Are you among the quantum curious? If so, you’ll want to join the first Business of Quantum Summit. It will be held on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass., on April 4, 2025.
This live event, hosted by the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), is for innovation, strategy and policy leaders looking to better understand quantum computing’s implications and potential. Speakers at the Summit will include experts from academia, government and industry.
The timing couldn’t be better. While rapid progress is being made on several of quantum computing’s technical frontiers, substantial barriers remain. And a proliferation of both public- and private-sector investments has added momentum and broadened interest in the area. There have also been recent and exciting quantum computing announcements from Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Quantum Report
All attendees of the Business of Quantum Summit will receive a copy of a new document, the Quantum Index Report. This report has been prepared by Jonathan Ruane, a Sloan School lecturer and IDE research scientist, and Elif Kiesow Cortez, an IDE Research Affiliate. It was made possible by contributions from the U.S. National Science Foundation and work done in collaboration with Accenture.
The Quantum Index Report aims to review the landscape of quantum computing and quantum networking internationally. This project takes a community-led approach in tracking progress against a wide range of benchmarks, highlighting milestones and providing an overview.
The Quantum Index Report aims to serve the entire quantum community, including policymakers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, media members and the public. In this way, the authors hope to enable better informed decisions around quantum technology investment, adoption, impact and priority-setting.
Cover Image of the upcoming Quantum Index Report. Design by Shawneric Hachey.
Quantum Economic Calculator
Summit attendees will also have an opportunity to explore the Quantum Economic Advantage Calculator. This online tool, developed by MIT FutureTech, models the types of problems best addressed by quantum computing based on efficiency and cost. Essentially, the tool lets user enter a specific problem; then it shows if and when quantum computing would be a better solution than classical computing. An ongoing project of MIT FutureTech, the tool is now in its second major revision
To do its work, the tool lets users explore different combinations of algorithmic problems and quantum hardware. Once the user has entered their variables, the calculator models what conditions are needed to see an advantage from quantum computing.
The calculator is based on a 2023 paper, The Quantum Tortoise and the Classical Hare, co-written by Neil Thompson, IDE Research Group Lead and Director of MIT FutureTech at CSAIL. This paper states that while quantum computing promises transformational gains for solving some problems, it offers little to no gain for others. The challenge, then, is knowing which problems are appropriate for quantum computing and which are not. The calculator has been designed to provide just that answer.
Agenda at a Glance
Here’s the agenda for the April 4 Quantum Business Summit at MIT:
- 9:00 a.m.: Welcome by Jonathan Ruane and Neil Thompson. During this session, they’ll also present the Quantum Index Report.
- 9:30 a.m.: The State of Quantum Computing. Quantum Computing capabilities are advancing fast, but how close are we to real-world, commercial impact? This session will bring together experts to cut through the hype and provide a clear-eyed assessment of where the industry stands today. Panelists will include representatives from Accenture, Nvidia and MIT.
- 11:15 a.m.: Quantum Use Cases. Real-world applications for both the present and future will be presented by Neil Thompson and Jayson Lynch, researchers at MIT FutureTech and leading members of the Quantum Economic Advantage Calculator development team.
- 12:15 p.m.: Lunch and Research Activations: Attendees will be able to to both try the Quantum Economic Advantage Calculator and speak with the authors of the Quantum Index Report.
- 1:30 p.m.: Quantum Cryptography & Networks. What should leaders do to prepare for a post-quantum cryptography? And what will be required from the networks that connect quantum computers, in terms of both security and data transfer? This panel discussion will include speakers from Microsoft Research, NIST and two quantum startups.
- 3:00 p.m.: Quantum Business Applications. Many organizations are already deploying and experimenting with Quantum Computers across a range of industries that include finance, pharmaceuticals, energy and logistics. A panel of experts from Google, Boston Consulting Group and others will discuss what we can learn from these pioneers.
- 4:10 p.m.: Wrap-up and Closing Remarks. Jonathan Ruane and Neil Thompson will sum up the conference.
Wide Range of Speakers
The day’s range of speakers and panelists will be wide, including academic researchers, corporate executives, entrepreneurs and government officials.
· Several speakers will represent large organizations working on their companies’ approaches to quantum computing. They’ll include quantum leaders from Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Fidelity, Google, Microsoft Research and Nvidia.
· Entrepreneurial speakers will include Juliette Peyronnet, U.S. general manager of Alice & Bob. This Paris-based startup recently raised €100 million (approx. $109 million) to develop its new approach to quantum error correction. Also joining will be Mihir Bhaskar, CEO and co-founder of Lightsynq, a startup working to scale quantum computers to useful sizes; and Laura Andre, CEO of Qunett, an early-stage Deep Tech company.
· Research speakers will include Olivier Ezratty, a well-known quantum engineer who is the author of Understanding Quantum Technologies, an open-source book. Other researchers will be on hand from the MIT Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL), MIT Sloan, MIT FutureTech, MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, and the IDE.
· The public sector will be represented by Lily Chen, a Fellow with the U.S. National Institute of Standards (NIST), which is developing security algorithms that can withstand cyberattacks from a quantum computer.
Peter Krass is a contributing editor and writer with the MIT IDE.