Harnessing the laws of nature related to
quantum mechanics,
understanding them, controlling them
and develop technologies in new applications.
This is what is
behind the Institute of quantum
computing. We first started
in 2002 with a few rooms in the physics
and the math building
but then suddenly, as the Institute grew,
we needed something which was better, more technical
for the different types of experiments we
would do and also to really bring
the different people of the University together.
It has grown to
about 20 faculties, 40 Postdocs, a little bit
more than 100 students
20-30 staff, 200 researchers and staff
that are really pushing the limit of
quantum science.
Quantum mechanic's is a theory really 
originally developed to describe
atoms and molecules and very small things
like that and there are certain aspects of
the way it says atoms and molecules
behave that are kind of weird from
from our macroscopic or our big point of view.
You might be able, at least
theoretically to use this weirdness to
make a new class of computers
that's really kind of, that's really
exponentially more powerful
than the computers that exist today.
So our superconducting circuits that we
work with
we operate them at very, very low
temperatures so typically we work at
20 millikelvin, which means 20,000ths of
a degree above absolute zero.
At the very low temperatures we can
actually make these or engineer these
circuits so that they behave quantum
mechanically. There's also been a lot
of interest that's developed in
the last say five years around what's
called quantum simulation.
So, using quantum computers to simulate
quantum systems
say like molecules so they could be
used for drug design,
for finding new molecules for drugs, or for
designing new materials
in a kind of calculated ways. Quantum
material refers 
to the material that can be used for either
quantum information or can be used to tackle certain
quantum mechanical problems.
What we aim to do here is to combine the
these materials with different
properties and take advantage
of all of them,
put them together and create a device
that is capable to
manipulate the information in a
quantum mechanical way.
Our system has 7 modules. All of these modules
are connected through our out hi vacuum
for the material to be prepared in 1 chamber
can be transferred into the next
chamber without any contaminations. This
way we get the better material
and the best interface. The understanding of
quantum materials
is not only important for developing the machine,
the quantum computer itself. It also advanced our
understanding of the technology itself.Trying to develop quantum computers
there's all kinds of different
techniques essentially using all the
magic of quantum systems
and quantum cryptography is a spin-off
of this where you can use
the same sort of weird quantum properties
to actually establish a secure key between
two different parties. We have more or
less the technology to start
commercialization in fact there are already
companies selling devices along these lines
and what my research here in particular
is working with is trying to improve
whether these devices that people are
claiming or selling whether the
research groups are companies
actually ours as secure as their proofs claim.
Quantum cryptography is
very important in even in present day at
the moment
because it is a commercial technology
its allowing people already to start
using this physical security layer
to things that they want to share
securely between different parties.
Quantum communication which is about
exchanging quantum signals between
individual communication partners.
When it's done at the moment it's
limited in distance to about 100km by
mostly optical fiber or also free
space links on the ground
and of course global distances are way
larger, right?
We are talking thousands of
kilometers.
We know that with today's technology
so todays satellite technology
it's possible to get a quantum signal
from ground to a satellite in space
and exchange a key over,
over that distance and then
using the information that is
that was generated on the satellite
to effectively connect any two
sites on the ground
so effective global. We've made a lot of
progress on our,
on our satellite system and concepts so
we've done performance analysis and rebuilding
hardware in the lab right now we have
shown the technical feasibility
we are now going to build a prototype
which is suitable for space
and we could and then be ready to take it to
an actual space hardware.
When IQC started
in 2002 in Waterloo, really the focus was
to build an institute focused on the
quantum science.
We've established a reputation around
the world
of doing this incredibly well. The next
step is to turn that science
into technology, to develop the application
and
the prototypes and the technology
that comes out of the quantum science so
this is the part where
we will focus in the next 10 years.
