As the state continues its efforts to make Connecticut a top location for quantum computing, developing the technical and nontechnical workforce for that industry is a key element.
That’s the consensus of five experts who participated on a panel Wednesday morning during the first day of the 12th annual Yale Innovation Summit in New Haven.
The two-day event, held at the Yale School of Management, is the largest of its kind in the Northeast and is expected to attract more than 3,000 attendees. It will feature more than 60 panels across six industry tracks — arts, biotech, civic, climate, health and technology.
The highlight of the event will be the pitch competition, which spotlights more than 300 ventures competing for visibility and funding, with more than $400,000 in grants to be awarded.
One of the first panels on Wednesday discussed “Building the Quantum Ecosystem in Connecticut” and was moderated by Evan Kipperman, a partner with Wiggin and Dana who serves as co-chair for the firm’s emerging companies and venture capital practice.
The panel featured Vivek Ramakrishnan, senior director of technology deployment for QuantumCT; Michael Crair, vice provost for research at Yale; Pamir Alpay, interim provost and executive vice president of the University of Connecticut; Christine Broadbridge, executive director of research and innovation at Southern Connecticut State University; and Allison Schwartz, senior vice president of global government relations and public affairs for D-Wave Quantum Inc., a California-based quantum computing company that has an R&D facility in New Haven.
D-Wave entered Connecticut following its $550 million purchase of New Haven-based Quantum Circuits in January.
Kipperman opened the panel discussion by asking what it would take to make Connecticut a top-tier quantum hub by 2030, but the panelists agreed that the state already has achieved that.
“We’re humble — generally speaking, we don’t brag — but I do think we’re a top tier quantum hub,” Crair said.
He said there is ample evidence to support that, including the “quality of science emerging” from UConn and Yale, that D-Wave and Palm Circuits and other quantum startups have come to the state, and that industry partners “are adopting and advancing quantum technologies and integrating them into their workplaces.”
Schwartz said that, like artificial intelligence, quantum computing is another emerging technology that is already solving complex problems faced by various industries.
Where Connecticut is getting it right, she said, is bringing together local and regional industries to determine where their problems are, and then letting university faculty and students figure out how to solve them.
“Students and faculties can work with industry to figure out how we can start deploying these technologies, and that’s what magic is going to happen,” Schwartz said.
Crair identified four “pillars” for creating a quantum technology ecosystem: use-inspired research; a startup ecosystem, including accelerators and incubators; workforce development; and community engagement. He added that Connecticut has developed all four, making it “pretty unique.”
For workforce development and community engagement, Broadbridge said the use and impact of quantum technology is something students still don’t understand.
“They’ve seen it in a movie, but they don’t understand how it’s already impacting their lives,” she said.
It is therefore important, she said, that industries and universities work together to design the curriculum, especially for positions in the sector that don’t require a Ph.D.
Broadbridge noted that the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, an association of pioneers in the field, said that 50% of the workforce needed for quantum technology “are going to be STEM people,” referring to those trained in science, technology, engineering and math, but that the “other 50% are not.”
“So there’s this whole other sector of people who are not going into STEM careers that we need to get,” she said.
Schwartz agreed. “I love my theoretical physicists, but we do need folks that are going to run the business,” she said. “We do need folks who are going to do sales, who are going to understand and build those codes for algorithm development, so it’s thinking about it as an ‘all of the above’ approach.”
Alpay said that in order to prepare for the future, the state needs to develop a plan for “K through gray, to provide the kind of education that’s necessary for our state to be ready for this new disruption due to quantum technology.”
