Quantum Computing for Sustainability Optimization with QCi’s William McGann

This is Techstrong tv. Hi everyone. Welcome to Techstrong tv.

I'm Bonnie Schneider and I'm pleased to introduce Bill McGahn, who is the CEO of QCI to talk about quantum computing. Bill, it's great to have you on Techstrong tv. Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here, Bonnie.

Thank you very much. Can you tell me a little bit about your background and about QCI? Sure.

Um, talk a little bit about QCI first we're somewhat of a newcomer into the, the space of quantum computing and quantum information processing. Um, our technology is such that we use a photonics, uh, based method to focus on quantum optimization machines that we build and our, we have a mission, which I would say is somewhat unique in that our systems are very, uh, accessible and affordable. So we're really driving that message to the market that systems are here and available today for all kinds of useful applications to solve some of the world's hardest problems.

My own background is, um, I'm sort of an old guy. I did my PhD in 1985 and, uh, where my area of research was in spectroscopy or the studying of how photons interact with molecules in my case, studying the dynamics of these excited quantum states. So it's kind of a full circle now for me to come back in my life to see they're using practical implications of, of quantum information processing for solving very practical problems in the world.

That's great. And for those that are unfamiliar with, um, the whole, uh, quantum computing, although I think our audience has a general understanding, of course they're tech savvy audience, but, uh, explain quantum computing to us. Well, it's a broad topic, but uh, there are so, so quantum computers in general really have an advantage and you can basically use principles of quantum mechanics to cast your problem into a variety of state system states or iGen state simultaneously.

And when you do that, you're allowed to search the space for solutions that are faster than you can do with a classical machine, which tends to have to do the calculations sort of in a, you know, expanded, you know, kind of, uh, factorial, you know, combinatorial approach. Quantum computers can use super position to simultaneously cast the problem into multiple states at the same time in search for a solution so faster and can eliminate the, the trap of getting caught in a, a local ground state, which is not really the best answer. So our approach is we use photonics where we can use, uh, photons to encode a problem that you want to solve and then run that photonic information through our system in a feedback where we can modulate the energy of the photon modulate its loss.

And when you do that in a quantum system, you will naturally fall into what is called the ground state, and that ground state represents the best answer for the problem that you initially encode into the system. That, that makes sense. Um, can you tell us about some of your, uh, case studies?

Like what, what have you done in terms of solutions for clients and maybe give us some examples. Sure, sure. So I mean like any type of computer technology, you could imagine the using quantum computers for just about anything you can imagine using a computer for.

But we are a very small company and based on our architecture, we, we build quantum optimization machines, meaning trying to find the best configuration of a very complex problem. And so our area of focus right now is in energy, transportation and infrastructure. So examples are we can, uh, optimize the number of sensors you put on autonomous, uh, vehicle for driving to have collision avoidance and effective low cost.

Right. Um, we can also, uh, optimize the placement of wind turbines in an, in a wind farm to maximize the output from each wind turbine, minimizing the interaction between them, which causes inefficiencies in the energy production and also adds considerable services cost for the so-called ya of the nasals that are, you know, interacting with each other and into energy grid management. We can even look at some financial optimization problems.

So the area is quite vast, but our area is really energy, transportation and infrastructure to find, uh, answers to complex problems That, that really draws a nice parallel between, uh, quantum computing and sustainability. Since you're involved in renewable energy and energy grids, I'd love to hear more about that work and how you, how you view quantum computing as a tool to, uh, have more efficient energy uses. Yeah, it's really just the beginning, at least for, for our company and myself.

I mean, we recognize that the potential is there and while we are working actively on, you know, wind farm turbine placement management and things like that, uh, you know, we've also looked at the proper way to optimize the replenishment of fuel cells in a nuclear reactor. We've looked at problems like that. Um, we could, we haven't, but could look at how do you optimize your grid for switching energy at various times of the day or the week or the year seasonally.

Um, we can imagine, well these problems get quite complex. We could actually use our systems to at least in part, uh, help predict, um, sort of weather patterns based on legacy data. So you look at the data from last year, cast that into a quantum domain in terms of a problem and search for predictable outcomes that might suggest what's going to come next.

So these are the types of things that we, we know are going to be possible in the future and some of those things that we're actually doing today. And what, what are, uh, some of the challenges that you face in terms of, um, when you're reaching out to people explaining what you do and the quantum computing, maybe there's, uh, there's an aspect of it that's unfamiliar in terms of the amount of problems it can solve and how it can fit into different organizations. How, how do you present it and how do you overcome any challenge of, of It?

It's a great question. Yeah, it's a great question and I think it's a bit of a double-edged sword. Um, so a lot of people know the term quantum and to your point, not a lot of people, you know, truly can grasp the impact of it yet because it's not so prevalent.

Uh, and there are companies such as the company that I, you know, I'm, I'm, uh, blessed to have a chance to leave here, is trying to get that message out there. Our, our message is to create accessible and affordable systems because we have what I would call superiority in our size, weight, and power advantage. So it's not as big of a pot, if you will, for a company that's really serious about getting into quantum computing and, and working with us.

It's an affordable solution for a few hundred thousand bucks versus several million. And so that's one vector we're using to try to, uh, disrupt the current thinking in the market that these quantum systems are bohemoth that really don't operate reliably and cost tens of millions of dollars enough to be in, you know, liquid helium refrigerators, et cetera, which, which sort of scares away people that are thinking about practical use. And so we do not do that.

We have a system that operates in ambient temperatures. You can plug our box into a server rack, uh, in your, in your facility. So we can provide on-premises solutions as well as remote access, uh, through, through the web.

Like a lot of people want to explore the capabilities. And what we're really trying to do is show by example. Like we can talk to you all day long.

Our website will have, uh, lots of technology if they want to read deeply about the patents and the papers that were written around our technology, but also you can sign up and solve problems in real time on the system. So you get a bit of both practical and theoretical insight and hopefully confidence from, from going to places like that. A lot of our audience, um, most of our audience really our IT practitioners that work in the IT field.

How, how easy is it is to I, how is is it to implement your solutions? Um, for, for the it That's a great question. Um, yeah, so we, we have a sort of an enterprise software layer that sits on top of our hardware.

We call it catalyst with a queue. Um, and in that, uh, application you can log on and it will actually give you sort of example use cases. So if you're not familiar, for example, of how to cast your real world practical problem into what's called a Hamiltonian formulation, just a matrix of, uh, description of the, the, the potential energy of the variables independently and then interaction with each other.

The, the system will help guide you to formulate the problem to put in our machine. And there's a lot of nice tutorials that that teach a person plus to, you know, leave nothing to to doubt here. We offer sort of like white glove service.

We have data scientists available to interact and engage with customers to help them formulate complex problems because you're right, I mean, it's new to some people how to cast their problem from the classical world into a problem formulation that would be understood and ultimately solved by a quantum machine. Where do you view this technology going? Um, so, uh, our accessible, affordable strategy wants to put quantum technology into the hands of everybody in the world.

So, uh, you know, we are obviously not there today. We're just coming into our first, you know, revenue generation year, um, with any significance. We've got three new commercial products that we've just really focused on quietly in the last 18 months to commercialize and put out there in the past several months.

So we're very excited to catalyze the growth of the market and like I said, disrupting it by offering really good size, weight, power, and cost for the capabilities that our system has and a very robust roadmap to make it scale. We very, we are very confident we can scale our technology, particularly as we keep reducing it down to getting a system on a chip, a quantum chip, which we're building a, uh, a fabrication to, to be build these chips in America, in Tempe, Arizona. And we'll hear more about that later at the end of this year.

Well, that all sounds very exciting and, and, and we'll be looking forward to following this journey and how all it's going for you. Bill McGann, who is the CEO of QCI thank you so much for joining me on Techstrong tv. Been a pleasure.

Thank you, Bonnie. Great. Well stay with us on Techstrong tv.

We'll have more great interviews like this one coming up.