ( IFAE ) and the University from Barcelona ( UB ). " We decided to start the idea of the project in 2017 when Jose Ignacio Latorre, Artur Garcia and Pol Forn-Díaz were clear that we wanted to promote a serious line of quantum computing " explains Pol Forn-D í az, Chief Hardware Architect. The main mission of this project is to build a quantum computer and doing it from a purely academic level was very complicated due to the funding of the project. From this situation arises the need to create the company more than a year after projecting the idea. Today the project is supported by world-leading advisors in the quantum sector, and the company developing it has all the ingredients for success: a team of first-class researchers and a technology of high potential within 'a privileged ecosystem. The aim of this spin-off is to offer a complete service democratizing this revolutionary technology, since the new computer, a variational quantum machine, will be accessible from a cloud service. This will allow companies and users to explore the possibility of applying quantum algorithms to real-life problems.
"Qilimanjaro presents all the ingredients for success: a team of first-class researchers and a technology of high potential within a privileged ecosystem"
Collaborative research has been one of the key elements in the development of a project that wanted to go beyond a field as apparently theoretical as quantum mechanics. The Qilimanjaro team has been able to see the potential of its applications in quantum computing and apply it in a relatively short time. This high performance of the project is also a consequence of working with the three high-level research centers mentioned. That is why the team of partners is made up of a researcher from each of these centers plus two other people with a business profile who contribute their business vision. This fusion of knowledge and experience has allowed Qilimanjaro a continuous exchange of resources, as well as access to high-level infrastructure. The team's researchers benefit from business know-how to be able to focus their research outputs towards a more commercial area.
Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech has four Industrial Doctorate projects underway, and two more projects are in the process of resolution to start during the year 2021. At the time of the conception of the initial idea of the company, the world was clearly oriented towards to quantum technologies, creating in Europe the FET Flagship for quantum technologies, a context of explosion of emerging quantum companies in the USA and, to a lesser extent, also in Europe. " These events motivated us to think that it was time to try to start a risky project, but with high interest in all areas (economic, society, business, etc.) and that could see the light soon " says Victor Canivell , the CBO of Qilimanjaro. The development of these projects is carried out in a dual environment, business and academic, which generates two complementary lines of thought, and which the company knows how to take advantage of.
As Artur Garcia Saez, the company's Chief Software Architect, explains to us, " the main difference in the business part of Qilimanjaro is in the way projects are organized internally by teams, in compartments, with deliverables for clients, which do not it's the way academic research groups work ." The agreements established between Qilimanjaro and the three participating research institutions allow to manage the most competitive aspects of an emerging company with the interest of academic publications. The quantum computing project of this company born in 2019 is a true case of deep tech, with long maturation periods precisely because of the use of advanced technologies that evolve from the academic world to the business world as a result of a close collaboration
"The fusion of knowledge and experience has allowed Qilimanjaro a continuous exchange of resources, as well as access to high-level infrastructure."
The impact of Qilimanjaro projects is expected to be very high in the optimization of areas such as logistics, pharmaceuticals or finance, among others. The type of quantum computing they develop is called adiabatic, and unlike gate quantum computing which is running into many problems in its development, adiabatic quantum computing focuses on specific problems with a much more immediate application. The fact is that Qilimanjaro has already signed two important contracts with international clients worth more than 3 million euros and has seen its collaboration accepted in the European H2020 "AVaQus" quantum computing project, recently awarded by the Commission Europe under the direction of Dr. Pol Forn-Díaz and the IFAE. In a first phase, Qilimanjaro sells quantum algorithm development services to operate in classic computer simulators or in quantum prototypes already available via the cloud. " This helps us learn about real use cases from customers interested in the contributions of quantum computing ," comments Artur Garcia S á ez. They are also involved in technology transfer consultancy projects for entities interested in developing their innovation teams, which helps develop the technologies of the new quantum platform, one of the company's strategic objectives. Among their commercial objectives, the help they offer to any organization to become " quantum ready " stands out, especially those companies that need great computing power.
This double vision, academic and business, greatly influences the training of industrial PhD students who are, in fact, a bridge of collaboration between these two environments. From Qilimanjaro they recognize that the fact of being associated with important research entities such as the IFAE or the BSC greatly benefits the industrial PhD students, since they are exposed to the academic environment and motivates them to improve their working conditions and the projection of their projects. In the case of Qilimanjaro, most of the PhD students come from the academic world and have a great interest in discovering the dynamics and complementary opportunities that exist in the world of emerging companies in the quantum sector.
The Industrial Doctorate is a good way to retain highly qualified talent within the production fabric, especially in companies like Qilimanjaro who need very specific talent. The recruitment of this talent is one of its fundamental objectives, and this is what Pol Forn-D í az certifies when he tells us the case of one of his industrial PhD students who "comes directly from industry and clearly has a vocation to innovate with new technologies, which is precisely what a company like Qilimanjaro needs ". Qilimanjaro's team is made up of international students and researchers from Japan, China, Holland, Ireland and Germany, among others, who have developed part of their professional careers abroad. This feature makes the network of contacts in the field of quantum computing really wide, providing the project with the support of world-leading advisors in the quantum sector.
“I would highly recommend the Industrial Doctorate to anyone interested in a PhD; it has provided me with a more original research-focused framework compared to a traditional PhD, as its goals are aligned with those of the company”
The PhD students involved in these projects highlight characteristic aspects of the Industrial Doctorate Plan, as is the case of Jordi Riu's testimony in affirming that " the Industrial Doctorate projects enhance the development of applied research in real production environments, facilitating access to specific and transversal training and the resources of both areas, both business and academic ". Other PhD students highlight the opportunity to work in a highly innovative sector such as quantum computing, as is the case of Yifei Chen, who came expressly from China to Barcelona to participate in one of the Industrial Doctorate projects of Kilimanjaro Yifei tells us that she really feels very lucky to participate in this Industrial Doctorate project, and that she had been looking for a PhD position in this area of quantum computing for a long time . " The investment in the project shows that the Generalitat de Catalunya is very concerned about science and technology ," says Yifei herself. It is the first time for Yifei to combine the experience of being a student while working in a company at the same time. He explains that it is a challenge to balance them and how he has to invest a lot of energy: " I can have the resources of both the university and the company ". The day-to-day life of PhD students is a combined job between the university and the company. “ At the main stage, for academics and companies, what I need to do is not very different. I have the meeting at least once a week with the group in the university and the company respectively. What is a bit different from academic work is that I need to communicate with our company's customers. I can learn a lot in the area that interests me " Yifei tells us about the experience of developing her applied research in a dual field.
Another of the industrial PhD students is David Quinn, who arrived in Barcelona from Ireland and contributed his talent to the project. His experience working in the design of qubits, and working alongside renowned researchers in quantum computing, has provided extremely useful skills for the development of Qilimanjaro's goals. David emphasizes the value of participating in an Industrial Doctorate: " I would highly recommend the Industrial Doctorate to anyone who is interested in a doctorate; it has provided me with a more original research-focused framework compared to a traditional PhD, as its goals are aligned with those of the company .”
The high quality of the research carried out in Qilimanjaro has given great prestige to this Catalan company, which has the experience of the important career of its founding team, led by Professor José Ignacio Latorre, from the Faculty of Physics of the University from Barcelona (UB) and director of the Center for Quantum Technologies in Singapore, Dr. Pol Forn-Díaz, from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE), and Dr. Artur Garcia Sáez, from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). A team of scientific founders complemented by two business founders, Víctor Canivell and Jordi Blasco, who bring executive experience in the IT and merger and acquisition (M&A) sectors, respectively. José Ignacio Latorre himself, one of the most recognized Spanish researchers in the field of quantum physics, recognized in an interview with El Periòdico how quantum computing will be the technology that will produce greater disruption in our society. After the first major milestone achieved by Google's quantum processor prototype in 2019 consisting of 54 qubits, or quantum bits, where it outperformed the best digital supercomputers on Earth in a purely academic problem, Qilimanjaro estimates that there will be a period of 'a few years where it is expected that there will be no impact with real applications. This is what Pol Forn-D í az says when he tells us that in about five years " quantum processors of a certain size should begin to appear that will have the first impact by solving problems with real applications in many sectors, from finance to logistics, and the search for new materials and new molecules for the pharmaceutical sector ". The main ambition of the Qilimanjaro team is to develop a processor among those who will have the first real applications within reach, and in this line we are sure that the Industrial PhD projects will help them achieve this challenge.
