The Quantum Frontier: Building Tomorrow’s Computing Power
Quantum computing is moving from theoretical promise to industrial reality, and the pace is accelerating. As SF Tech Week convenes the world’s leading scientists, technologists and investors, Imperial College London invites you inside the state of the art: where the technology actually stands, and what it will take to build a machine that matters.
Join Peter Haynes, Provost of Imperial College London, in conversation with Terry Rudolph, co-founder and chief architect of PsiQuantum, one of the few companies racing to build a large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer using photons of light, for a frontline read on where the field stands today, and the gap between lab breakthrough and a genuinely useful machine.
The conversation will explore:
- Applications on the horizon: from drug discovery, where quantum simulation could compress years of predicting how enzymes interact with new molecules into minutes, to materials design for batteries, aerospace and clean energy, and how quantum is set to integrate with and enhance machine learning and AI tackling classes of problems that remain intractable for even the most powerful classical machines today
- Which trajectories are most promising: how different quantum architectures stack up on the path to scalable, error-corrected quantum computing
- Bay Area to London synergies: how these two entrepreneurial ecosystems can continue to power each other and fund and grow quantum companies as sovereignty becomes a defining factor in technology investment
- The role of universities: as the source of the fundamental research, talent and spinouts underpinning breakthroughs.
Convened by Imperial Global USA, Imperial’s San Francisco based hub built to bridge talent, ideas and capital between London and the Bay Area, the event also spotlights the UK Centre for AI-Driven Innovation, a partnership between Imperial, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and the World Economic Forum to accelerate the diffusion of transformative AI and Emerging Technologies across critical sectors. AI is already unlocking faster progress toward deployable quantum computing, through better error correction, hardware control and algorithm discovery.
And just beyond the horizon: quantum AI, machine learning built within a quantum architecture, which may enable faster, more efficient training and fine-tuning of today’s most powerful models.
Speakers
Professor Terry Rudolph, Chief Architect & Co-Founder, PsiQuantum
Provost & Professor of Theory and Simulation of Materials, Imperial College London
About Imperial
Imperial is a champion of deep tech entrepreneurship based on a bedrock of world-leading convergence science and technology research in London. Recently ranked 2nd in the world in the QS World University Rankings, Imperial is committed to driving innovation that serves society. Our entrepreneurial spirit, deep focus on science, and strong industry connections position us uniquely to address some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Imperial Global USA
Imperial Global USA is Imperial’s representative office dedicated to building transatlantic networks and partnerships at the forefront of emerging and enabling technology development and scientific discovery. The hub makes it even easier for innovators partnering on both sides of the Atlantic to fund and scale their research and maximise Imperial’s potential as a force for good in the world.
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