‘There's a whole series of milestones and every few months, someone in the world achieves another one,’ Simon Benjamin, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Oxford, told the BBC.
Oxfordshire has certainly seen significant landmarks in the global quantum journey this year, culminating with the official opening of the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) at Harwell on the 25th October.
As the UK’s national centre for quantum computing, the NQCC is a £93 million project, with investment by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to accelerate and scale quantum computing for business, government and research. At the start of the year, the NQCC, together with the UKRI’s Technology Missions Fund, announced a £30 million competition for seven projects to develop quantum computing hardware prototypes and testbeds to speed up the development of scalable quantum computers and move beyond theoretical approaches.
Along with the expertise held within the University of Oxford, the NQCC is at the heart of an ecosystem that is attracting many of the emerging players – international investors as well as Oxford University spin-outs – in this frontier-breaking technology to base themselves in Oxfordshire.
In February, Oxford Ionics announced it was to supply a quantum computer to the NQCC in a £6 million contract. Its Quartet full-stack computer houses a trapped-ion quantum processor unit and uses its qubit technology which has the lowest error rates ever demonstrated. Oxford and London-based Quantum Motion’s prototype system based on a silicon MOS platform will also be part of the testbed.
Oxford Ionics is based at Oxford Technology Park, which this year has grown its cluster of quantum companies in its innovation quarter (IQ). In March, ColdQuanta, a quantum pioneer and part of US group Infleqtion, announced it would be taking a lease at the IQ, where it would continue developing its integrated quantum computers to deliver devices and platforms.
During March, Quantum Dice, a University of Oxford spinout, began a collaboration with HSBC to explore the advantages of its Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) in financial simulations such as computing risk analytics and pricing complex derivatives.
Rigetti confirmed in April it was also a winner of the UKRI competition and that it would deliver a 24-qubit quantum computing system to the NQCC based on its Ankaa™-class chip architecture.
In May Quantum Advanced Solutions, which specialises in quantum dot sensors and materials development and manufacturing, also chose Oxford Technology Park’s IQ, for the location’s proximity to the academic and research institutions of Oxford as well as its customer base which includes life science and technology clients such as Merck KGaA, Panasonic Corporation, Nordson, Sony, and Imec.
Come June, demonstrating the progress of a 2019 Oxford University spin-out, ORCA Computing began to spearhead a collaborative R&D consortium consisting of Toshiba Europe, Bay Photonics, Imperial College London, and University College London, to develop advanced multiplexing and switching technologies for large-scale quantum data transfer.
July saw three breakthroughs. A team of researchers headed by Professor David Lucas at Oxford University Physics made steps towards addressing concerns over data authenticity and security by demonstrating for the first time that quantum computing in the cloud can be accessed while offering complete security and data privacy as well as verification of authenticity. In the same month, Oxford Ionics unveiled a chip that it says will bring useful quantum computing much closer and see the world’s first useful quantum computer being built in three years’ time. The chip, capable of controlling the trapped ions in its technology, has over twice the performance of previous attempts. Meanwhile, Infleqtion became the first company to deploy hardware under the NQCC’s quantum computing testbed programme, with the installation of a cutting-edge neutral atom quantum computer. Prototypes like this will help the NQCC understand the unique characteristics of different hardware approaches, establish appropriate metrics for each qubit architecture, and explore which applications benefit most from each technological approach.
Another summer event in the NQCC’s calendar was the annual UK Quantum Hackathon, which brings together teams of aspiring student coders with industry mentors, to tackle practical challenges and develop solutions using quantum computing. First place went to KL Divergents for their use case: risk aggregation evaluation for insurance losses in case of natural disaster. They were mentored by Oxford’s Mind Foundry on a problem provided by Aioi R&D Lab Oxford.
In August, Oxford Instruments NanoScience announced it had joined Rigetti’s Novera QPU Partner Program, providing essential cryogenic systems for maintaining the ultra-low temperatures necessary for quantum operations.
September brought news of an international cooperation. Oxford Ionics won part of a £35 million contract, alongside Infineon, to build a state-of-the-art portable quantum computer for Cyberagentur, an organisation founded by the German Federal Government that aims to research cybersecurity. Oxford Ionics’ portable quantum computer, MinIon, will be used for application development in national security and defence.
In October, Oxford Quantum Circuits gave the Sunday Times an insight into the potential applications of quantum, saying it was working with the government, a ratings agency and life sciences organisations to model transport timetables, predict natural disasters and provide health data. October also saw a unique collaboration between Oxford and Cambridge with the announcement of Project IDRA, the first phase of a four-year venture to network multiple quantum processing units (QPUs) and accelerate the commercialisation of quantum computers by addressing the technical risks. The project will see Cambridge-based Nu Quantum set up a lab within the NQCC to build an optically connected, multi-node distributed quantum computing system.
As the NQCC has its official opening, it is clear that this year has put it firmly at the centre of a thriving ecosystem.
Image provided by National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC)