QUANTUM COMPUTING: TECHNOLOGY’S NEW HOLY GRAIL

The achievement of quantum computing is the new holy grail for economists and scientists across the world, and the UK is competing with other major world economies to be the world’s first quantumready economy.

Experts say that quantum computing has the potential to solve many of humanity’s problems. It could help us identify the causes of major diseases, predict the next pandemic and solve engineering, technological or scientific conundrums such as climate change that have eluded the world for generations.

But what is this amazing technology?

Quantum computers aren’t simply much faster versions of classical computers. They’re not supercomputers, they operate off entirely new rules, harnessing nature at its smallest atomic scale. And in this nanoscale environment, our world acts very differently.

Dr Ilana Wisby is the 30-year-old CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, which operates the UK’s most advanced and currently only commercially available quantum computer.

Explaining quantum computing to a layperson is not easy, but here’s Ilana’s broad explanation.

“Imagine playing a game of pool. In the world we live in, we can predict that when hit, the ball will either fall in the pocket or not. But in the quantum world, it could go in a totally different direction, or even disappear through the table.

“Somewhere between our everyday world and the nanoscale, the world suddenly becomes much more random and uncertain.

“But despite all that randomness and uncertainty, we can understand it using a ton of maths and quantum mechanics.”

Why is all this so important? Because as well as helping scientists solve major global problems, in the coming decades the productivity gains resulting from quantum computing are expected to surpass more than £341 billion globally.

There are three key concepts to building quantum computers. Here is Ilana’s topline for us non-scientists.

“The first concept is quantum, the notion that an atom or molecule is quantized, it is discrete. If you give it a kick of energy it will jump immediately to the next shelf without any transition in between. The second is superposition. Think of spinning a coin with a head and a tail. Until it lands you don’t know which way it’s going to land. As it spins, we describe that as being in superposition. The third is entanglement. If you have two coins and spin them around at the same time, the output of one depends on the other, making a special relationship between them.

“By applying these core quantum concepts we can build quantum bits, the fundamental building blocks of a quantum computer which will ultimately allow us to process exponential amounts of information in ways that today’s computers will never be capable of.”

Quantum computing has major commercial potential

Ilana became the first CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits in 2017, the year it was spun out of University of Oxford by founder Dr Peter Leek, who had developed a quantum bit (qubit) with commercial potential.

However, despite much hype in some sections of the media, high impact quantum computing remains some years off, according to Ilana, and the ecosystem is still being developed.

“We see near-term applications within a three-to-five-year time period in NISQ (Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum Applications), where we don’t have a perfect quantum computer, but it can outperform what can be done on supercomputers.”

Oxford Quantum Circuits, which currently employs 30 people, recently moved into new offices at Thames Valley Business Park in Reading where it has built a commercial quantum laboratory.

“Around half our staff are quantum physicists with PhDs. We also have software and electrical engineers, project managers, commercial and business minds and more,” explained Ilana. “If I built a entire team of academics, I wouldn’t be building a company but an academic research group.

“We want people who are innovative in their thinking and want to make an impact in the world. We need supply chain and business management skills as well as quantum physicists. We won’t be innovative if we don’t have diverse backgrounds.”

Embracing the crazy, spooky world of quantum

Diversity is a topic close to Ilana’s heart, especially as she is possibly not the first person you might think of as the boss of a ground-breaking deep tech business.

Ambitious Leaders

Growing up in Yateley, Hampshire, she attended the local comprehensive and her first ambition was to be a musician (she plays the piano).

Instead, she studied physics at Royal Holloway, University of London, with a minor in music and went on to complete a PhD in quantum physics at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington.

“I love quantum physics in terms of building things, and understanding how crazy, spooky, bizarre and different it is from the real world. You can get lost in it. And there is so much more to be fully understood.”

While completing her PhD, she began working with tech start-ups and decided it wasn’t academia that floated her boat, but making a difference in the real world.

“I loved the start-ups’ fast pace and amazing can-do attitude. I found my passion for entrepreneurship as I developed programmes, managed teams of international remote workers and talked to customers.”

As she began to make a name for herself, Oxford Science Innovation headhunted her to become the first CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, a company still in its infancy.

Three years and around £10 million of funding, later, the company has built the UK’s most advanced quantum computer.

Building the business through the pandemic

A lot has happened in those three years, not least over the last 18 months. “When the pandemic hit, we were about to start setting up the laboratory, and half the team were in America at a conference. I had to get them back fast,” said Ilana.

“We set up remote working, reforecasted cashflows, renegotiated deals with our landlords and pushed the building of the lab out a bit. We also had to capture the culture we were trying to build in the virtual as well as the physical world.”

Personal tragedy also hit Ilana and the business last year when her lead software engineer, who was also a very good friend, passed away. “Losing a friend, who was also helping build the company with me was, and continues, to be awful.”

But it’s how a person chooses to respond to seismic events that shapes their growth in character, allowing them to become stronger and seize opportunity out of adversity.

And Ilana is the first to admit she is completely different from the person who took on the role in 2017.

“I’ve developed my confidence and I lead with love, but one of the things that I had to learn fast, much of it through mentoring, was what being a leader means for me and getting comfortable with it, particularly as a woman in this role. You go through the highs and lows, celebrate the wins. You also have to do the difficult things in the right way, and that’s not always easy.”

Driving diversity will build a stronger company

As the world appears to be at the threshold of a truly transformative technology, there is also the challenge of applying this power and knowledge ethically.

Ilana said: “I truly believe that a business can be successful, entrepreneurial and ethical at the same time. However, it requires forethought, and I am involved in many conversations on ethics internally and across the industry.”

She is also determined to improve diversity in the field of quantum computing.

“It is a challenge being a woman in this world. Making sure I have a really robust support network has been very important for me personally – finding my tribe of women, my cheerleaders who help me understand the daily challenges.”

Helping support the next generation and support the opening up of the minds of others is also important to her.

“We are nowhere near where I want to be in terms of diversity within OQC, but it is something we are focused on in our recruitment. Making sure that I am visible, able to represent women to inspire and mentor them and other minorities in this space is really, really important to me.”

Ilana and her team are now concentrating on building Oxford Quantum Circuits into the UK’s most successful quantum company, financially and in terms of social impact.

“We want to deliver positive change, put quantum in the hands of humanity to help solve some of those really challenging problems. We want to be recognised across Europe as a deep-tech leader and to inspire a new generation of women in STEM.”