Abstract
Given the growing hype and investment in quantum technology, it is important to understand its current landscape and how best to catalyze progress in QIS towards the eventual goal of societally-relevant innovation in materials, pharmaceuticals, industrial processes, cybersecurity and myriad other areas. We give a brief overview of the policy landscape of the emerging QIS innovation system. The most important requirement for steady progress in QIS is a robust workforce. Here, we focus on one key slice of workforce development: the training of adaptable quantum scientists and engineers.
Highlights
The maturity of quantum information science (QIS) has reached an inflection point, with government and industry increasingly investing in the field in the hopes of realizing its potential
We first give an overview of the current US QIS policy landscape and discuss how resilience and flexibility can be cultivated by increasing the cross-pollination between universities, national labs, and industry firms which are starting to settle into complementary R&D lanes, and relatedly by engaging in workforce development at all levels
MIT has its own consortium of industry firms interested in QIS called the Quantum Science and Engineering Consortium (QSEC). Researchers at both MIT and Lincoln are encouraged to have conversations with firms in QSEC, which provides the researchers with a perspective on industry needs while helping industry firms manage their expectations about the maturity and challenges of emerging quantum technology. This collaborative environment between a university, a national lab, and industry allows the scientists and engineers at MIT and Lincoln Laboratory to develop an adaptability that will make them invaluable parts of the QIS innovation system as they progress through their career
Summary
Kushal Seetharam1,†,∗ and Michael DeMarco2,† Edited by Shobhita Sundaram and Grant A. In order to effectively catalyze progress in QIS, we should build an adaptable workforce of scientists and engineers, which would endow this emerging innovation system with the resilience and flexibility it needs. Given the growing hype and investment in quantum technology, it is important to understand its current landscape and how best to catalyze progress in QIS towards the eventual goal of societally-relevant innovation in materials, pharmaceuticals, industrial processes, cybersecurity and myriad other areas. The field is at an inflection point in maturity, with increasing industry involvement seeking to progress R&D in order to realize the innovations enabled by a new era of quantum technology. We first give an overview of the current US QIS policy landscape and discuss how resilience and flexibility can be cultivated by increasing the cross-pollination between universities, national labs, and industry firms which are starting to settle into complementary R&D lanes, and relatedly by engaging in workforce development at all levels. The benefits of cross-polination explored in this work, are only one part of building resilience; immigration policy, equitable educational opportunities, consistent funding of research, and the work-life balance of academic career paths are a few of the many issues that should be addressed to truly build a robust QIS workforce
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